One windy spring day, I noticed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Colorful creations of different shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds flying and dancing. As the strong winds blew against the kites, a string (线) kept them in control.

    Instead of blowing away with the wind, they rose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining (控制的) string and the cumbersome (笨重的) tail kept them in control, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled against the string, they seemed to say, "Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!" They rose beautifully even when they fought the restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose (松散的). "Free at last," it seemed to say. "Free to fly with the wind."

    Yet freedom (自由) simply put it in the control of an unkind wind. It fell down to the ground and landed in a mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. "Free at last", free to lie powerlessly in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to stop lifelessly against the first obstacle (障碍物).

    How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity (逆境) and rules, rules to follow from which we can grow and get strength. Some of us break away from the rules so hard that we never reach the heights we might get to. We keep part of the rules and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.

    Let us each rise to the great heights, knowing that some of the rules that we may be angry about are in fact the strong force that helps us achieve.