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Little child opened the screen door and saw Grandmother on the porch sitting in her rocker, smiling as the wind rocked the old chair.
"Grandmother where did the wind come from?"
Grandmother shifted her weight and made room on her rocking chair. "come sit with me and I will tell you."
Little child climbed up and snuggled up.
"The wind didn't always blow. She once walked the earth."
"Walked?" asked Little child.
"Yes, walked. The wind once had legs."
Grandmother, pulled her closer and set the rocker in motion. They rocked in silence for a moment.
With tears in her eyes Little child looked up. "W-what happ-ened to her legs?"
"Long ago, when the wind was young, she was a beautiful girl. She was wild and free and....oh so full of life. Everyone back then, when the world was young, moved at a slow pace. But not the wind, she ran everywhere.
She was different. So different, she was seen as an outsider. She had friends, no one could keep up with her. They would happily smile and high five her as she ran by. She stood out, there was no one like her.
No one tried to keep up with her. They couldn't. She was a thing of beauty, with her long hair sweeping around her.
Her mother called her one day.
"Wind child! come inside!"
She obeyed and came inside the dwelling. But she felt suffocated and trapped. As soon as someone opened the door, she was gone in a swirl of dust. Her feet flew fast down the path and over the stone wall.
Her mother called after her. "One day child you will learn to be still!"
"I will not!" she laughed as she disappeared into the forest.
One day they awoke to find strangers in the village.
These stranger's wanted to be guided to the great waters. "We are travelers, trying to find our way back to the water so we can sail home." they said "Can someone show us the way?"
Elder-man stepped up and agreed to guide them.
And they left.
But the earth was young and moved at a slower pace. Elder-man pace was too slow for the strangers.
"We must hurry, the season will change and we will not be able to sail home to our families."
Elder-man sent a message back to the village.
send wind child
it said.
She needed no stick to her flank to get her running. Easily and swiftly she darted through the long grass and before long blew into the group of travelers.
"This way!" she smiled and took flight.
Elder-man tried to keep up with the group, but he could not. He was too rooted to move that fast. The last he saw of her was the dirty soles of feet flashing as she disappeared in the distance.
The strangers couldn't even keep up with her. Many times she had to double back and push there backs to hurry them along.
When the dark ground gave way to light sand she finally halted. She knew the way to the big waters but she had never traveled there.
The endless green water. The empty blue sky.
a large brown boat.
"Come aboard, and eat before you make the return trip." they said.
She followed them inside.
on her plate they set food, and as she took a bite, they shut the door.
She looked up alarmed, and rose to her feet.
"You will come with us." they said.
"I will not!" she said fiercely. Her face growing dark with swirling shadows.
"We will keep you. Your much too fast for those slow pokes in the village."
She began to run and run around the room knocking over everything as her rage grew into a violent storm.
They grabbed her and chained her.
She kicked them.
"OBEY!!" they commanded.
"I will not!" she grumbled and curled up in a ball.
Ships had to be rowed in those days before there was wind. The journey was slow, so slow. Like life and the people back at the village.
Wind child used every chance she got to escape and squeeze through the cracks and stand on the deck. Where she would stare longingly as the fading shore. Until one trip to the deck she found only endless water around her.
"Crazy legs, you can't escape now." laughed the crew.
"I will." she murmured.
They chained her again and again.
Until one day they lost patience and they took her legs from her.
"There! now you will stay put!" they shouted as they threw her legs over board.
"I will not!" she said and drew in a deep breath and as she exhaled slipped from her body and took flight.
Around and around the boat she flew. "Be gone " she said to the sailors and pushed the boat away.
She glided quietly across the big water. She grew tired and needed to rest. Where do you rest when you are just a gust of wind? Where do you go if you are not moving? Do you cease to exist?
Frightened she called out. "Big water, I need a place to rest my head."
The ocean stirred and tossed up waves full of sea foam into the air.
She gathered them into a pillow and rested her head on them, "I will call these clouds." She rested her head on them.
Even then she could not be still. She pushed the white fluffy clouds in the direction of the land.
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