I chose to repeat this specific column, because elements, frankly are my joy spot. Lightening; Wind; Rain; Snow; Storms on the high seas with tornadoes soaring, in some crazy, excite me on a multitude of levels. They stir my soul and I can simply apply them to other events and actions of my choosing. And so, once again, I share my Love of Wind.
For the Love of Wind
I have a love affair with many things; moments; words in life; results of actions. But one of my favorite love affairs is with wind. To think it is the gift of the sun, worn by Mother Earth a rare and powerful charm; conjures a magic within me. Four little letters: wind; like love, can bring a multitude of emotions: close your eyes and it becomes a soundtrack of incidentals, playing in the background of your thoughts; open your eyes, and you open the magic man’s bag of tricks, where you prepare to see and feel anything it deems fit, for the moment.
I rode it often as a child: running against it with a blanket and letting it’s refreshing and whipping blasts of air push me back to the starting line with its myopic desire. It had its own rhythm; gusts, gales, blustering across the valley of my home town, Talent. It can devastate; but I never forget the goodness which comes with it; the wind-washed power it gives all of us. It blows seeds from county to county and I suppose over time, state to state or maybe even continent to continent. It lifts kites in the air and in their resistance can take them all the way to heaven, by the most skilled children, bringing a family of hoorays to echo across the lands of any country in the world. Young and old, alike, suddenly found running ‘cross a field with hopes and dreams and only the kite and wind are to be thanked. It carries balloons, with the prayers for the dead’s safe journeys. It “redesigns” perfect hair styles while reminding us that life isn’t perfect at all and neither are we. It blows up mighty sand and dust storms; hurricanes; tornadoes: reminding us that our earth is a living-breathing planet, and we shouldn’t take moments of simple pleasures for granted; for in its power, it might fancy to take lives. It carries the ocean’s mist to those who walk on the shores of dreams. It also blows our wishes, on tatted laces skillfully crafted of dandelions, to some who might grant them one day–leaving the ones who wished with hope. Birds glide miles; sailing ships catch the trades…Just extraordinary. When wound up; it sings; it inspires windmills to turn, reminding us of knightly days with Quixote; it can bring us water for the beauty of life itself. It cleans out the attic and the cobwebs which seem to bog us down. It brings us the chime of the wind chime; it blows leaves about, reminding us autumn is here and soon goblins will be knocking at our doors. It reshapes our Earth’s Mountains; shores; trees; sometimes even homes. It has instruments named after it. It blows out light; yes, it blows out light—imagine. Wind takes the clouds on as its muse, blowing them any direction on a single whim. It waves flags of honor. It even has the power to make the Redwood whisper your secrets in the night. In idioms it has found its poetic place in the world: you can break wind; you can be between wind and the water; and some sing the answers blow in it. Songs have been sung about it; it blows tumbleweeds and others have named it Mariah. How can you have a gorgeous storm without its presence? Wind isn’t fickle; it’s consistent; abrasive; soft; it can blow us down; but it can also lift us to our feet. See? The wind alone conjures up far more than its sun ever intended. And so I am pressed to ask, how can one not have a love affair with wind? How can one not enjoy its fingers blowing through their hair; or its strength caressing their body—moving our minds and bodies directions we hadn’t thought of jiffy-seconds earlier?
I have always been fascinated by wind; it is invisible to the eye—as it moves through the sky, yet, it allows us to see it’s sweet or mighty wake. It lulls us; it frightens us; it is nature’s whimsy, should she choose it so. It is the devil’s game board, if she invites him in.
William Butler Yeats once penned: “Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!” Well, doesn’t that make perfect sense? Apparently Yeats understood the romance of the wind; perhaps he saw just how vacuous our world might be without it.