Bond with the wind

Hello you wit's end.

I will admit that as the weeks tumble by, despite best efforts, I am not keeping up with my initial writing schedule and am now using big chunks of my Saturdays to write these dispatches instead of working on them slowly throughout the week as I had originally intended.  While this means that parts of my weekend are spent in front of a computer screen, it also means that I can be inspired by immediate experiences and share them in a more direct and (hopefully) relatable way.

Which brings me to today (Saturday), which in Ottawa finds us with a rather gusty bit of weather blowing around the valley. I do love a windy day-- the almost-minty-freshness of a cool breeze can be so energizing. Of course this blowy bluster is also a harbinger of the changing season, but it does give me a solid dose of those big beautiful 'change is in the air' vibes that epitomizes this time of year. 

Inspired by the windy day (and to give credit where credit is due: while we were out on a windy walk, when I told my sis Leah about what I was initially going to write about, she said "no, write about the wind instead"... so here we are), I thought this week I would share an excerpt from  Winnie the Pooh and the blustery day (and I love this rendition which includes some of the original voices-- highly recommended that you snuggle in and give it a listen as you sip your morning tea). On its face, this is a classic A.A. Milne children's story, it is also a poignant/Piglet meditation on being terrified by circumstances out of your control, weathering the storm (literally and/or figuratively), and coming out the other end having experienced something enormous and having been transformed by the experience.
 

To connect this story to some of the generalized existential angst of being human, a quote:

Winnie the Pooh: Happy "Winds-day", Piglet.

Piglet: [being blown away] Well... it isn't... very happy... f-for me.

Winnie the Pooh: Where are you going, Piglet?

Piglet: That's what I'm asking myself, where? [A gust of wind lifted Piglet into the air] W-Whoops! P-P-P-Pooh!

Winnie the Pooh: [grabbing Piglet's scarf] And what do you think you will answer yourself?

When it comes to navigating life and all of its beauty and complexity, we can never-- and will never-- have all the answers. We often don't know where we are going or where the winds are blowing us-- and it is this uncertainty that terrifies us, throwing us into panic as we try to avoid being buffeted by the winds of chance and circumstance, or by the unintended consequences of the choices we make.

And so we are all Piglets in a lot of ways, often feeling too small to cope with the battering winds and rising waters, scared of losing everything (or even ourselves) in the winds whistling around us.

But as the story tells us, the beautiful thing about the wind-- and about life-- is that nothing lasts forever and the winds of change will always either abate or shift anew. Even if the wind does mess things up a bit, it will never really destroy us-- we are always stronger than we think. And most importantly, by making it through the experience, we learn invaluable lessons about who we are, what we are capable of, and we learn that we have a community of love and support surrounding us-- we don't have to weather the storm alone.

To be human is to be constantly reminded of the need to embrace the wind-- to get comfortable with changing, growing, trying, loving, learning and failing-- together. I would venture that this blustery messiness is one of the best parts of being human (and I enjoyed this article as a catalyst for launching into this 'winds of change' vibe, if you are so interested). So the blustery weather today inspired me to take a moment to appreciate the struggle and the beauty of navigating this wind-filled world-- both as a stronger-than-I-think Piglet, and also as one person in a collection of people ready to support each other when the winds do pick up.  

So all hail the windy weather of late, and the blustery autumn days to come!

But wait! Is all this talk of wind storms feeling a bit too chaotic on a sunny Sunday morning?  Then please enjoy this article detailing what happens when you give a tree an email address. And oldie but a heart-warming goodie. 

Still too much realness?  Then check out this video of a terrifyingly mesmerizing variety show act from the '70s of a creepy mechanical puppet gymnast (if you dare)...

From one wind-battered person to another, I am glad that we can weather the storm together. I hope you enjoyed this dispatch, and have a bluster-filled week!

Until next Sunday,
The Earnest Platypus