I hung a hammock recently.
The patio corner felt too empty while the brightly colored handwoven hammock bought from a smiling vendor so many years ago remained folded in its bin at the back of the closet. So I went to the tool store and selected a couple sturdy metal eye hooks and a large drill bit. Then I set to work.
I stood on a chair and drilled a hole into the wooden beam in the corner. Then I put the drill down on the chair at my feet and grabbed one of the hooks and a wooden spoon I had placed at the ready. I screwed the hook into the new hole until it got too hard to turn, then slid the wooden spoon through the eye of the hook and used it for leverage to tighten even further. As tight as my strength would allow.
Then I stepped down, slid the chair away, fed a rope through the hook and tied one end of the hammock to it. And repeated all the motions for the other side.
I gave one last tug to the knots in the ropes then approached the middle of the suspended hammock. My hands gripped the sides at shoulder level while I slowly sat down, testing it with my weight. I kept glancing from side to side watching to see the knots slipping or the hooks pulling loose. But they didn’t. They held. And I relaxed more fully onto the hammock until I was sitting on it.
That’s faith, right?
I was trusting those knots and hooks to hold my weight while I lifted my feet just enough to slide across the tile in a little swinging motion.
And the hammock held.
Yep, faith.
After a few minutes of sitting there, I looked down at the colorful hammock bunched up beneath me and remembered how wide it really is. So I found the edges and spread it out, giving me space to lean back until I was actually reclining in it. I kicked off my flip-flops and gave a hearty push against the tile with my bare feet before lifting them into the hammock with me. My shoulders relaxed. My hands ungripped the sides and my head rested against the fabric while my feet found a comfy spot among the folds. And I lay there swinging slowly back and forth.
Now this is more like it!
Total abandon.
Fully resting.
I reached my hands up to clasp them behind my head and realized, “this level of faith is way more comfortable.”