When I was ten I loved flying a kite. I would head to the park and run and run until I got my kite to catch the wind and shoot up into the sky. It wasn’t a fancy kite so it wasn’t made for tricks. I eventually discovered if you let out a bunch of extra string real fast (creating some extra slack) the kite would do a nose dive. As the kite was falling if you pulled the string tight at just the right moment the kite would catch the wind and do a little spin and shoot back up into the sky (sometimes even higher). It was very exciting.

Today I was meeting with my Spiritual Director, and at the end of our session we closed with some silence in prayer. This image of a kite doing what I just described came to mind. I often feel like that falling kite with so much of my life in transition (starting a new job during a pandemic is super weird). Wind is one of the metaphors used to describe God the Holy Spirit in the Bible. This image reminds me that I might feel untethered, like the wind is gone but this is just a small moment in the grand scheme of things. You can’t get the surprise of being caught by the wind without a little drop.

I’m learning to trust that just because I don’t know what is coming next it doesn’t mean there isn’t a plan.