We are in heightened times. Even as I sit to write this my mind dashes to and fro, grasping for words to congeal it all together. It feels like the ground beneath is rumbling, teasing us to find our foot on every step. The wind is whistling and whirling urging us to discover our own inner eye of the storm. And as time seems to be on fast forward, we are compelled to find our own internal pace, setting the metronome to a steady beat.

It’s easy to get caught up in the storm. To get torn away and stuck in the vicious circle – the house in the tornado’s grip. Or collapse into the rubble that flitters on the ground beneath it all, panicked to find a place of rest. The storm is powerful, perhaps ominous, perhaps exciting. Either way it clutches you, bemuses you with it’s unpredictability.

But in its grasp, as we’re swept away in the flurry, we have two choices to stay afoot: To either plant our roots and ground deeper into the earth whilst allowing our branches to dance and be malleable in the winds, or to let go, surrender and learn to fly.

One is finding the stillness within. Rooting ourselves with the strength and power that connecting to the solidity and tenderness, like that of a mother feeding her infant child, brings. Knowing that these roots – which  like plants, can exist in earth, water or air- are so steadfast that they lend permission for the branches to whirl and dance to the conducting of the wind.

The other is to fall gracefully into the chaos. To have faith that the wind will carry us – like the salty sea allows us to float – trusting that we will be held. And in this letting go that is held in surrender’s arms, we may grow wings. Wings to fly and dance-dance to the winds song.

Both choices bring us to the same place. One of peace where struggle ceases to exist and the unknown fancies our eye. A place where the Self abides. Whether we choose to ground or let go, the bridge to the Self is the gentle gaze inwards, the inhalation and pause-just long enough to listen-“which way do you beckon me my love, my friend, the one who always knows which way the wind blows.”