WILD WINDS

I always found magic in wild winds. They set up a delicious vibrational energy for me. As a child, before my parents became safety conscious, I would dance in the winds of approaching typhoons (on the island of Guam) with the neighbor children, being lifted and carried in the air, squealing with delight. (Of course, we used to run behind "Smokey Joe" - the jeep that was spraying DDT to kill the insects - losing ourselves in the mist. Which may explain my wild and irreverent ways; perhaps it is a form of chemical poisoning and not enlightenment. You be the judge.)

In Boulder, I experienced winds that were beyond wild; the power of the wind gusts was forceful, almost angry, one day as I was walking my first mile to the Solstice Center. My face was being pelted with shrapnel from the street, and on one occasion, a wind gust picked me up, swirling me into oncoming traffic. I rode the gust and swirled back to a light pole. Squealing with delight was not my mood; I was buffeted against my will. Finally, I brought my focus to the divine, the source of this energy, these winds, and I surrendered to them. The duality was apparent: the gentle fun breeze for playful children can gust into an angry damaging force, that in this case, ignited a massive forest fire on the mountains just beyond my hotel. Again the duality: as I watched the fire in the darkened skies, the view was breathtakingly beautiful; yet homes were being destroyed and people displaced.

The power and the glory.
The light and dark.

My slumber and my awakeness.
My fear and my courage.

Duality is such a part of our lives.

Each day we face deeper and wilder economic situations. And as we do, it may be helpful to pause and think about the duality of money. The duality of our use of it. Our worship of it. The power it has over us - the power we have over it. It is a dance of many steps, different partners.

We are entering a new wilderness in America and on our planet. Perhaps part of the lesson from the angry winds of the economy is to teach us to live in ways we should have been living all along. To teach us to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth, and not with the artificial rhythms of Wall Street and OPEC.

Instead of resistance -- let us be open to the call of these winds; acknowledge, surrender, marvel, ponder, and chart our course with courage through this wilderness, always aware of the light and the dark, the power and the glory. Always aware that our path is on rocks both steady and fragile. Breathe and know -- that we walk this path as ONE.