Spring Winds (Meditation)

The chimes are ringing this morning. Mini whirling cyclones paint swaths of leaves on the porch. Mesquites, willows, palo verde trees all sway to the beat of gusts.

Magazines wait in racks as the wind lifts their covers, browses the pages, dogears a few pages, looses interest, and then closes the case before moving on, words in hand. 

We bike riders crouch low to better cut into the resistance as we make our way to work or some exercise goal. Or, if we are lucky, sit up to enjoy the lift and push of breeze pushing us forward along the path -- lovely harmony. With just a bit of effort the speeds can equal that of cars. The beauty of sailing, sweet air, no worry about gas or running dry.

It's not a good day to work on a roof or to paint. It's not a bad day to grade or to write. In fact the wind, some say, is restless spirit on the move.

Weather people tell us the wind comes from cool air meeting warm and trying to balance out. It is spring here in the desert, so the wind is going to blow for a while. Change in the weather means turbulence. The greater and faster the changes, the more intense the disturbance of the wind.

Change is coming fast I think, and some trees are going to go down, roofs may come off. Leaves will scatter and resettle.

It's my job to hunker down when the wind comes at me, to celebrate when the wind is with me, and to breathe in the inevitable and twisting turbulence of change.

Stay loose my friend it says. Try not to break when it feels like your breath and heart get squeezed by currents you cannot control.