With tuppence for paper and strings,
you can have your own set of wings.
With your feet on the ground,
You're a bird in flight!
With your fist holding tight,
to the string of your kite!

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite!

When you send it flying up there,
all at once you're lighter than air!
You can dance on the breeze,
over houses and trees!
With your fist holding tight,
to the string your kite!

- Robert B. Sherman (from the film "Mary Poppins")

Not just a child's pastime, the history of kite flying traces back 3,000 years. Several different cultures are credited with the invention of the kite, including Malaysia, China and the South Sea Islands. With varied uses and purposes, kites embody significance in many ancient civilizations.

Credited as the first kites ever by some historians, South Sea Island kites were used as an aid in catching fish with bait and a web attached to the tail of the kite. In China, another possible birthplace of the kite, tales of kites being used to aid in military strategy date back as far as 200 BC.

In New Zealand, the Maori tribes associated divine meaning to kites. They believed that birds carried messages from men up to the Gods and they shaped their kites in the form of birds. Since kite flying was imbued with spiritual meaning, the Maori used the following ritual chant during a kite's ascent. Called the Turu Manu it translates as:

My bird, by power of charm ascending,
In the glance of an eye, like the sparrow hawk,
By this charm shall my bird arise,
My bird bestride the heavens.
Beyond the swirling waters,
Like the stars Atutahi and Rehua,
And there spread out they wings,
To the very clouds. Truly so.

In Bali, an aspect of the Hindu God Shiva is called Rare Angon and is the God of Wind and Kites. In Korea, kites are released into the sky to invoke prosperity and health when the first male child is born. In Thailand, kites were flown in the monsoon season as a way to send prayers to the monsoon gods. In several Asian countries, kites are commonly shaped in the form of Buddhist imagery - birds, turtles and dragons. In India, kings employed kite fliers and the Hindi language has over 100 words to connote the kite.

In addition to religious significance and symbolism, kites were important in scientific experiments and inventions. Kites played an important role in aviation history. They were used to launch thermometers and other meteorological devices to measure the atmosphere. Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Grahams Bell used kites in their scientific research.

Spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy employs the imagery of the kite in The Invocation, a song he considers to be his most sacred composition out of the thousands of songs he has written. The words are "My Breath Thy Vision's Kite". When asked to comment on the meaning of this line in the song, he answered:

"Breath is the eternal life. So 'my breath' means eternal life. God's ultimate, ever-transcending Dream or Vision is the eternal life. Kite symbolises divine glory. The kite is flying, which represents the revelation or manifestation of the divine glory. God existed as the Absolute unmanifested. He wanted to manifest Himself constantly on earth so He brought down the eternal life. We see only the earthly life, which lasts sixty, seventy or eighty years; but here on earth there is also the message of eternal life. That eternal life we can find inside the heart, for that is where the soul is.

The Supreme's highest Wisdom can be seen and felt only here. The physical heart is one thing; the spiritual heart is something else. The physical heart is a tiny muscle, but the spiritual heart embodies God's entire universe. When we think of our spiritual heart, we feel it is something very tiny in comparison to the universe. But this is wrong. When we concentrate on the divine heart and feel the real divine heart, we will see that inside it the entire universe exists, that the heart is vaster than the universe itself.

Although the spiritual heart is eternal, at times it does not feel that it is; so the Supreme first enters into the heart and makes the heart feel that it is eternal, that it has eternal life. Then the Supreme starts His journey. He is going to transcend at every moment His own transcendental Reality; and while He is transcending, He is proclaiming or revealing or manifesting His divine Glory in the form of a kite."
(Excerpt from Sri Chinmoy Speaks, Part 7 - by Sri Chinmoy)

When you fly a kite, see one in the air, or just ponder its image as you sing "The Invocation," may your spirit soar as you let out more line, watching the kite knock at Heaven's door.

Landing in New York City after an almost thirteen hour nonstop flight, I breathe a sigh of relief. Luggage finally claimed and passport stamped for my return to America, I feel that the journey is almost over. Ah yes, don't forget customs - that form filled out on the plane where I struggled to guess how much I spent on souvenirs and gifts out of the yen bought at the Tokyo airport the day I arrived. I hand the customs officer my form and he passes me through - nothing to declare. Well--- nothing except the evidence of a weakness for "Hello Kitty" dressed in kimonos on a variety of items!

  Now a week has passed. Feeling infinitely more normal than a week ago Monday (that being my first day back to work), I'm alive and alert enough to appreciate that a beautiful summer day is enjoyably in progress. The weather is nothing less than perfect - 83F/28C, low humidity and a positively angelic breeze lightly blowing. Arriving home from work, I decide to wait until closer to sunset before I take a stroll on the bike path near my house.

With my camera tucked inside a waist pack, I walk along feeling so contented. Our spring and summer has been especially rainy so a simple summer breeze and sunset offer themselves as an unparalleled gift. Soon I'm chasing after a large monarch butterfly because it reminds me of Japan was teeming with butterflies and this association between the two still resonates. The butterfly fluttered away out of sight without me catching a photo of it.

  I turn around and my attention is divided between the sun almost setting on the right horizon and the flock of swans up ahead in the cove on the left. Taking inventory, I count about 15 or 16 swans all grouped near a little outcropping of rock close to the path.

  I cut off the path and up to the bank's edge, taking occasional steps back to watch the setting sun. I am feeling so completely peaceful and content because of the glorious weather. I cannot help but imagine that the swans have the same sentiment. They look more languid than usual and a number of them are using their body as a downy pillow for their head. Perhaps ever guilty of anthropomorphism, I'm utterly convinced that they are enjoying this beautiful summer evening sunset just as much as myself.

  Memories tug at my awareness as I take photos of the swans as the sun is setting. My first toe in the water with photography a little over a year ago started with a fascination for photos of swans at the bike path - particularly at sunset! Now a year+ later, I delight in trying to capture their languid movements, the pink dreamy sunset tint of my surroundings and relish the fun of taking photos of them through the tall fronds of grass on the cove bank. I bask in the satisfaction of tangible progress in my swan/sunset picture-taking abilities.

 Then the sun actually sets and the sky becomes a wash of pink, orange, grey, clouds and blue background sky. The colours march into the night's darkness. I watch a different kind of beginning deep inside this day's ending as the pink and orange hues descend onto the water, the swans and into my heart,

Although Mother Nature sings us a dreamy lullaby of sunset, I suddenly get rather excited! It's here! I feel it! The same peace from Japan - I still taste it and sense it all around me out on this path even though it is busy with wayfarers and despite the Providence city skyline etched by the sunset up ahead. I've been home a week back in my regular routine and now that the jet lag fog disperses the peace is still here. Hallelujah! If it could be measured in density in the air, say a part per million, it isn't as strong as Japan's inner silence but I know for certain that it would register if measured.

  The sense of silence's constant renewal which I felt in Japan isn't the same, but I am thrilled that it is still lodged inside me. Nothing to declare? How false is that? I need to find that customs form and check off the box marked "other" so that I can more accurately portray what I carried home from Japan. I suppose the customs form doesn't have a section for beauty, inner peace and tranquility but I know that I have exported all of them back to America as clearly as my Hello Kitty souvenirs. I know it because I have never felt such deep contentment and peace out on the Bike Path as on this swan sunset evening.

  When I look at the photos from that night added to my gallery album, it still reverberates. I do not know if it will for you as well, but a swan dressed in pink sunset colours is a pretty sight just the same. The symmetry of the two swans in 'Sunset Swans Snooze' makes them seem like twins. They looked like they were feeling just as lazy dazy as me on a summer's eve.

  Now I know one doesn't have to travel to Japan to find inner silence and peace since the simple act of meditation draws from the same well. Nonetheless, Japan offered this peace thirsty traveller a blessingful dose. I will have to fill out that form all over again since after all. I have ever so much to declare. Thank-you Japan. Thank-you so much.