Memories in the Wind

The sun and wind are fighting outside today, just like in the fable where they try to make the man take off his coat. 

If the story were happening today, I would bet on the sun. It is so terribly cold out that the wind is a bit of a nuisance.   I like the idea of ice and snow. I don’t like the freezing dark that comes so early, made even bitterer by this wind. I feel the darkness too easily already.

While I don’t love the bitter, gray, cold, the wind has its own charm.  It’s mysterious.  It’s Wuthering Heights and sunset on the mountains. It’s  a woodland walk, abundant in stars and snow. It’s the sound of isolation, but also of the companionship of nature.

It reminds me of all the nights I would spend curled up in the window seat at Carter Hall. I was blessed to live in a dormitory where the windows displayed a gorgeous view of the mountains and the valleys below. I remember many, many afternoons spent watching the red clouds sink into the pink and purple mountains, and many nights curled up in the window with a book, feeling safe in my tower as I listened to the haunting melody of the wind.

I think of walking around half-inhabited campus in 2011. The beginning of the semester had been post-poned due to a blizzard. Some of us had arrived before the decision had been made, so there weren't many people outside. As I walked, the beautiful white ice crunched beneath my boots, the only sound except for the piercing wind. I felt like Belle, stumbling upon the Beast's hidden castle. 

I think of Day of Prayer at Rock City, and my wonderful roomates who got up at 5 a.m. to help me pick up the donuts. I was in charge of the sunrise event that year. Picking up the donuts at 5 is the job that no one else in Psi Chi wants, so the president always has to do it. My roomates (also some of my best friends) went with me, anyway.  It was freezing and the wind was fierce that day, but it didn't matter much because we just huddled together closer to pray. I remember my hair flying around like crazy and how hot chocolate and hot donuts tasted all the better.

Those beautiful images of Lookout Mountain fill my mind’s eye almost every day, and when it happens that my life flashes before me, those mountains and the sound of the wind will be there.