How to Harmonize

A January moon at the end of my lane

How to Harmonize

harmony |ˈhärmənē| • the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole

Achieving harmony, that quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole, is a product I suppose of what one chooses to “tune” oneself to, at least that is what poet Mary Oliver seems to suggest in her poem "Wild Geese."

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

                                 from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

Makes much sense to me that what one attends to will color and shape one's attitude and will give "loft" to one's spiritual and emotional altitude.

So what am I paying attention to?   The things that would cause me to despair, or the "meanwhiles" that are offered me daily from Nature and from the people I love . . . the invitations I receive to pay attention to the things that give Joy and lead to Harmony.

Like the golden Canada geese I saw on that Sunday . . . or the wind of wings I heard one Monday evening as I stood at the end of my walk from taking the garbage out to the curb.  A mundane task was blessed with the invitation to look up and see the beautiful, low flying geese winging their way to set down on the field where I had seen their fellows on that Sunday evening.  They were so close I could see their chest feathers and thought I could almost feel the rush of wind at their wings.

Today I am remembering the lines from an old hymn which always helps me harmonize:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

“But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”  Isaiah 40:31

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