Windmill

This is a chapter from my seventh book called Bookeh - Through the lens of a Trinidadian photog


It was a boring Sunday afternoon. I had woken up from a nap and eaten lunch. I was in the mood to write. The winds of inspiration were urging me on to write. I grabbed my mobile and turned the brightness all the way up so I could see the screen in the yard. I bumbled around the yard looking for my next photograph. The chameli flower caught my attention. I picked one and decided that the red brick wall would be a good background. And that is how this photo was born. A product of my imagination and creativity. I think it looks like a windmill or really the blades of a fan. I was happy to learn that there are chamelis or jasmines (the other name for these flowers) that actually look like windmills and are called windmill jasmines.

There are a couple of things that flow through my mind when I think about wind. We cannot see the wind but we believe in the wind as we can see the effects. Just like God. Wind starts with win. We all want to win at life against all the winds of life. The wind can be a metaphor for life's challenges and opportunities, just as it can be both a gentle breeze and a powerful gale. I think windom as in wisdom. Being wise to embrace the winds of change. There is a Chinese proverb that goes, "When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills." It is amazing how appropriate this is for my photo. A windmill and a wall. I only learnt about that proverb while writing this chapter and it fit perfectly with the photo I had taken. The winds are alive and sent me in that direction today. 

When I think of the wind, I think of opening the windows. Window is derived from the Old Norse term "vindauga" which literally translates to "wind eye". Indeed. The wind can see. The wind is alive. My friend Chatty helped me with this and if the wind had other human features, its nose would be the ability to carry and reveal various scents, its mouth the rustling whispers it makes through trees and leaves, its ears the way it amplifies and responds to distant sounds, and its hands the gentle touch that shapes landscapes and sways branches. This personification highlights how much alive the wind is. The wind is an integral part of life. I like this quote that I found from Kazi Shams that I think is the best way I could wind down this chapter, "Love is that to life, what wind is to a windmill."

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