Recently I overheard a man talking about his sailing trip, and at one point he said the sea was just “too calm for us to go anywhere.” Everyone bemoans exceptionally high velocity winds—in storms, hurricane, and tornadoes, for example. We’ve all been inconvenienced by wind as we attempt to rake leaves, gather loose papers outside, or put up a tent.
But often we forget that we need the wind, for pollination of uncounted plant species, for necessary changes in temperature over the globe, for the strengthening of growing trees, for the rotation of windmills, for optimal transpiration and respiration of leaves, and for much more—including sailing.
We also need emotional winds in our lives. Sure, sometimes the velocity of the storms seems overwhelming, but we need the resistance of the wind in order to get stronger and to move faster.
We need the challenges, without which we become weak and useless, like a weightlifter who never puts weights on the bar, or a tree grown in the absence of wind and then planted outside in difficult weather.
We need the wind to fill our sails.
