Wind in the trees

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art is gratitude.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The wind began in the middle of the night. Sometime in the darkness the crescendo began unnoticed by me. When my consciousness stirred, I listened and despite the authority that the gale force wind represented, I was filled with gratitude. I lay still in my bed, listening with curiosity.

The wind outside my window was like a yoga Ujjayi breath, starting with a low growl at the back of the throat, passing through the mouth, over the lips, across the waters, the grasses and extending beyond the far shore across the waves.

I watched the giant trees, tall and thick-waisted and normally erect and immovable, now bending, swaying and stretching in the wind. Like slender grasses in the marsh that move easily with the breeze or when brushed by the passing of a squirrel or a wild turkey making their way in search of food. But these trees, grew over many years, laying down circles of life, over and over, growing thicker and taller with each year of life. These wooden giants are usually seen as unbendable, permanent and stiff. And yet, they yield to this gale coming off the lake, a force of November’s might. The trees bend and sway and even shake and swivel, side to side in defiance of their very nature. Yielding to the force of the wind, they join in the martial arts of nature’s mystery. If they do not bend with this wind, they will break or become uprooted from the ground.

This wind, this unseen energy, illuminates the illusion of permanence. We are like the trees, growing layer after layer over the years. When big winds come into our lives, we must learn to bend and sway and shake and swivel, lest we be broken or uprooted. Everything, everyone has some kind of vulnerability. It is in our vulnerability that our beauty, and ability to transform and sway with the wind is revealed. Allowing the winds of time and seasons to create spaciousness for change reveals our ability to sway, and bend and shake and swivel. Nothing ever remains in one state. Ever. Often the winds bring changes we could never have seen, had we stayed in our solid, familiar circles of growth. Learning to welcome the winds with gratitude, is creating a life of beautiful art. We become a work of art, sometimes with broken limbs and scars from the journey. With gratitude and curiosity even these changes become beautiful.