If you live in northern Colorado, you couldn’t miss the north wind last night. It howled, it blew, it rattled the doors and windows. Growing up on the plains of western Nebraska, I’ve no fondness for wind. I can sympathize with the early pioneers in their sod houses, who wrote in their diaries about the wind nearly driving them mad.
“I’m hearing you should embrace the wind and listen.”
So this morning, feeling a bit sleep-deprived and grouchy, I decided to make friends with the wind. I thought about one of my favorite movies growing up, Mary Poppins. Do you remember…? On a very windy day, the Banks children wish for a new nanny. The next day, a huge gust of wind blows away the prune-faced nannies lined up to interview for the job, and ushers in Mary Poppins. Mary transforms and heals the family, before departing on another gust of wind. I’m a bit old for a nanny, but I like imagining that the wind may bring me a new and extremely competent mentor, who will stay as long as I need her.
I thought of another beloved movie, Chocolat. It is one of my favorite stories, and begins with a strong north wind. Vianne and her daughter Roux, dressed in red capes, are literally blown into a small French village to open a chocolaterie and start a new life. Of course, there are challenges for mother and daughter to find acceptance and put down roots. Johnny Depp, playing the part of the gypsy love interest, also struggles with permanence, following the wind and the river. Vianne almost gives up when she feels the call of the north wind near the end of the movie, but… she chooses to send the wind and her mother’s ashes with it, on its way. I like thinking of the wind as a force to move us in a new direction, or to encourage us to put down stronger roots. We can choose.
If you’d like to embrace the wind, here are a few suggestions:
Go fly a kite (ala Mary Poppins)
Cleanse your healing crystals. The wind is a wonderful force to send stagnant energy on its way. Place your crystals in a bowl of salt water, and set them outside in the wind. Notice how fresh and energized they feel at the end of the day.
Turn into the north wind and greet your ancestors. Ask them to whisper their wisdom to you on the wind. Be grateful that you can listen with an open heart and act in accordance with your own truth.
Drink cacoa with a hint of chili, inviting the warmth of the south to soften the bluster of the north (ala Vianne)
“...though I cannot promise to take you home,” said North Wind, as she sank nearer and nearer to the tops of the houses, “I can promise you it will be all right in the end. You will get home somehow”