The Balloon Fiesta

Greetings from Albuquerque

Today is a special day.

We are with old friends, Roger and Kyla, in Albuquerque, for the 39th annual Balloon Fiesta. It is the single most photographed event in the world.

 

Balloon Fiesta from Michael Salisbury on Vimeo.

Every year, up to 1 million people come here to watch the largest balloon festival in the world.

So, thanks first to our friends for making this happen at close to the last minute.

There’s no way to capture something this awesome in pictures or video, but hopefully, this gives you an idea of what we saw at dawn yesterday.

Some things just seem to have been created so that we can wonder at their sheer beauty.

Watching a mass lift-off of hundreds of brilliantly colored hot air balloons in the cold, cloudless skies directly above our heads is one.

My wife, Shannon, is another.

Today, 10-10-10, is her birthday.

Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are — chaff and grain together — certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.” ~ George Eliot

As I say, today is her birthday, and she is the gift.

I love you, Shannie.