3.31.2009

It's that time again.

One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen was a Uruguayan sky in the middle of March. For easter all of the kids make their own kites, there are special patterns and colors for boys and for girls. The month before easter the whole wide sky is filled with kites pulling on strings, eager to touch the clouds. They play a game where they try and knock each other kites out of the sky and when one falls, they all run to the crash sight. One of my favorite memories is walking along the train tracks, behind all the poorest houses, and seeing 100 dirty little kids sitting back on their haunches with a roll of string in their hands, everyone looking up into the colored dots against the blue sky. I remember once my dad and I let a kite go from the edge of our garden. We tied a message to the tail with our address, hoping that someone would write back. A few weeks later, we were riding our bikes down by the river, and we found the tattered old kite beneath some weeds in the mud. The message was gone. Sometimes still I wonder where my letter fell, who read the words. I like to think that still, someday, things like that come back to us.

7 comments:

lia said...

i want to believe that they do. i want to believe that when we leave our footprints in the earth, even after they seem to have disappeared because of rain or snow or growing grass, the molecules still remember having met our skin.
it's that time again - and i do believe this marks the second anniversary of that magical time that we met. xoxo

shelly said...

You definitely painted some beautiful pictures for me with your words, Ashley! You're a breath of fresh air.

Lindsey P said...

when i was little i would gather all the coins i had collected over the month and put them in an envelopt marked "for the poor" and stick it in the mail box. as an adult i've often wondered what the mail man did with it. not the same thing, but your story reminded me of it.
i think that if you and i had met as little kids we would have been great friends.

shelly said...

I keep coming back to your blog to see if you've updated and I find that I'm not dissapointed even though you haven't because the new colors on your blog make me really, really happy! Oh -- the whole feel makes me feel so good!

Christine Armbruster said...

next sunny day we should get a group together and make kites. that would be beautiful.
p.s. thank you for coming to my bonfire last night, i hope you had fun. i'm thinking of making your birds into a mobile and hanging it, using sticks. because i think that might be nice.

Unknown said...

I wish I found that letter.

Unknown said...

and I am glad you and lindsay met as adults. so you could be great friends.