March 2009
With March comes the wind and with the wind comes kites. I have so many fond memories of taking the kids kite flying over the years I can’t think of March being just around the corner without thinking of all those good times.
It’s been a long time since my kids were little but the memories of going kite flying are as fresh as yesterday. A warm, beautiful day would inevitably arrive at our doorstep in March and I would rush home, insist on “this is a great day to fly a kite” and the drama would begin.
First, we had the usual rush and hunt for a kite, a ball or two of string, tape, paperclips (for the brown bag I would always inflate and send up the string) and all the other things that went with kite flying. The fact that the little field in our neighborhood where we went to fly kites was a small open field on top of a crest and surrounded with big trees all around it made it quite a challenge to get the kite up and kept aloft – without it getting entangled in the trees.
After a short while Amy would be ready to hand off the string and go on to something else that she really wanted to do in the first place. Since there were swings and playground and tennis courts and ball fields to choose from she never lacked in alternatives. When it came to Beth’s turn it was always predictiable and always a hoot. Beth wanted to be in charge from the get go. She and I usually had a little power struggle to settle but since I was bigger than her and since I paid for the kite and the string belonged to me and since I was the one who actually knew how to get the kite airborne I usually got to be in charge – but not always, and never without a power struggle.
After I would get the kite in the air, Beth would howl and jump up and down in delight and insist on holding the string. She had so much fun it was fun to watch her. Inevitably, thirty seconds would pass and she would let go of the string and another kite would disappear. That’s where the fun always stopped. The kites did one of two things – either disappear into the wild blue yonder, never to be seen again or get entangled in the uppermost heights of the trees where they would tangle and mangle and taunt me for weeks until finally disintengrating. It didn’t matter if I had expensive kites or cheap kites, the scenario was always the same. Matthew was always more interested in playing ball or chasing the dog and so while we did some kite flying he wasn’t all that interested. Now that I think about it, the girls weren’t all that interested either, nor was Mary. But, I sure was and we sure had fun!
The kids are all grown up now. They have their own kids to go and fly kites with. I still have Mary to share my enthusiasm in whatever last minute activity interests me and she still loves me enough to pretend to share the joy. I guess age takes its toll and I’m not all that interested in flying kites anymore, although I still get a rise out of it (no pun intended) when at the beach and a good strong wind and an open field beckons me again.
Shared life, shared experience, shared joys and shared frustrations are what make a family. We all are privileged to share together in our families and in our church family with all the activities and events that give us opportunity to be together, and to live out what family means. I invite you to be active and involved as a member of the family here at our church. It’s not the kite flying that matters – it’s being together to do it and to build memories that will sustain us in our deepest hours of need for a lifetime to come. See you next Sunday!