listen

the wind moves and speaks and silences. there is much in it. there is revelation. there is presence. there is comfort. there is grace. but you need to be still. still enough to notice.

it touches you. but you can't grasp it. or hold it. or gather it. or contain it. you only experience it.

experiencing it is only possible in relation to its affects. the things it brushes against. it moves the leaves- i can hear it. it shakes the trees- i can see it.  on my skin- i feel it. somehow, support. somehow enough.

there can be long periods of quiet- or subtlety-there can be movement over another hill, in another forest, across the water- where i am not, but always, it returns to me.

God is in the wind. He knows i need reminding- when i need to see and hear and feel him.  He knows when i am listening, when i'm looking.

and when i'm not.

i should pay more attention to things that blow away. to the loudness of the wind at times- the force that can be so strong it's hard to walk against. but sometimes i push on. sometimes i fight my way through. sometimes the greater the strength of it, the more determined i am. sometimes, if it's cold, i might even get mad.

but what if.....

what if i stopped. right there. what if i put down my bags. what if i put up my hands. what if i felt the fullness of it.  what if i asked what i was to hear? what message was there for me? what if i was open to it? what if i stood in the glory of it- hot wind or cold wind or rainy or snowy wind- what if i released what i'm clenching, lifted my face to the sky, and said, "here i am."