When I was a kid, I didn’t really have words for it. I just knew that there was a calm presence when there was time to watch the grass lean and the leaves dance with the movement of an air that breathes refreshment. And for the most part, anytime I have tried to relax into it, as soon I felt that comfort washing over me, a more pronounced gust would blow confirming the truth in this as a peace made fully for me, a peace that winks back. 

You can see this however you want to see it - as a possible insanity, or my skewed perception of reality, or a hippie-dippie heartsong - but for me, I am certain that if you’re paying attention to the breath of the wind, it is all the heavens making sure in this moment that you know you are held and loved, that you are part of all the nature that surrounds you, and that you are wrapped up safely in the peace of the trees.

While I can truthfully say that I have missed most of the windy moments in my life, I have also been moved by quite a bit of them. Knowing this, I have lately given the wind enough space, gravity, and relevance not just to bring peace, but to find a home within me. There is always peace in the trees, and it is this calm air that saves me. 

The nature of nature
is to bring you
to an allowance of fullness in freedom -

the wild of the wilderness,
the babble of a brook,
the clouds’ illusions,
the peace
that surpasses understanding,
the love that comes
with every breath
that blows around you

When you find a moment like this, a space that you can always be brought to peace in, I encourage you to stay there for as long as you can. Go outside, sit on your porch, watch the grass move, the trees sway, the dandelions dance, and feel the peace as it blows for you.

You had to have known this was coming…