Zephyr Moments

Have you ever had a zephyr go through your life? For some moments you are in a halcyon glow and then it’s gone and no matter how you try you cannot get it back. Forever afterwards you can look back on those moments and wonder, what if.

I’m looking south west this morning and I can see the sun casting light on the reaped field across the way turning it yellow. The foothills are black yet slowly turning yellow as the sun rises higher. There are wispy purple and grey clouds in the still dark blue sky but the zephyr is pushing them away. As I watch I’ve been thinking about those moments in my life when I’ve tried to get it back. One of them was a long time ago.

On my first day living with my sister in Guelph I rode the Greyhound bus to Waterloo. Being near sighted, but wearing glasses now, I still was nervous about when to get off so I sat down beside the guy in the front seat. I couldn’t help noticing him because he was wearing a great big sheepskin coat. We didn’t talk. As coincidence would have it he was also a student at the university so we both ended up on the same city bus. It was crowded. We moved farther and farther to the back. He got a seat. I stood up. The bus lurched. I keeled over backwards but he grabbed my hand and pulled me upright and then gave me his seat. He had an Australian accent. Sudden attraction! And just as quickly gone. He went his way and I went mine. But all day I thought about that hand grab and I was smitten.

I’ve had some great moments just watching nature and suddenly getting an epiphany about my life (or someone else’s). In a way those moments are like a meditation because I’m just quiet and aware of my surroundings in a serene way. We could all use more serenity in our lives. One of those times I was sitting in my little sports car out in the foothills just watching the cows move along in the field thinking about how my life was out of my control. I was just letting things happen around me and not being assertive with what I wanted out of life. I imagined how the border collies herded the cattle back home and it came to me that I needed to do some herding in my own life. Just like that. I drove home and called a realtor and started shopping for my own house. It was time.

Today I’m thinking I will just go with the flow, let that zephyr take me where it will. After all, today is another day.