The wind is blowing strong gusts through our Tibetan Prayer flags. My heart went out with the wind with those much needed prayers to the many who are suffering in this world. It made me think how love is like the wind in how it touches us. Sometimes gently, sometimes with hurricane force that unravels everything in it's path. It is unseen, yet we see it move in the trees, swirl the leaves and froth the waves across the sea. We see it whipping the sails, and watch as birds catch it and soar. Love is like the wind moving through everything, even in the stillness. Love is the air touching our skin. Love never intends to harm, just as the wind is not intending to be ferocious yet becomes so when called to action by the atmosphere. We are being called to take loving action.
We are being called to love everyone and everything around us. It is natural for us to want to love. To let our love flow like the wind. We are being loving when we gently offer our attention to others and notice how they relax and share themselves with ease. We are being loving when we ferociously stand for justice, take risks to speak the truth, and face our fears, pain, and insensitivity with courageous honesty. We are being loving when we join in the work of caring for others, caring for the land, the trees, the water, the air that is the wind itself. Love is attention without judgement, without critic, without control. Desire can be a part of love, but not too consume, instead to dive deeply into the pleasure and joy of authentic and liberated sharing.
Love is seeing those who are suffering and not looking away. Just as the wind touches everyone, so too do we touch everyone with our actions. When we look away, deny, or disregard the suffering of others then we are no longer a part of the wind, but have become something unnatural, controlled, distracted, desensitized. Love does not flow easily in these places.
When you feel pain, fear, anxiety or depression, take time to be in the wind. Literally go outside and feel the wind, even when there is no wind, notice the air touching your skin. Gently move your arms through it, feel it touch your cheeks, your hair. Let the wind become your ally, your friend, your beloved. Let the wind hug you, caress you, let it whisper mysteries to you from across this gorgeous globe. This wind is filled with the gift of love from the trees; oxygen. Breath it in deeply. Let the wind fill your cells with love. Lean into it. Your trust in the wind will help you to let your love flow gently from you to those closest to you, and will give you the courage to sing your prayers loudly and take bold loving actions for those on earth who desperately need it.