Children are Like Kites

You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground. You run with them until you’re both breathless. They crash, then you add a longer tail; they hit the rooftop. You pluck them out of the spout. You patch and comfort, adjust and teach. You watch them lifted by the wind and assure them that someday they will fly!

Finally they’re airborne, but they need more string and you keep letting it out. With each twist of the ball of twine, there’s a sadness that goes with the joy because the kite becomes more distant. Somehow you know that it won’t be long before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that bound you together and soar as it was meant to soar—free and alone.

—Anonymous