The Winds of Change and the Season of Thanksgiving!

November 2019

November. The month of great transition from colorful to bared landscapes in the Northern Hemisphere. Winds sweep across the mountains, hills, and plains, and blow away everything untethered.

Is there something within you that is tethered?

Such a strange notion this “tethering’. In a literal sense, it means to tie with rope or chain in order to restrict movement. How and where are you tethered, and to what, and to whom? As we consciously or unconsciously tether ourselves to false ideas of who we are, disparaging thoughts and notions, and other forms of swirling and negative self-talk; we can feel, in a real and visceral sense, our movements restricting. The ropes and chains form over time. They move us away from our Home and what is True.

I have come to know that when I am first feeling tethered, I’m also feeling fear. Unwittingly, I wrap myself tighter and tighter until I am wrapped up in a false self - one who misinterprets the tether for being “safe”. As long as I don’t move, I no longer feel the ropes and chains. And, I am now so far away from Home that I am living in a space of constantly feeling restricted, anxious, dull, stuck, unworthy, and unlovable.

And, the only way out is through. And the only way through is Love.

Sometimes Love shows up as a gentle breeze - a coxing breeze that gently bids the tether to loosen its grip and release us from our self-imposed prison. Sometimes, more is necessary.

I adore a good, windy day.

Heading out into the wildness of wind and weather - to feel the strength of nature’s unleashing and releasing can be cathartic. I feel beckoned straight into its fury and imagine it untying the knots, unlocking the chains, unwrapping the cords. Once let loose, it can feel a bit like flying.

I have a wonderful memory of walking home from school around the age of 6 or 7 on a cold, rainy, windy day. I had a new umbrella and was very excited to open it.

It was my first umbrella, and knowing the neighbor kids who walked the same streets home would want to try it out, fight over it, and probably break it, I chose to walk through the hidden alleyways and enjoy it all to myself. It was a glorious feeling to be all alone in the alley, in the weather, with my umbrella.

The wind was blowing, the rain was falling, and at some point, my umbrella caught a big gust of wind and I was lifted off the ground For a second or two, I felt myself flying.

I had a flash of Mary Poppins! What liberation! Then, in a flash, the umbrella turned inside-out and, Thud! I was back on the ground. No longer sheltered from the rain and wind, I ran home.

Now, many years later, I sense the beckoning wind and am reminded of the “lift off” and the continual renewing magic of wind. I look for the gift of gentle breeze and hardy gusts. I revel in the emerging softness of a remembered Self - a kinder, gentler version now blownfree of its protected covering.

Could this be a pathway to true Thanksgiving - this sense of returning Home through the memory of an uncovered Self. Do we hunger for an untethering? Do we allow ourselves to be free of its bonds and chains and to feast, in Thanksgiving, upon the banquet of Life laid before us?

May you harness the gentle breezes and gusting winds, allowing them to unwind and release the tethers that bind you. May you be lifted up in their embrace and ride their currents Home again. May you be blessed and renewed in their whispers and song.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jo Ann