Be Still

...'The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes...(John 3:8)

This was part of my morning facebook post. When I sit here at the computer the window faces the back pasture and I can watch the horses as I work. I am always amazed at how horses and other animals 'respond' to the wind. And so...it had me thinking this morning...

'How have I responded to the wind'?

Not always gracefully, haha. Sometimes I am like my horses, who when the wind blows and bellows through the pasture they take off and run much like the wind, trying to escape it, or stay in step with it. We know horses are much in tune with thier 'senses', more so than we are. We are so dependant on what we see, hear and touch. But horses and other animals have developed a keen ability to 'sense' what is in 'the wind'.

In the past I can say that when the winds blew, I have not always responded to them in a way that was the most productive. And, when I needed to perhaps 'run' with the winds and let them carry me, there have been times that I have hidden behind the cleft of a rock to escape my percieved brutality of them.

And so...I am more conciencious than ever to 'discern' and 'respond' to the winds as they bellow and blow in life. To discern the importance of 'hiding behind the cleft of the rock, and escaping for safety sake. Or...is it a time to discern the direction they blow and run with them to take advantage of the ground that can be covered as they push me forward in motion...

There have been times where I literally see the horses standing in the brunt of the force of the wind, just standing and being still. And I always wonder, why dont they just get out of the path of the wind, go to the barn, hunker down and wait for them to pass. To this day I still dont completely understand why a horse will stand in what seems the brutality of a wind, when they have the place of escape. It makes me wonder, they choose to respond in different ways to the wind. The response is never 'the same'.

Make me more like the horse, make me more sensitive and discerning of the wind that blows. Confirm in me, when its time to run, time to hide, and time to stand still and feel the force of its power.

(the painting above is one I have completed titled 'Drinker of the Wind' it is a wild mustang stallion and such an expression of wild to me. You can see more on my website at www.runninghorses.weebly.com)