I will often take my camera and shoot photos on Sunday afternoons while waiting to pick up my daughter from youth group at church. I noticed that this particular Sunday there was a kite festival at Hermann Park and thought this might be a great opportunity to photograph all the fun colors of the kites as they flew against the late afternoon sky.

To my surprise, I ended up taking very few photos of kites. Maybe this shows how new I am to this “photography thing”, but I was simply amazed and fascinated by all the people I encountered.

What a pleasure it was spending three hours amongst the crowds of people of every race and age, size and color, culture and creed. Everyone filled with emotion. The joy of community. All smiling and laughing and reveling in the pleasure of being outside, on a Sunday in the park. Whether flying a kite, helping each other, watching it all, or listening to the music and performances, everyone seemed simply happy to be there... to share this day with each other... and be a child again where the only thing that mattered was the joy of seeing your kite ride the wind and join all the other colorful creations tethered to the earth by only the small string in your hand.

I spent three hours soaking it all in. Taking photos and grinning from ear to ear myself. I am thankful for the pure joy that was shared by so many people that day. I am hopeful that we all find more times like this where we can just be together in community, accepting of each other, or differences, or successes, our failures, our uniqueness, and our incontrovertible bond as fellow travelers on a journey together.

What do you say? Lets go fly a kite!

Hermann Park Kite Festival - Houston Texas 2019