Join the Resistance!

Airplanes take off against the wind. So does happiness.

tinalear
3 min readSep 28, 2022
early photo of a Learjet 23, image courtesy of Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Henry Ford said, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”

I researched this and discovered that when taking off against the wind, the oncoming force on the wings causes an upward thrust, allowing the plane to actually become airborne at a lower speed. So when you want to take to the skies, going against the wind is the answer.

What if this is true in our daily lives as well?

I’m not saying we should do things the hard way on purpose. Things are hard enough already. We’re getting blown over by climate change, political misinformation, the health care situation, book banning, etc. That’s just life doing its thing. Hardships will always be with us, no matter what.

The wind I’m saying we should face into is the wind of our own resistance to everything good —good for us and good for the world. I think we can start doing this on the most basic level.

For instance, the very first thing I do in the morning is turn my alarm off and go back to bed. Why don’t I do what I wrote in my planner that I’d do: Meditate, exercise, and write? Because I don’t feel like it. ← Right there.
That’s the magic moment. There’s the resistance.

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tinalear

Novelist. Poet. Musician. Buddhist. Quilter. Animal lover. Visible grownup. Hidden child. Secret dancer when all alone. Makes good bread.