Jun 22, 2020

Harmony Newsletter 17 June 2020

Hoping you are well and enjoying life getting back to a new rhythm.

Over the past several weeks during lockdown, I have been enjoying a writer’s circle held by Jo Parfitt, whom I had the pleasure of meeting about five years ago. One of the participants Lesley wrote a beautiful poem called the “The Harmony of Life”. In her poem I felt a real sense of reflection and immediately resonated with it and knew that I must share with you, please see below.

UMAMU is about reflecting the unique balance that is relevant to each and every one of us, giving rise to contentment within ourselves.

The vineyard lies dormant during winter with the vines recharging until Spring arrives. Taking a leaf out of nature’s book, allowing ourselves to reflect, recharge and renew from the first half of this year seems timely. Hopefully like the fruit that will start to emerge from our vines our own gifts and understandings will begin to appear.

Hope you find time to reflect over the coming weeks.

With Balance & Contentment,

Charmaine & Team UMAMU

THE HARMONY OF LIFE

Harmony. This word, mellifluous and sweet,
itself brings forth tranquillity.
It whispers of the finer things in life,
of music, instruments, and notes, creating
rhapsodies to soothe
and bring my soul to peace.
A bolder harmony is nature too. It sets
the rhythm and the pattern of the seasons.
And here is birdsong,
serenading scuttling squirrels too, or
startling animals, sometimes themselves too shy
to make their presence felt.
And here, as sentinels, are trees,
creating canopies of verdant
leaves to shade us
from the summer sun.
The pattern of the world I love
is harmony to me.
Each year I watch beside my window frame
And gaze upon the solitary tree within my view.
I watch with anxiousness for
every year
I hardly dare believe
that it is still alive.
It looks so lifeless and inert,
its blackened bark betokening demise.
Yet, if I only wait a while, a patient while,
small shoots of lime
will curl in circles from its base.
Within God’s natural frame of harmony
there’s room for each of us:
we all fit here –
the birds, the beasts, the flowers
and, somehow, there’s space
for human beings too.
But, is there harmony
within these human creatures, such as I?
Perhaps, just now and then, there is.
What makes it so? I cannot say.
Is it the joy in things I see around me
that will bring content?
Or is it something deep within my core?
Or is it only when my spirit is at rest –
and all the hurts and jolts and hardships of my life
are set aside?
I strive for this. I really strive and yet, perhaps that’s why, so often, harmony escapes.
I need to follow nature and abandon strain.
It’s not for me to shape myself in ways
I was not meant to be.
I need to find the pattern of my destiny,
then I and all the universe will sing,
in unimagined harmony.

Lesley Pendlebury