Balloon

At my parents’ magic and costume shop, we sold adjacent products like stage makeup, gag gifts, and balloons. Balloons are magic. A helium-filled balloon seems to universally trigger smiles and a desire to thump it. 

I enjoyed sliding the ribbon of a slightly overfilled balloon between my knuckles and rapidly punching, then jerking the balloon right back. Specific age brackets might remember paddleball. Well, punch-a-b’loon was even more fun. 

Occasionally, one of my kids will come home with a balloon. Most of them live the same life. Tied to the back of the kitchen chair, the balloon stresses the ribbon holding it hostage. After a few days, the pull on the ribbon reduces. It is still floating, but a small amount of slack appears in the previously snug captor. A few more days pass as the balloon, now smaller, floats just below the knot, holding it to the chair back. After a little more time, the balloon becomes a caricature of itself. Now, dragging the same ribbon towards the ground. 

My ambition is like a red balloon. It’s lovely and exciting. It makes me smile. It pulls me in a direction. Then I ratchet it down with every ribbon I can find. I often use time — now isn’t good, I am too tired, I’ve got too much going on. If not time, I attack my value — I am not good enough, it isn’t important, other people’s work is more important. It gently tugs at me, trying to escape the bondage of the chair back. The steady pull becomes easier to ignore as it fades into the backdrop of life. I might notice it every once in a while. The once shiny luster of the balloon becomes powdery as it shrinks in size. Its tug becomes less and less as it shrivels in size while descending to the ground. If I ignore it long enough, it becomes hung by the very ribbon that it once held high. 

Whenever the tug of ambition strikes, I should let it. A balloon floats for a finite time. The ribbons of restraint will always outlive the tug to free it. Now is the right time to do the thing. 

Will I succumb to the constraints of my many reasons why I should not do something? Or will I embrace the opportunity to grow? Can I find a tank of helium and resurrect some previously deflated balloons? 

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.