The earth is crusty underfoot. A thin layer of ice-hardened crunch covers the soft receiving Earth-turned-mud floor. My feet break through this frost layer, making crackling sounds as I go. Crunch, crunch, crunch, crackle, crackle, Rustle rustle, (of dry leaves), then crunch, crackle all over again, breaking through yet another layer of ice. And when I do break through, I also break down to the tender invitation of soft enveloping Earth, the Support always underfoot, always present.

The wind blows in today too. As I walk, the day's windy news arrives at random, and then quickly recedes, leaving me with the impression of something new arriving every moment. The wind has a unique quality to it this day, one that I can not place, hold, or name. As I reach for understanding, the wind shifts yet again, and changes like the changing of outfits, and then moves on.
Aha, free and unfettered.

I muse, what if part of the magic of Spring is that it is the very nature of this season to hold and have conversations between all the possibilities of weather and elements all within one moment?! Back to today's wind, the word that best describes the conversation of the wind is more like the contribution of a question. An opening, an invitation, a suggestion.

Here, a wind arrives now, as though it could curl into a hug, moving both leaves and clothing. Only to change the next moment into a howl of rushing air.

Pausing, I lift my head to listen. I can almost hear the words now, the ones that the wind leaves behind ~ A whisper of it, like the suggestion of pink that resides in the edges of the clouds hovering over the western sky. Right now, the message is a hint of color suggesting more to come. This story, this message feels like a whisper, arriving in a conspiratorial way, including me in the story, a discussion, as though, I am already in "the know."
Hmmm.

Trying to better understand, I ponder and pause, what are the possibilities of this message? What is the gift?

And suddenly, another gust arrives, coming as a cold blast ~ strong, cold and biting. Oh, Ohh! Cold!

And then ~ Ahhh. I realize I had been holding my breath, against the cold, I realize I can relax into and breathe in deeply, bracingly, taking all that cold in as a drought of medicine, embracing the experience. As a sailor who might turning the boat toward the wind, to meet the coming squall, in order to better ride the waves and shifts of the ocean tides. Like this sailor, I turn and face the wind.

The effect is immediate and full bodied. My inner fires rise and meet the cold. I burn brighter. Elated, my Spirit gladly rises to meet and greet the wind as a playmate.

In facing the wind, I felt the wind move through an emotional veil. One that I had unconsciously raised. I had curled into myself, holding my breath, bracing against this cold, resisting the changeable quality of the weather, rather than welcoming the gift of it all, rather than welcoming the presence of a new guest. This unconscious resistance, this shallow breath, separated me, walled me off, making me deaf to the present, and to its gifts.

Deep breath, and Again, deep Breath. Breeeaathe.

The wind coaxes me out of my shell to enter the dance. By breathing, I can turn to face the wind, the day, and feel my own Spirit rising to join the Spirit present. And now, I feel more alive.

The wind calms now, and returns to the sighs and whistles of a sleeping giant. Fluttering the edges of the covers gently as the giant exhales, and the wind wraps around me again in a gentle hug.

I could end here, and maybe that would be enough, but more comes for me to say, in a summary way ~

The stories of all time are present for us with each step.
Stories that we dance with, engage in, and live with.
I hope to choose this moment. This very present moment,
Letting all concerns be swept aside in the breezes blowing today.
Because, I feel how, in arriving to the attention of the present, all tension in my body relaxes.

In arriving, I have a chance to see and feel as though the wind is also within me. Moving me, and bringing me to the tune of the day. As a swimmer in the river, I feel the current within me meeting that current that previously I had felt outside of me.

The message of the wind: Will you Join this current that is rising from within?
This current of Spirit that rises to meet in Spirit of now.
Breath, Breath it in
Breathe it out.
Rising and receding.
Blessing and releasing.

The winds you feel, that dance on the forest floor, and in the wooded canopy, also rise from within us all, As these winds reaches for us, we reach for them, as an eternal flow and a circular current

Today, still walking the with the winds of the ethers that blow through to my shores. I hope to remember to dance today with the partners present, watching my step and feeling the soft support beneath my feet. Remembering underneath is all softness, and I can relax into it as I breathe.