The Wind

I love the wind.


Most people, I've come to learn, don't. It makes them unsettled, anxious, annoyed and generally just angry. It blows trash around, hair into faces and dirt into eyes. It's noisy. It slams doors unnecessarily. It takes our sense of control away from us in unpredictable bursts and gusts.


Despite all that, and maybe in some cases because of that, I love the wind. 


I love that it's an invisible force that derives its energy from forces we can't see. I love that I can hear it coming. I love that I can hear it going. I love that the energy of the wind approaches me like a train rumbling down the track. I love that it touches everything in its path without apology or permission. I love that the wind comes from somewhere, where it was just touching someone and something else. And that on its breezes travels the business of the earth. I love that it's going somewhere, and sometimes I wish I could go as well. I love that it carries kites high into the sky in the spring and creates swirling tornados of dried leaves in the fall. I love that it can be windy when it's sunny, rainy, snowy, or cloudy - that none of the usual weather is a predictor of the wind. I love that, when it's windy, I can either hold on tight or let go altogether - and the wind decides what it takes forever, and what it might give back. 


But mostly, maybe, I love the wind for reminding me that we're all connected. And that as hard as I hold on to some things, I can't possibly control everything that happens in my world. Sometimes, you just have to let go. 

Finally, some others' thoughts about the wind and about letting go: 

"I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face." -Langston Hughes

"The cool wind blew in my face and all at once I felt as if I had shed dullness from myself.  Before me lay a long gray line with a black mark down the center.  The birds were singing.  It was spring." -Burl Ives

"As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don't try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break." -Julia Butterfly Hill

"To live in this world, you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones
knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go." -Mary Oliver