The wind slightly rustles leaves of a tree as if to say, “Here I am. See me through the graceful movement of these leaves and branches. I am here, but can only be seen if I move things in my path.”

The wind animates the tree and is like the invisible force of the universe, the field. And we are like the tree. It can only be seen by animating us and all matter.

At times, the wind violently pummels the tree, causing stress until the leaves and branches (dead and living) split off and swirl to the ground in a mash of debris. If we resist opportunities that test our strength and perseverance, if we hold onto old ideas, beliefs, and psychological structures, we become something unnatural – our character twists and breaks, snaps into pieces by forces outside of our control. We are this mutilated thing with bits of bitterness, resentment, and grief as our roots. What was “ours” was taken from us and then we fight to protect what is left. We begin a war against something, someone, some place. Wars begin from the simplest of things and blow up into something like a psychological virus.

But if we work with the unseen of the universe, if we allow it to shape us and are continually willing to evolve, to bend, we become stronger and our character transforms into an elegant, diverse beauty.

-Amy Larson, amyjalapeno.com