the shade of a black walnut

....is a perfect place for a mid-afternoon nap. Especially when my head is swimming with moving details and my skin desperately needs some color. Moving across the country takes quite a bit of energy and the sound of birds and a lawn mower was just what I needed to relax. Ok.... so all I did so far today was buy 4 boxes ... but I'm anticipating my energy to be sapped while packing them?

As I was feeling the breeze from Lake Erie I remembered this memory that I haven't thought of in a really long time. You know in Mary Poppins when Michael asks her how long she'll stay and she says only until the wind changes. I never understood that phrase because at my parents house, a couple miles from the lake, the wind is always coming from the same direction. It's predictable, stable, unchanging. Open the back windows and we'll have a nice breeze, it's a fact.

One day when I was, oh probably around 11 years old, I was in my room on the front of the house and this huge wind was blowing through my windows - which never got the breeze. I thought, "oh my gosh, this is what it's like when the wind changes." I thought from then on out the wind would always come in the front. I was startled. I was thrown off. I was not ready for that change and yet, it wasn't up to me to control. What's this going to be like now that the wind comes in my windows? I'm going to have to adjust and I didn't want too. My things were falling over, blowing around... it was just too much.

Needless to say it was just a random gust of wind that had so suddenly shaken my foundations and aroused my fear of change. Fast forward 11 years and I'm so ready for the "winds of change." I'm trading the Lake Erie breeze for the dusty desert wind and I'm ok with that. While change still isn't my favorite thing I don't freak out like I used to. I can look that desert wind in the face and say "bring it."Pin It