Living in the forest and watching nature on a daily basis, I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of birds in flight. I’ve noticed that, generally speaking, when there are high winds (which are frequent when one lives at the mouth of a gorge) there is rarely a bird in the sky. But on occasion, there is.

Raven Watch

Today there were high, high winds – the tops of the fir trees danced about, while the lower branches were as still as on a bucolic spring afternoon. I saw a raven plying these heavy winds, and wondered, how will he get to where he wants to be if the wind is blowing in a different direction from his destination stronger than his wings can prevail?

He happened to be at some distance and I was able to watch his progress across the big sky.

Here is what I saw – The raven beat his wings a bit, pointing north. Then he’d glide, letting the wind, which was driving just about due west, take over. The raven’s flight would be taken west. Then he’d point north and beat his wings, and then glide with the wind taking him due west. In this stair-step fashion, he made his way across the sky. When he got to my forest, he settled in the tallest tree. Behind him I watched as several of his companions performed the same exercises of flight, until they finally had a meet-up in the big tree.

Winds of Life

Nature can be very accommodating in providing us with visual examples of the lessons we might learn. Beat your wings a bit to keep your heading, but mostly allow yourself to use the Winds of Life to provide forward motion in the direction you mean to go. Fighting the winds, one will never get to goal. Employ the winds, and you’ll soon be in your favorite tree, chatting with your companions.