Sometimes I feel like that plastic bag in American Beauty…tossled about willy-nilly with zero say where or when I go. (Not that we get plastic bags anymore within Seattle City limits…but a plastic before from before…please use your imagination here.)

It’s that kind of day.

But that’s what fall is all about, right? Letting go, releasing into the elements, getting ready to bed down for the winter and get into all the nooks and crannies of ourselves?

Maybe today feels a bit like a taste of that. Like the world is spinning so fast around me and I’m standing still, not even trying to catch up…more like pretending I’m at a Laser Dome and I can just close my eyes and still my mind and know that it’s just not true.

Do you know what I mean?

What this says to me is that I have some work to do in battening down the hatches, so to speak. I need to find that sense of peace within instead of looking for it on the outside. Like looking at a tree and how it’s trunk stands firm and solidly in place, but it’s leaves and boughs dance with the wind. And sometimes leaves fall off, and it keeps on dancing.

That is the test. That space between flying away and standing too stiff…too proud…to grounded. What a trick, huh?

How can we feel safe in that in-between?

How can we feel protected?

For instance, at this time of year you won’t see me without a scarf on, protecting my “wind-gate” at the back of my neck. I may have a short-sleeve shirt on, or a skirt…but my neck will always be covered. That’s a weird example, but that’s what comes to mind.

But I also notice this in people. They are more angry and quick to start a fight recently. So how can I both be the trunk and keep my feelings from being hurt and also be the branches and able to move with the energy in the space and not get energetically involved?

This is tricky business, windy business….but I guess we are in it…and just have to make our best of it, right?

Maybe we should all just take up tango dancing? That solid base and that fluid twirling? That wonderful music? The fun skirts? Hmmmm…I think I might be onto something.