walking and the wind

I try to take a walk up Stissing Mountain Road every weekend. For a long time, I opted for Buttercup Sanctuary instead, but lately I've been needing the steep incline and way it helps clear my head. Between a shoulder injury, a sprained ankle and a few other minor physical maladies, I haven't been getting my regular karate workouts, and frankly I'm not functioning all that well. I'm agitated, anxious, even on the verge of tears for no reason at all. Just not my usual happy self.
But being in nature settles me down, and while walking back down the mountain road, realizing I'd been lost in obsessive thought instead of appreciating the surrounding beauty, I stopped. The wind was wild, really tearing through the trees. I remembered a workshop I'd once taken over in Woodstock at Mirabai about listening intently to nature. So I asked the wind to gift me a lesson, to teach me what I needed to hear. And this is what I heard:
Sometimes it is windy. And sometimes it is calm. Ultimately the wind will die down. Life will not always be windy. Life will never be always calm.
The wind was still blowing as I continued down the mountain road, but the storm in my head had settled.
Now, back in the city, my monkey mind is getting the best of me again. I turn the tv on in an attempt to get out of my head, then turn it off because it only adds to the agitation. I do my metta (lovingkindness) meditation and find peace for a few moments in my heart.
Finally I take refuge in writing, inspired by the The Happiness Project to blog more consistently. Tomorrow night I hope to be back in black belt class, struggling to catch my breath and my balance. The harder the class is, the easier life is.
My doctor told me the other day that some people need a high level of physical activity to stay on an even keel. I love walking, but nothing calms me down like a karate class that leaves me sweaty and spent.
It's kind of like being at the center of the storm where it's calm. My body's doing all activity, so my mind can relax. My breath stirred up like the wind. My mind calm, and at a peace.