Saturday 26 January 2013

Baby's Black Balloon Makes Her Fly

It's very message in a bottle, but sending a note off by balloon seemed like a fun idea.

It was simple really. I went and bought a few pretty helium balloons, I wrote a few quotes on a piece of paper and included the Day Zero Project website and the date and location, put it in a plastic bag and tied it all together with ribbon. I spent a lot of time debating whether or not to include any contact information, but in the end decided to leave it anonymous. As much as I would have loved to find out where my note ended up, I know that if I had left an email address, I would constantly be waiting for a response. And that response could in theory never come. The balloons could have landed in a forest, never to be found. Or the note might not be found for many years. Or someone could find it and not care to respond. There were so many outside possibilities that could leave me disappointed. This way, I know for sure I'll never hear of it again, and I just get to imagine where the balloons wandered.

Nick and I headed up to Armour Hill on a beautiful clear summer day. It was surprising how meaningful of an experience it was for me. It seems rather pointless, but somehow it felt like I was reaching out to someone in the world, someone I didn't know, and yet perhaps I could affect them. It was a little like paying it forward, only because I know how I would feel if I were to find a random note from the sky. It made me feel less small in the scheme of the whole wide world. I never expected that when I chose this goal.


We watched the balloons for as long as we could; it was actually surprising how far we could see the two dots against the sky. Even as we drove away, I kept trying to keep an eye on them, and imagine where they might end up. We took a ton of pictures. It was almost bittersweet to see them disappear...


I would highly recommend this simple goal. It seems so insignificant, and yet it really wasn't.

Once we lost sight of them, we headed off to Cobourg Beach to complete a few more things on my goal list!

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