No one can tell me,
Nobody knows,
Where the wind comes from,
Where the wind goes.
It’s flying from somewhere
As fast as it can.
I couldn’t keep up with it,
Not if I ran.
(A.A. Milne)
Wind travels in flows, currents, and eddies, moving with the natural patterns of weather systems. It fills space, shifting from high to low pressure. The wind is the lungs of our world.
The arts, I think, are a little like the wind—they move to fill, occupy, and “entertain” space.
Today, it is no wonder the arts are being cut. In periods of strife, when tensions and pressure are high, the arts are often squeezed out. There is no space for them to move, no room for this human energy—no oxygen left to sustain us.
In periods of peace, however, the arts have more room to move and thrive. But since COVID-19, this sense of the role of the arts has perhaps begun to shift.
There is a void we are ignoring.
And yet, it is not a cultural void—although that is another story. We have filled our lives with such consumeristic mayhem that there appears to be no room “left” for the arts. But this is like saying there is no room for the wind to move.
We need the wind.
We need the arts.
Without them, life feels empty and meaningless.
The arts allow us to fill that void, just as the wind naturally moves from spaces of high pressure to low.
So where to start?
The arts, like the wind or the air we breathe, fill space. The first step is to connect to your breath—for it is here that the seed of the arts can be planted.
To do: Notice your breath while making a cup of tea, taking a walk, or checking your email. Choose a daily habit, and as you do it, check in with your breath. Feel your lungs inflate and deflate. Notice the rhythm.
Through the breath we maintain an aliveness that shifts and changes with every inhale and exhale.
The arts are a means to channel that life force, as the wind moves from high to low—nobody knows where it comes from or where it goes.
And that’s the point. The point is to notice and attend to that wonder, so the seeds of creativity connect to the wind inside us—our breath.
“So then I could tell them
Where the wind goes…
But where the wind comes from
Nobody knows.”
Until next time,
Dr. Mon xx
EDUCATOR8 
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