Ever watch a skilled rodeo cowboy perform what’s known as a trick roping display? Instead of using the rope for its normal function, working with cattle, it becomes a performance tool, forming loops that open and collapse, tracing circles as it dances through the air like it has a mind of its own.
It’s not just about the rope. You're watching how the cowboy works with its motion without forcing it. It may look like it’s all in the wrist, but the whole body has to be aligned just right to keep those loops from collapsing to the ground, going slack and lifeless. The rope tends to follow when it’s handled just right.
The wind doesn’t respond in quite the same way.
No cowboy in his right mind would try to lasso the wind with his rope, would he?
Human ingenuity has found ways to harness the wind through sails, windmills, wind turbines, and gliders, but it cannot be captured or controlled. It can only be influenced, channeled, and adapted. It moves on its own terms, not ours.
And yet, that doesn’t stop us, does it? We look for methods, techniques, breakthrough moments, and new information, trying to get somewhere else, moving beyond where we currently stand.
We aren’t talking here about business acumen, time management, or career-track programs, which can all be measured and improved through the implementation of proven strategies. This is something else.
In those areas, progress is enhanced by controlling clear inputs, monitoring measurable outputs, and producing repeatable gains. But what if what we’re touching here doesn’t yield to control at all?
Is there a way this “wind” can be experienced as it is, without trying to harness it, control it, or influence it? What might that be like, not trying to get somewhere else, but remaining within what already is?
Or do we find ourselves trying to locate it, name it, describe it, and sort out what it can and cannot do?