The wind is bending the bamboo in my backyard down to the ground.  I look out the sliding glass door  and  see the skinny stalk of  bamboo that seems to reach to the sky.  It leans and gives when the wind comes and then for a few moments stands back upright.  It twists and turns but when the wind stops, it goes back to its normal state.   Wait, not exactly.  I look again and I realize it’s bowed, not quite straight up like before…..before the storm came.

I’m thinking on this blustery, rainy day how life can blow us over, bend us and just when we think we’re going to break,  the “wind” in our lives jolts us and we stop bending or swaying.  One thing for sure, we have to be able to go with the wind;  if we fight it too much, we will break in half. 

So what is the secret of bending, I wonder?  Is it about surrender?  Is it about allowing ourselves to feel all the emotions that we can when the winds come?  Is it about trusting and knowing that we will return to normal or that we will be forever changed, never to be quite as straight as we once were and that it’s okay to be that way?  Isn’t this the lesson of life?  Letting go of the straightness and riding with the wind no matter how much we want to be straight.   Is it about letting go of the fear that we will break? Is it about relinquishing control?   Tell me the answers, bamboo.  I’m waiting.   

Bamboo:  “I am the one who leans and bends.  I am the one who is not alone…there are others who are bending with me.  I am the one who takes hard hits and I keep getting back up.  I am the one who just is.  I just am.”

Today is a remembrance of someone who took his own life.  He couldn’t bend anymore or perhaps he got tired of bending or he just gave up being.   He couldn’t wait for the winds to stop I guess.   The impact for his family is monumental as they now bend and sway with their own winds.  Stormy weather.