Scientists explain wind as hot and cold air colliding. Those who have felt it on their skin, who know the intensity it brings to life, who have absorbed its energy as their own, would disagree. At gale force, it sweeps away all resistance. As a gentle breeze, it touches softly, inspiring our souls with its velvet caress. When the wind lifts our hair, raising it from its perennial droop to stand on end, electrified and alive, it stirs the same reaction within.
As invisible as the wind are our ideas of ourselves, our world, of those around us. From these ideas all of life flows. Too often, our concept of life is to deaden our pain in order to simply survive. This deadens our energies too, limiting life's enjoyment and choices. Learning to become one with the invisible force of air borne energy can be the path to recovery of spiritual balance.

We can...take advantage of nature's limitless supply of spiritual energies and gather power from them. The Earth and sun, flowers and wind can all be sources of spiritual exchange. Goals and focus are the determining factor: energy follows our intention and attention. It is through acting on this principle that we can learn to gather power form nature, store it and direct it with awareness back out into the greater environment in a dance of spiritual action. Breath is one of our greatest spiritual tools and is intimately linked to sustaining life. The deeper we breathe into the belly, the more vibrant and alive we feel. When we add our mental concentration or attention to breathing and a mental intention to gather even more energy, the mind becomes a second powerful tool.

In the whirlwind of life, too often we neglect to nourish ourselves upon the wind. We breathe short and shallow, rather than deep and satisfying. We ignore the wondrous aromas and sounds which are wafted our way. We allow our life to become stuffy and airless, cheating ourselves of the wind's and life's embrace.

We can equate our dependence upon air with creating a fulfilling future. Breathing is absolutely vital to us and yet we are usually unconscious of it. It is the quality of our breath that determines how alive we are, how awake, how vivacious, even how interesting our life is...Breathing is the road home to peace of mind, acceptance of your emotions and the awakening of your body intuition. The exhalation of our breath is a metaphor for our life. If we can learn to exhale fully and completely, we will become attuned to the universal need to let go before we can truly begin again. Breath is letting go, emptying out with the deep trust that the next breath will be there for us. Like the woman on top of a burning building, we have to let go completely before we can jump to safety. Isn't it amazing how many people chose to hold on to the old, to what is killing them, rather than to leap into the new?

This fear of the new is often rooted in the perception of the wayward wanderer as a nomad without purpose, a person whose dreams are comprised of useless tilts at windmills. Our society emphasizes stability and a purposeful life, even in the face of rugged challenges. It ignores the balancing force of a delightful spirit at play. Play is as necessary as work, as life giving as food on the table. Allowing our ideas to wander as close kin to the wayward wind opens us to the freedom our restless souls crave--and the electrifying excitement of life.

May the gentle breath of life's winds forever lift and carry you safely home.

there is no such thing as gentle wind in West Texas

it blows 50 mph and carries sand and tumbleweeds

or else it's perfectly still and so hot you can't breathe