Life Lessons from Flying Kites

I loved kite flying when I was a kid and now that I have a baby boy I can’t wait to teach him everything I know about flying kites and the life lessons that I learned to go with it.

Here are some of the lessons I learned from making and flying kites:

1. The air worthiness of my kite is my responsibility. I can choose to make my kite or buy some ready made but I should be able to distinguish a good kite from a bad one. I’m responsible for every decision I make. I equip my self to make the right decisions.  I can’t blame anyone for any of them.

2. It’s all in the balance. No matter how potentially good the kite is if I fail to balance the string or the line, it won’t fly well. Life is all about balance. If we ignore our other needs or the people around us and focus only on the demand of the day, we will eventually go crashing down and hit the ground.

3. Getting help in making or flying a kite is more fun and you show your gratitude by sharing the kite. There’s hardly anything in this life that we can accomplish without help from others. Recognize them and share the fruit of your success with them.

4. Making the kite is more than half the fun. Success is sweeter when it’s hard earned. It’s also hard to call success a success if you did not work for it.

5. It’s all about choices. We choose our kite, we choose our string, we choose the timing for flying it, we choose who to fly it with. The quality of the experience depends on the quality of our choices. It is true with kite flying as it is with living.

6. You don’t just throw away a kite that won’t fly well. You try to do something about it by adjusting the balance of the string. Maybe a tail can help or additional weight on the left or on the side depending on the kite’s behavior on air. You dont’ throw away a life just because things are not going well. You figure out how to make it better and actually do something.

7. You can’t fly boka-boka (the simplest kite) forever, you graduate to more awesome and perhaps bigger kites. To an average enthusiast, flying a Gurion (bigger more complex kite)is the ultimate goal. Even as children we are taught to challenge ourselves to pursue bigger things. When we fail to do that as grownups we betray our natural design.

8. If I lose a kite, it’s good to know that  I can use what I learned from the experience to build a better kite or how to fly a kite better. Nothing is really totally lost or wasted. Even when we lose something or fail at something in our lives there is always something to be gained – the lesson on how to become better.

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