Wind reminds me of home.

I grew up in a little town in the middle of the desert. The town’s name was Winslow. I remember, when I was a kid, I thought they named it that as a joke. It sounded, to me, like people were saying WIND slow. The wind OFTEN blew there and when it did, it was never what you could call slow. (later I theorized that since the name was actually WIN slow they were just being honest because at the time it seemed our sports teams were slow to win. Most of the places I have lived though I have always been fairly comfortable with the wind. I never felt it bore me malice or ill will it just was and we got along. Unlike all the bullies it was my misfortune to encounter, seemingly on a regular basis. I would even, occasionally, feel a sort of kinship with the wind and, also occasionally, I was a little envious of the wind because it could go where it wanted, as it wanted and no one was a master of it. Sometimes I felt I could tell it or ask it to do things and in my fancies it might comply, but I was a kid then. Today though, that feeling of my youth leads me to a point where it simply reminds me of home. All the times I would walk out into the desert to get away from it all, to take some time for myself. The walks, the thoughts, the prayers, and the quiet joy of a stark beauty that surrounded me that only I was privileged to see in that moment. Good memories all. But, it doesn’t end there. The wind is a constant all around the world. And later spending time in other parts of the state… Hearing the wind rushing through the pine trees when I visited my dad’s work in the forest when he was a ranger, it sounded just like what I imagined the ocean sounding like. The nights I would sit on the rim of the Grand Canyon and watch the moonrise or the sunset. The times I would sit out in the middle of Doney Park east of Flagstaff and on a crisp cold night the only sound you would hear is the whisper of wind as it bumbled through the tumbleweeds and high grasses. Wind has always brought me comfort and it has always been a constant. I think it sums up the old saying, that “the only true constant is change”, very well. Wind brings rain and it takes it away. It creates the fun little cones or mini tornadoes, which kids in Winslow would try to catch, we called them dust devils. It scours the earth and it brings all kinds of change with it. We can see it in the media too. They use wind to mark changes. In Mary Poppins it is the wind that brings her and she promises that she will stay only until the wind changes direction. In The Wizard of Oz, it takes Dorothy on an adventure. In many different ways it has formed us as people. We get some of our old sayings from it… “the winds of war” or “the winds of change” or “gone with the wind”. O.K. that last one is a movie title. But really it has made a difference in war time and peace. It has brought storms and taken them away and given time it will reduce mountains to hills or less, and it can reduce a trailer park to sticks in seconds. It has moved us through early ships traveling across great oceans to playtime when we use it to power our paragliders, parachutes, sailboats, sail boards, and more. It has altered history. And still today we use it to provide power for our homes and we rely on it to help keep balance in the earth. Yes wind reminds me of home. But more, it allows us to move forward even while it can remind us of the past. So, for me, it is a gift from God and I am thankful for it.