Winds of Change
The subject for this week’s blog post did not come easily. For days I waited for an inspiration or an encounter that would give me an idea.
Nothing happened.
I was feeling really discouraged, wondering what I had done to offend the Muse. Then, completely out of the blue, my sister texted me this morning, “You know this change of wind today is for you!” We had not been texting, we had not been talking about the weather, and we hadn’t seen each other, so this definitely came from left field.
Did she know I was looking for inspiration?
It is really windy today, and it turns out that I have been noticing the wind for the last several weeks, because it’s been blowing like a gale from morning to night (20-25 mph sustained winds), but no storm in sight. And now my sister was texting me about the wind, saying it was for me. Maybe she was onto something . . .
As soon as read my sister’s text, I realized that I had been humming “Wind of Change” by the Scorpions for the past several days, without even knowing why or thinking about it. Here are some of the lyrics:
“The future’s in the air
Can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change”
I’ve also been reading Paul Selig’s book Alchemy, which invites us to love and consider our fellow humans as equal to us, regardless of their circumstances.
That’s an invitation for a very big change, because it’s not what history has taught us.
This book takes the “love your neighbor as yourself” doctrine to a whole new level, so that you’re not loving your neighbors as you pity them for their circumstances or as you feel superior to them, but loving them as equals on a journey that is not yours to judge. It works the same in reverse, by asking you in the depths of your despair or feeling of lack to love your neighbors whom you might see as higher or better or more important than you, again, without judgment.
I’m not even sure I’m capable of managing that kind of a change, but I like the thought of it, and I’m willing to give it a try.
I also did a little research on the wind of change, and found the following interesting quote:
“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.”
Immediately I thought of the iconic windmills on the island of Chios, one of the easternmost islands of Greece. These windmills have stood the test of time, harnessing the meltemi winds of the Aegean Sea while providing a source of revenue for the inhabitants of the island.
Windmills of Chios, Greece
I like the thought of harnessing the power of the wind, or riding the wind, rather than building a barrier to it.
The winds of change don’t scare me.
I know that not everyone has the same relationship with change, because it requires a level of detachment, acceptance, and surrender that is not usually our first response to new circumstances.
I used to want to control every detail and manage every outcome, but over the years I have found that behavior to be not only exhausting, but extraordinarily unfulfilling. Have you ever tried to micromanage an event or a relationship, only to have it blow up in your face? It can be heartbreaking to put so much effort into an expected outcome, only to have some unforeseen calamity ruin all the plans. Although acceptance and surrender are not easy, it is the act of letting go that allows the divine to flow through us without being blocked.
It’s the difference between building a wall to the wind and building a windmill.
Or, in sailor speak, not trying to control the wind, but rather simply adjusting the sails to ride with it.
Adjusting the sails to work with the winds of change represents a much more pleasant experience than fighting the winds or building a wall so as not to experience them. The winds of change also may take us to places that are more beautiful, more poignant, and more rewarding than anything we could imagine.
Finally, as our friend William Shakespeare knows, once we’ve been borne on the winds of change, we eventually find a calm and a peace that we would not have otherwise appreciated.
“If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken’d death!” ”
Do you feel the winds of change? Do you welcome them with sails and windmills? Where will they take you?
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