Everyone Knows It's Windy

It's windy here today, and that led me to these thoughts...

When Pope John XXIII initiated the Second Vatican Council, he famously said it was time to “throw open the windows of the church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through.” Sounds like such a sweet, simple idea...Who doesn't like fresh air?

My husband and I live in Eastern Oregon. We do not have the lush, green landscape that you find over on “the West side” of the state. We have relatively low amounts of yearly rainfall, and, consequently, we have lots of dust. My standing joke is that I don’t understand why the furniture is so dusty when I just dusted 2 weeks ago. But really, it only takes 2 hours after cleaning during the summer months for the dust to become noticeable again.

In the particular location where our house stands, we also often have strong winds. I mean…strong winds. Several times, our front door has been blown off its hinges, and the heavy bench on our front porch has been blown over. My husband has bolted down the bench, and we try to remember to always keep that front door carefully and securely closed now.

Sometimes, especially after a long winter, or during the summer when we actually do get some warm weather, I like to open the windows and let the fresh air in. It feels and smells so good to let that fresh rural Oregon air waft gently through the house, cleansing it of all the accumulated stale odors. Ahhh…

But that only lasts a short while, usually. It always seems that no sooner to I open all the window than the wind comes up. Then the fresh air becomes a gale blowing through my house, slamming doors shut, knocking things off shelves at times, and bringing in lots of dust.

So when I open the windows to let the fresh air blow in, I do it cautiously.  I don’t throw all of the windows open at once, and I monitor the wind speed. As soon as it gets gusty, I close the windows – sometimes all the way, sometimes leaving a couple of them “cracked” as my mom used to say. I control the air flow because too much wind wreaks havoc in my house.

And I’m sure you all realize what I’m getting at with this analogy. The windows of our House, our Church, were opened so that fresh air could come in, but someone forgot to monitor the wind strength and direction. Doors got blown off, benches got overturned, and dust has settled over just about everything.

I think it’s time to clean house, close those windows a bit, and put things back in order. Yeah, in the Church, too. ;-)