Balloon Ride Nine Years Later Ends One Chapter, Starts Another for Jennifer Miller
Published Monday, January 27, 2025
2024 Tbaytel Luncheon of Hope Keynote Speaker Jennifer Miller and her husband, Chris, high up in the skies at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which they attended last October.
As Jennifer Miller told all those women gathered for the Tbaytel Luncheon of Hope last October, her dreams of flying in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta were dashed with her breast cancer diagnosis.
“Speaking at the Luncheon was overwhelming,” Jennifer said. “I didn't know there would be so many people! I met old friends and women I used to know who I didn't even know were going through the same thing as I did. It was sad to see so many other women suffering, but it was also an electric, encouraging environment. We left and our hearts were so full.”
The surprise ending to her keynote speech was that nine years after she first planned the balloon ride, she was leaving the next day for Albuquerque. She and her husband Chris took flight over the New Mexico desert the following Tuesday just before sunrise.
“It was exciting!” Jennifer said. “There were 500 or 600 balloons going up all around you. We shot up at like 700 feet per minute. One moment, everyone's cheering and waving goodbye. But then you're up there, and everything gets so mesmerizingly tiny below you, and it gets really quiet and peaceful. Watching the sunrise up there with all those other balloons in different shapes and colours – it was just incredible.”
The hour-and-a-half flight took them over stunning turquoise and copper scenery including the Rio Grande far below them. Jennifer said that what that balloon ride symbolized was just as important to them. She emphasized that it was their journey, not just hers. Taking the trip with Chris, who had been through so much himself while she was sick, made it extra special.
“I can't imagine going through something like I did without Chris,” Jennifer said. “He's so kind, loving, generous. Being up there, thinking about what the balloon ride represents and what we'd been through… It felt like such an impossible goal for so long, but we did it.”
Although the Balloon Fiesta was the highlight, it wasn't the only event on their jam-packed agenda. Jennifer and Chris stayed at a historic inn, Casa de Suenos, a former artist colony started by artist and photographer Joseph Roy Willis. They also visited Santa Fe and Taos north of Albuquerque taking in the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and other sites. As an artist herself – Jennifer creates stunning fluid art paintings – taking in New Mexico's artist scene was almost as incredible as the balloon ride.
Something unexpected happened when their balloon touched down later that October morning. Jennifer said it wasn't just the ride that ended. A chapter in her life closed, too.
“It was strange. The moment we landed, I felt suddenly like our story had bookended,” Jennifer said. “I think we're on to a new story now. I don't know what that story is, but I'm excited to find out!”
The Balloonist's Prayer, which Jennifer didn't know existed before the trip, caught her off-guard as well because it describes so perfectly how she felt during all those years of treatment: untethered and up in the air. It added to the bookend feeling when the balloon set her back down on the ground.
“It's like God says, ‘You've done this beautifully. Here you go. Here's your next opportunity.' I don't know. But it feels like that's what's going on.”
The Balloonist's Prayer
May the winds welcome you with softness.
May the sun bless you with its warm hands.
May you fly so high and so well that God joins you in laughter
And sets you gently back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.
Article by Graham Strong