The Purpose - Answers In The Wind

The Air

I know not my birth. I have no memory of time. I move through life, through death, over fields, mountains and the great ocean. Alone I make no sound. I have no voice. But others say I howl, whistle, rustle, or even whisper. But it is the trees or the grass that calls to me as I pass. I speak not. I see not. I hear nothing. I have no home. When I rest, others sing their songs of joy and forget me as if I never existed. I am spoken of and forgotten in a single day. Although I'm known by many names, no one knows my true self. I am friend and foe to all living things at different moments in the same hour. I aide and destroy. I am blessed and cursed. Yet I am a part of no life. I can touch, but not be held. I can be missed and longed for, yet wished away. Some believe that they can create me, but I've always existed. They desrve no trophy for such boasts. I search through all eternity for a friend and find none. My moods like my sleep, adhere to no known pattern.
 
Like my brother "Fire" I appear and disappear. But like my sisters "Earth" and "Water" I cannot leave this world. I am a prisoner. My brother loves to play. I allow him to roam free. But he must be controlled and my sister "Earth" pleads my mercy to join forces with my sister "Water" and we confine him once more. Sometimes I am in no mood to play and simply puff at him until he returns to sleep. I feel the heat from "Father Sun" and the chill from the "Dark Lord of Night" and his evil twin sons of the north and south for which no one dare speak their names. But they are temporary companions and I choose only to cool myself. I am no friend of any of the other forces. My jealousy of life compels me to join forces with the others to destroy. My compassion evokes my gentle hands to ease their struggles. My boredom draws my playful side. But mostly, I interceed with living beings lest I be ignored.  A true friend is always welcome. I have found no friend who has not cheered and cursed me in the same day. Therefore, I wrestle the question of wanting true friendship as others have. They seem to take what I offer but never exchange gifts.

I have commitments which cannot be ignored forever with penalties so severe I dare not evade.  I must carry sister "Water" to all corners to give life and to protect it from my brother "Fire's" irresponsible escapades. It seems I must roam sister "Earth" forever seeking my true purpose.  But what is this purpose? What joy is there existing as I am? Do my brother and my sisters ask such foolish questions? They hide this well. We have never discussed it. Perhaps a purpose doesn't exist at all. Perhaps my seeking an answer is futile. Perhaps the purpose is so simple that I look too deeply. I need only stroke the field of flowers in unique patterns, Push the kites higher and swirl their tails. Sit silently as the lake mirrors the mountain.  Carry the echoes of elk or hawk across the valley. Maybe just to whisp the hair of children chasing butterflies.  Perhaps these small things are all that is necessary. Do the humans also question their purpose? Perhaps their answer is equally as simple.