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| Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GIRISH_KUMAR/message/32040 |
Suddenly, I remembered the good old days when my playmates and I would race to the fields flying our kites made of plastic bags and sewing thread. We flew our kites to grab the chance of the sun shining and the wind blowing at their best in summer. Amidst the trickling sweat and bleeding cuts in our fingers from making the kites and holding the thread for a long time until boredom got to us, we didn't get tired because it was fun.
As we go grew up, we left most of the things we cherished when we were still kids. We set our treasured toys aside, sometimes hid them in our own chests. But we always fly our kites throughout our lives. However, from being simple and homemade, we accumulated other people's ideas on how to make them less wobbly and less shabby so that we may fly them with pride.
So we replaced the plastic sheets and the bamboo sticks we picked out from trash with sturdier and more colorful materials. With these, our kites became stronger against the wind and casted an array of colors against the rays of the sun but they also became heavier for us to fly.
Like kites, the simple dreams that our young minds had passionately imagined turned into bigger aspirations and greater ambitions. Just like the children I heard across the street, we kept on releasing and tugging its string, urging it to soar higher and higher. While looking at it as it pushes its way towards the sky, we kept on hoping that the strong wind will not cut its string or that the hovering clouds wouldn't bring rain. We became anxious and scared with what will happen if we were not strong enough to hold on to the string or if we were not skillful enough to gear the kite upward. We are always eager to please and oftentimes afraid to disappoint.
Above all, most of us failed to realize the reasons why we fly our kites in the first place when we were still simple-minded kids:
We never really mind about the wind breaking our kites; we can always make new ones. If our kite came down, we can always just run after them and with luck, climb a fruit tree to retrieve a kite stuck on its branches. Now, we always hesitate to make mistakes; thinking one wrong move will bring all that we had planned for to complete disaster. In the end, we missed the chance of learning and bettering ourselves by picking up the broken pieces and move on. We think that it is our mistakes that will define us and not the effort of giving all our best on what we do.
We make our kites based on what we can and not on what it should look like to others.
We should live our dreams according to what we want and not on what others want us to pursue.
Because at the end of the day, it is us who will mend the blisters and cuts, wring our rain-soaked clothes dry, and wash our dirty faces. It is us who will wear our best smile, put on our utmost charm, prepare our ears for the endless nagging and harden our bodies to cope with the punishments that have been planned out for us when we get home. Most of all, it is us who will learn to wipe our tears dry, put ourselves to sleep and dream once more of summer skies so that we may fly our kites again.
So we replaced the plastic sheets and the bamboo sticks we picked out from trash with sturdier and more colorful materials. With these, our kites became stronger against the wind and casted an array of colors against the rays of the sun but they also became heavier for us to fly.
Like kites, the simple dreams that our young minds had passionately imagined turned into bigger aspirations and greater ambitions. Just like the children I heard across the street, we kept on releasing and tugging its string, urging it to soar higher and higher. While looking at it as it pushes its way towards the sky, we kept on hoping that the strong wind will not cut its string or that the hovering clouds wouldn't bring rain. We became anxious and scared with what will happen if we were not strong enough to hold on to the string or if we were not skillful enough to gear the kite upward. We are always eager to please and oftentimes afraid to disappoint.
Above all, most of us failed to realize the reasons why we fly our kites in the first place when we were still simple-minded kids:
- to be rebels without a cause by sneaking out of the house and running as fast as we could with that smirk plastered on our faces because we broke the rules
- to meet with our friends and gang up on our frenemies
- to bask in the warm glow of the sun
- to smell the fresh and dewy scent of the grass
- to breathe in the summer scent of the blowing wind
- to hear the chirping of the birds perching on the branches of trees nearby
- to gamely bet on whose kite will come down first and last
- to run after the last kite cut by the strong wind
- to name the shapes clouds make
- to laugh at silly jokes
Therefore, we flew our kites for the simple reason of having pure and clean fun; to experience the simple joy of life.
We never really mind about the wind breaking our kites; we can always make new ones. If our kite came down, we can always just run after them and with luck, climb a fruit tree to retrieve a kite stuck on its branches. Now, we always hesitate to make mistakes; thinking one wrong move will bring all that we had planned for to complete disaster. In the end, we missed the chance of learning and bettering ourselves by picking up the broken pieces and move on. We think that it is our mistakes that will define us and not the effort of giving all our best on what we do.
If it rained, the better so we can strip down to our underwear and chase each other across the wide open spaces; creating puddles of mud along our way. When the rain let down, we giggled at the croaks of the frogs and mocked each other's mud-stained faces. Now that we have grown up, we get afraid of getting wet and dirty because we think more of what other people will say about us. We lost ourselves by fitting-in instead of showing our personalities. We tend to walk on tightrope and losing out on what it feels like to do whatever we want to do with our endless capabilities.
If ever we got sick, mom or dad can always just cook arroz caldo for us, tuck us in the comfort of our beds and tend to us until we get well. Now that we can take care of ourselves, we are terrified of getting sick, not because of our health but because we can't afford to lose a day at work. We don't stop and listen to our bodies yearning for rest and relaxation from our constant urge to drive ourselves more and more everyday to fulfill our seemingly unsatisfied ambitions. Worse, we forget how it is to be taken care of by others because we are busy minding our own individual lives.
We fly our kites not because we have to nor do we live our dreams because it is what is expected of us.
We make our kites based on what we can and not on what it should look like to others.
We should live our dreams according to what we want and not on what others want us to pursue.
Because at the end of the day, it is us who will mend the blisters and cuts, wring our rain-soaked clothes dry, and wash our dirty faces. It is us who will wear our best smile, put on our utmost charm, prepare our ears for the endless nagging and harden our bodies to cope with the punishments that have been planned out for us when we get home. Most of all, it is us who will learn to wipe our tears dry, put ourselves to sleep and dream once more of summer skies so that we may fly our kites again.
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