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One Flat Balloon Weighs Down the Whole Bunch!
Several years ago, I am ashamed to say, I pulled a very "juvenile" stunt. We had given a party at our home for my son’s birthday and I had purchased a number of helium balloons to add to the festivities. When the party was over, being that the balloons are Mylar, they were still going strong. I tried to give them away, even to our grandchildren, but no takers. I didn’t have the heart to pop them, so they hung around the house for a couple weeks. As the days past by they began to wilt a little, but for the most part stayed floating happily… all but one. This was the one that said “Happy 30th Birthday”. I noticed it drooped much quicker than the others, but the other helium balloons continued to hold it up as best they could.
It got to be Thanksgiving week and it was clearly time that the birthday balloons needed to come down so the Thanksgiving decorations take their rightful place. As I looked at those still perky balloons I had a thought, “why not open the door and release the entire bouquet into the air”. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid. It would be fun to watch them climb into the sky and be mesmerized as they soared higher than I could eventually follow. This way, I also wouldn’t have to pop them, which felt a little like ending their life after they had danced around the house for the last 2 weeks. For a second I thought, “you better just pop them Janie, it will be more environmentally friendly and a more neighborly option. They will eventually end up in someone’s yard who’d have to pick them up or worse yet they will settle down as trash along the roadside”. But I quickly dismissed this logical thought. My idea of releasing them was much more fun.
So, I snuck out to the deck checking to be sure there were no neighbors about. I quickly christened their voyage with a toss upward, and ran back to the doorway to watch their flight under the eaves of the house where no one could see me. But, as I retreated I noticed that flat “30th” balloon was not cooperating. It was dragging all the other balloons down in its flattened state. Just then, a gust of wind took hold of them and pushed them, not up, but sideways! As I watched in horror, the entire balloon bouquet became entangled around some wires and a telephone pole at the back of our neighbor’s yard. Yikes! No way to get that down now, so I quickly darted into the house to hide, hoping no one would be able to trace them back to me.
Today, many years later, as I was thinking about that event, I looked out the window and can still see a tiny remnant of those balloons hanging on the pole. I wasn’t thinking so much about my silliness in releasing the balloons into the wild, but more towards that flat “30th” birthday balloon. It was a real downer. Had it been as perky, light, and full of helium air as the other balloons, the bouquet would have made a successful flight. They would have missed the tangles of wires and the light pole. The bouquet of 10 balloons would have shot up high in the air missing all of the entrapments.
It led me to think…during this Christmas Season… “With all that is going on in my life and in the world for that matter, it would be very easy to get weighted- down. I don’t want to be a “downer”. It is so easy to discourage people by my actions. I can easily take the air out of someone’s “balloon” by an impulsive retaliation or harsh word. In fact I had the chance to practice this today at work when a lady called and started complaining. She was not nice. In fact she was most unreasonable. But I remembered how that flat balloon kept the bunch from soaring and so I decided to “kill-her-with-kindness”. It didn’t work to change her attitude, but it did help mine. And after the phone call…I soared!
This holiday season maybe you will commit along with me to lift up others so we can miss the traps of negativity and harshness that entangle our minds and attitudes, keeping us from the ability to soar. And, in the process we too will benefit as we impart blessings and not cursings into peoples lives. This Christmas season will be much jollier if we remember… it only takes one flat balloon to weigh down the whole bunch.
It got to be Thanksgiving week and it was clearly time that the birthday balloons needed to come down so the Thanksgiving decorations take their rightful place. As I looked at those still perky balloons I had a thought, “why not open the door and release the entire bouquet into the air”. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid. It would be fun to watch them climb into the sky and be mesmerized as they soared higher than I could eventually follow. This way, I also wouldn’t have to pop them, which felt a little like ending their life after they had danced around the house for the last 2 weeks. For a second I thought, “you better just pop them Janie, it will be more environmentally friendly and a more neighborly option. They will eventually end up in someone’s yard who’d have to pick them up or worse yet they will settle down as trash along the roadside”. But I quickly dismissed this logical thought. My idea of releasing them was much more fun.
So, I snuck out to the deck checking to be sure there were no neighbors about. I quickly christened their voyage with a toss upward, and ran back to the doorway to watch their flight under the eaves of the house where no one could see me. But, as I retreated I noticed that flat “30th” balloon was not cooperating. It was dragging all the other balloons down in its flattened state. Just then, a gust of wind took hold of them and pushed them, not up, but sideways! As I watched in horror, the entire balloon bouquet became entangled around some wires and a telephone pole at the back of our neighbor’s yard. Yikes! No way to get that down now, so I quickly darted into the house to hide, hoping no one would be able to trace them back to me.
Today, many years later, as I was thinking about that event, I looked out the window and can still see a tiny remnant of those balloons hanging on the pole. I wasn’t thinking so much about my silliness in releasing the balloons into the wild, but more towards that flat “30th” birthday balloon. It was a real downer. Had it been as perky, light, and full of helium air as the other balloons, the bouquet would have made a successful flight. They would have missed the tangles of wires and the light pole. The bouquet of 10 balloons would have shot up high in the air missing all of the entrapments.
It led me to think…during this Christmas Season… “With all that is going on in my life and in the world for that matter, it would be very easy to get weighted- down. I don’t want to be a “downer”. It is so easy to discourage people by my actions. I can easily take the air out of someone’s “balloon” by an impulsive retaliation or harsh word. In fact I had the chance to practice this today at work when a lady called and started complaining. She was not nice. In fact she was most unreasonable. But I remembered how that flat balloon kept the bunch from soaring and so I decided to “kill-her-with-kindness”. It didn’t work to change her attitude, but it did help mine. And after the phone call…I soared!
This holiday season maybe you will commit along with me to lift up others so we can miss the traps of negativity and harshness that entangle our minds and attitudes, keeping us from the ability to soar. And, in the process we too will benefit as we impart blessings and not cursings into peoples lives. This Christmas season will be much jollier if we remember… it only takes one flat balloon to weigh down the whole bunch.
"Oh by golly have a holly jolly Christmas this year!"
