Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Simple Suggestion #32 of 100... Fly a kite

I remember spending hours in the school yard across the street from our house with our butterfly kite when I was growing up. Gord, who lived next door, a good dozen years older than me, was refurbishing an old Citroen, and he would call encouragement as I struggled to get the kite aloft. I loved to watch it sail... too much perhaps. Once I let it out until it was a dot in the sky, to the absolute end of its string... and the Murphy's Law that applies to kites took hold, killing the breeze that pulled it up so high. The butterfly fluttered all the way to the ground, but not before it draped its twine over the Willans' two storey home and landed in their neighbour's prickliest rosebush. I had no choice but to cut the string, ask Mrs. Detreault if I could fetch the kite out of her roses, and spend a long time rewinding the thread, waiting for its end to slither over the Willans' roof. Even so, it was a good day.

Kite flying is relaxing, refreshing and rejuvenating. Really. Working with the wind, setting loose a thing with wings and watching it soar at the end of its tether does something good for the soul. It's a simple, single-minded thing to do -- a time to forget about multitasking. So if you have a kite and a bit of a breeze today, why not?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

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