I can feel the winds of change! Time to prepare the nets, sails, and chart the course!
Often the wind gives me a sense of urgency, especially when it blows furiously. I recall first moving to the Sonoran Desert of Navajo land. Every afternoon throughout the entire Spring, right about 1:00 pm (Navajo time), the 40-60 mile an hour gusts would come to town. Window ledges were covered inches thick with sand, Sand was under the covers on the bedsheets. People walked huddled over in shrouds to protect their eyes as sand caked into their nostrils and ears. Windshields were pitted and pockmarked. No barrier kept the sand away.
This visitor came in a fury and shook our very foundations. It did not announce itself, nor ask for permission. One needed to be ready for its arrival. It ushered in a strong sense of urgency, an anxious feeling of not knowing what to expect. The Navajo school children were affected with an unsettled feeling. They were “hyper” everyone would say. Animals also reacted to the wind by restlessness and hypervigilance.
Life could appear uncontrollable.
Yet, the wind over ions of time created the outer landscape around us. They painted the desert and mountains with a rainbow of color and shapes. Just as the wind’s perseverance can shape the outer landscape, we can also use its power to shapeshift our inner dreams and directions.
The sense of urgency created from experiencing the wind can become motivational.
What needs to be put in order? Where do I need protection or shielding? Are my belongings and affairs in order? What do I need to tend and care for at this time?
Yesterday, I remembered that sense of urgency and experienced it again as the wind blew furiously all day. It forced me to take shelter and draw inward. Yet, I became acutely aware of a bigger vision and began to unfold the steps to set sail toward that new territory.
Often, in Visioning, we create a vision and work backwards. Remembering that the “genius is in the detail,” I began to look at each detail as a part of this greater whole. It is like putting together each piece in a puzzle in order to create the final whole, yet having the final picture visible on the cover of the box while working the pieces.
The wind can be the alert that motivates us toward our next action and call us to our priorities.
By the way, what is that vision that is drawing us to set sail?
We can begin to channel the force of the wind to help navigate us to reach that vision. Thus, with a new respect for the power of the wind, we can trust in our own power, begin to let go and sail on!
