Flying Kites

Yesterday I flew kites with the kids at my work. I spent two whole hours being called at for help, picking up fallen kites and launching them back into the air, untangling strings, repairing what was broken, and teaching them how to face away from the wind so their kites would stay in the air. They were running around, laughing, complaining, watching, reigning in and letting out their kite strings.

"I can't do it!"
"Look at my kite!! Look how high it is! Is this the highest anyone's got all day??"
"Ashley! Could you pick up my kite?!"
"Mine broke!"
"I dont know how to fly a kite!"
"Why is it just hitting the ground??"
"Can I have the one with the sun on it?!"
"Francisco, it's my turn! Ashleeeey, he's not giving me my turn!"

I was smiling the entire time.

After most of the kids went home, I was left out in the field with one fifth grade girl, Genesis. We each had our own kites, and we flew them and played with them for about a half an hour by ourselves, letting them go as far up into the sky as our strings would allow. Then suddenly they would take a turn into the wind and plummet into the ground, and we would have to wind them up again just to get them in the air once more. I dont understandy why, but every time my kite would be up there in the air, I was exhilarated... like it was me who was flying. And though the kite would suddenly hit the ground and be stuck there for awhile, it made getting it back up in the air all the more exciting.

At the end of the day, most of the kites were broken and in several pieces. We said goodbye to them as they were carried away, a few hours worth of entertainment and exhilaration haphazardly stuffed into the garbage can. The kites were a small thing, but they had quickly placed me back into the world of being a child, where things are easy and carefree and innocent. Where you dont have to worry about the future or money or the stress that comes with independence and responsibility. Where you can look at an adult, as Genesis did to me, and say,

"You are never too old to fly a kite."