Hello there!
And here we are, now greeting another month – which incidentally has a history of being a month for purification and cleansing. The Roman’s annual calendar considered February as the end of the year because March, being spring, was the rebirth of the year! Also for many, the Month of Love!
I think this year, it will be known as the month of never ending rain, high winds and localised flooding where rivers are breaking their banks!
We haven’t been on quite so many walks this week, although we did enjoy a lovely 7 km one last Sunday – walking to the river and seeing how high it was becoming, and flowing even faster than previous walks. We ended up just carrying on, ignoring the light showers, enjoying the sun when it peeked out and then the wind – blowing us along – was quite exhilarating – quite possibly because we were for some of the walk in open roads!
The wind has continued to blow quite forcely, rain has been coming through our kitchen window, and you can feel the wind finding the gaps in the windows in the house, and the eerie sounds it makes blowing from one end of the house to the other!
When it’s like that it is nice to be indoors – feeling all cosy and just hoping that the trees stay put! Gale force is very different to Tornados and Hurricanes and yes, they are very unpredictable and the damage caused can devastating!
Saying that I did sleep right through the Hurricane in 1987 that cause so much damage in Kent and Essex alone…I just remember driving to work and seeing boats up on the road along Southend Seafront, sailing boats underwater and upside down and thinking wow – that was some kind of storm! So much so my bosses who lived in Kent couldn’t get to work that day! On the drive back home it became very apparent that it had been more than a storm and our house had a few roof tiles missing, we went for a walk to the local woods and many trees were pulled out of the ground with roots intact! I had to resist the urge to get out of the car and walk along the sea wall though!
I do like the wind however , it does make me feel quite jittery and a little on edge knowing the power it has to cause destruction even when we are not at gale force levels! My mum really doesn’t enjoy the wind and several members of my family find it makes them quite anxious. Which is all perfectly understandble, I did wonder at first if it was something ingrained in us – because our lovely Nana wasn’t a fan either – it made her edgy and irritable….so did that pass down the family to my Mum and so we also have a fear of the unkown element?
Yes, that could be a factor but also the wind is known to make people feel anxious, irritable, edgy and of course we can’t control the wind – so our emotions become less controlled – there is a name for this fear of wind – anemophobia.
Anemophobia, sometimes called ancraophobia, is a sort of catch-all term that encompasses a wide variety of air-related phobias. Some people are afraid of drafts, others of gusty winds. Some fear swallowing air (called aerophagia). The phobia may be mild or severe!
Whilst it seems hard to get experts to agree, and I have been doing a lot of reading for interest as much as anything the only real agreement is that, it’s long been accepted that the wind has a nasty way of altering how we behave. Some say it’s got to do with positively-charged electrons causing irritability and compulsive behaviour.
“There was a desert wind blowing…. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight.” Raymond Chandler’s 1938 short story “Red Wind” captures the infamous “devil winds” of Los Angeles that at times seem to drive people a little nuts.
There is belief that wind does in fact affect our moods, and that it will make many feel the emotions I mentioned but happily there are others like my friend’s young daughter who loves the wind – she feels it’s power and wants to be part of it, I think that is lovely!
I do enjoy standing in a safe place, on our back lane with the open fields or the beach, or a coastline walk (I remember those days!!) with the wind blowing through my hair, it makes me feel alive and happy (but not so much when it is accompanied by freezing cold torrential rain!)
The forces of nature are part of us, to embrace them can be daunting, to enjoy something that makes you feel anxious is clearly not enjoyable but on the flip side – there is a definite respect for this all powerful part of Mother Nature.
Let’s face it if we are given a Kite most of us want to go fly that kite, no matter our age – we marvel at the way it dips and soars in the sky being controlled not by the one holding the strings but by the wind!
Wind often represents the fleeting and transient, the elusive and the intangible.
If there is part of you that worries about feeling anxious, irritable, that your emotions are out of control – go with the flow, don’t try to fix these emotions – because it is most likely that we are due or having more high winds! And if you feel unsafe or insecure try to focus on something that is within in your control at that time…
Interestingly, fēng shuǐ , which literally means “wind and water” is an ancient art of origin China that aims to harmonize the environmental energy (the qi , 氣 / 气) of a place in a way that promotes the well-being, health and prosperity of its occupants. In China , it is generally called the discipline fēng shuǐ xué(风水 学, “study of wind and water”. This art aims to arrange mainly the dwellings according to the visible or subtle “energies” (qi) to obtain a harmony, a balance of forces and an optimal circulation of energy. Again using Nature to help our lives gain that vital life force, of energy, balance and harmony!
Air Signs Are Attuned To The Winds; Geminis are the most strikingly Air in persona because they’re also Mutable. They’re often breezy and visibly frustrated if things don’t feel fresh enough. But Libra and Aquarius are just as much Air; albeit more subtle about it. Air has to move, or it’s powerless. Air Signs need ventilation: the constant circulation of thought and ideas. It’s not so much that they’re intellectual, as such, but that their best mode is thinking. The very word “ventilation” comes from an old Roman Air God: Venti.
Air signs: It is rarefied air which usually surrounds those graced by this Element, as this is the marker of the intellectual. Airy people are smart thinkers and handle abstract reasoning well. They love to analyze, synthesize and probe. Do you have a dilemma? Hand it over to an Air sign and watch them go to work. https://www.astrology.com/astrology-101/elements/air
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.Who has seen the wind?
Christina Rossetti (1872)
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
I will always look outside at the trees and just hope they remain standing and that it won’t wreak havoc! We have experienced more galeforce winds here in 17 years than we really remember having in the UK, I have always joked and said we are the Kansas City of France! I just don’t have sparkly red shoes 😉
Whatever the weather brings this month – enjoy, stay safe and maybe invest in a canoe?
If you missed my first blog – Water and Wellbeing – it’s here http://holistically-yours.com/water-wellbeing/
Information gained from various websites
including Wikipedia
Astrology.com