"Wind Musings......."

"My friendship with the wind has been long lasting..." Grey Wolf

"After listening to it in all kinds of winds night and day, season after season, I think I could approximate to my position on the mountain by this pine-music alone." J. Muir

I love wind swept shores, wind sculpted trees, wind blown snow, and especially the many sounds of the winds themselves... I would like to muse that the wind has been a fellow of mine as well...

I remember... wind caressed summits where I had a tear in my eye after the multiple efforts to be there... and just closing my eyes for a few moments to feel the wind and the rock to ensure that the memory would be forever present... I remember winter storms when camping by a northern lake, during a long dog sled trip, and cross country skiing at night... I remember gentle summer breezes and movement of the trees just before arriving back at so many trailheads, almost as if the wind was helping me along that last bit... I remember listening to the wind and then finding myself humming along endlessly with the words of 'Yellow Submarine' on a solo long ago... I remember wind driven rain and trying to look under my rain hood to see where to land on a tiny island... and I have a sense of the many voices on the wind of friends long gone, guides no longer present, and mentors I wished I could have shared the day with... I recall seeing those prayer flags and watching their movement while wondering who put them up in those trees...

I love the symphony of sounds that the wind plays for us, that are never the very same, and seem to often reflect the emotions we might be having at that moment...

It is not just the movement of water that polishes these little stones... the wind plays its part as well... and I do try to capture something of this element in the painting of the Summit Stones...

We may not be able to 'see' the wind, but we cannot deny its presence... nor can I not listen when I find myself preoccupied and the wind returns to remind me again about why I am out there...

DSD