The Choice About Wind

When Hayley and Dan came out to visit last summer it was an unbelievably windy week. At least that's how my memory recorded the circumstances. This is unfortunate, because truth be told I hate it here when it's overly windy. So, I don't think they got to experience the true beauty of Humboldt as I love it. In my experience, there are far many more "unwindy" weeks here than windy ones. I can honestly say if it were windy ALL THE TIME I would hate it here.

Yesterday the wind came in full force. The sun shone and it deceived me, repeatedly, into walking outside in an attempt to walk down the street. And every time I did that, the wind pushed me, quite literally, back into the house. I grumbled that "Mother Nature" was working against my goals and progress. I never did make it down the street ... well Mike walked with me to the post office which is quite literally at the end of the street, and I had a scarf wrapped around my neck and a hat on my head to deal with the "pain." You might have thought it was winter in Wisconsin.

Today, the wind is still here, and it's either not as intense as yesterday; or probably more realistically I have adjusted to it, resilient as we humans are.

So, I put on my windbreaker and walked down the street armed with my eBay packages. In the line at the post office, an old man who was dressed as if we were in the middle of a massive snowstorm griped to the smiling young woman behind him about how she "must be new in town to be in such a good mood when we live in such a terrible climate."

I smiled to myself because I had the good perspective today. (Of course, that man's attitude and mine YESTERDAY were basically as interchangeable as our "winter" attire, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here.)

Finished at the post office, I continued my walk down the street, determined to not let the weather deter me two days in a row. As I walked I was serenaded by the most beautiful music of wind chimes, everywhere. I decided my good neighbors have the right idea about the wind, and that we all have choices to make. Maybe I am speaking too soon and when I get to that old man's place in life I will bitch and moan about the wind too, but my current, possibly presumptuous, opinion is that he has a choice: to move away to a "better climate," or hang some wind chimes on his porch.

This slightly lame attempt at making a "lemons = make sour face or make lemonade" analogy is my personal lesson for the day, one I'm simply sharing with you. We all have choices every day. If you don't like what you are doing, either find a way to like it, or do something else. I believe life is really that simple.

Of course, perhaps this man is making sacrifices for the people he loves in his life, and I'm sure it's quite easy for me to pass quick judgment on him and others. I mean to do no such thing. I am sure he has good reason to be here, and maybe tomorrow he will have a better perspective too.

There's a good chance that tomorrow I will be sighing about the blasted wind again. But for today I'm happy to hear the wind chimes.

My next-door neighbor just had surgery yesterday and was supposed to be home by now. But they are keeping him in the hospital a bit longer so I'm out the door and on my way to go visit him there. I'm bringing him a tiny orange pumpkin, because they are on sale at the store right now, and because it seems more manageable for him to bring home with him than flowers, and should last longer as well. And, well, because orange things seem to brighten people's days I think. Isn't that why we seem to crave the sun so much?

"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one"

... This post is brought to you in part from my MP3 player randomly playing this song. It always gets to me, every single time.