After a gorgeous, warm, and sunny Thanksgiving long-weekend, back-to-work-Tuesday dawned with a sudden rain storm. The power flickered on & off in the apartment, and the wind howled through the trees. When I arrived at work, the rain had stopped, but the sky was that dark blue steel colour, and the wind was blowing the clouds, hurrying them on their way East. Stormy fall days are soaked with energy….even the most dreary rainy days have this special glow.
(http://www.criativa-arts.com/home)
My parking spot at work is about a 10-minute walk from the building. That day, my focus was on holding on to my purse and lunchbag while negotiating the wind. I was thinking about the week that was, fit for an episode of a reality show, full of the challenges and tears that parenting brings. Alone with my thoughts, I was digging deep inside to find a little bit of optimism and renewed courage, you know, kind of like a Pep Talk to Self.
As I walked along, the wind blew the clouds behind me and for a few seconds, the sun shone through, bright as can be, and its light was made even brighter by the golden leaves twirling and rustling in the wind. It was such a sudden change, like someone flicking on a switch, that I turned around and smiled at the sun and said thank you. I’m glad I did, as no sooner had I turned that the wind once again covered the sun with clouds….a fleeting moment of gratitude.
So I continued walking, across the road, onto the sidewalk, up the ramp. I’m leaning into the forceful wind, feeling my coat being blown out and around me, the wind whipping my hair into my face one second, then blowing it straight back the next. Which didn’t really matter because my hair always looks like it’s caught in a windstorm anyways. A sudden noisy gust makes me look up in time to see a blitz of leaves being blown in a farandole, spirited, swirling, dancing, and they’re heading right for me! I turn my head and continue walking up the ramp, cocooned in crimson and gold jewels, and all I can think is:
Exhilaration. Pure. Joy.
I start to laugh to myself, and couldn’t help smiling, because I had this yearning to dance around with the leaves and the wind, and to laugh out loud! I wanted to twirl like Maria in the Sound of Music, on top of the mountain! I wanted to sing and laugh!
It was an incredible feeling, to sense that the wind was not just another weather element I had to contend with……it became this breathing entity, this presence that I could nearly touch, it made itself known to me very briefly, yet unforgettably. For a few blissful seconds, I was filled with such a desire to be with the wind, to abandon myself to it, to answer its call to be joyful, to be what I was created to be. Like a little kid reluctant to leave her game when being called in for dinner, I reached the front entrance to my workplace. I found I wanted to stay outside, in the gusting wind, not only to feel its energy, but to become its energy, to feel it transform me.
God is in the details. It’s in simplicity that I find deep riches.
And as Bob says: the answer is blowin’ in the wind…..
Love,
Chantal xoxoxox
P.S. That new wind blowing has brought sweeping changes in my life, as my husband has now relocated from his warm Floridian climate to the crisp and chilly North. It’s been a little over a week that he’s been here, and I’m so happy! I’ll write more on the transition of our marriage and relationship going real-time from being super-long-distance……but now, I’m enjoying my real male, rather than my e-male 
