Harmonious Process

Day 364

“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.”

– William Wordsworth

It’s no coincidence that it’s my father’s birthday today, two days before my year-end finale, two days before I complete my Thirty-One Days Of December positivity song.

My father has always been my teacher and mentor, even in the last seven years since his soul departed his earthly clothing, he is still guiding me. He would get his point across through anecdotes, fables and mythical stories. His style was to steer me in the direction of the answers I was looking for; he never just gave advice straight out – he made me figure it out on my own.

Daddy didn’t get too excited or upset when good or bad things happened, he understood that it was all part of the cycle of life. He believed in the process; that you had to trust it to give you the answers when you were ready to receive them – that’s why he encouraged me to find my own way.

I’ve pretty much stuck to the list of positivity principles I put together before I started this December review, and I already know what the principles for these last three posts are going to be, yet, as I was thinking about what I was going to say today, my dad offered me another layer of wisdom to pull it all together.

Today’s principle of positivity embodies all of my thirty-one principles. It’s my father’s most defining principle, the philosophy he lived by, the essence of who we was. It is the most pervasive and defining lesson he taught me.

Today’s principle is about trusting the process, about knowing that there’s more than one answer to every question, that everyone has a different point of view, and they are all correct. It’s about finding harmony within so that you experience harmony without.

The way my dad taught this principle was by telling, and retelling, many times, The Story of the Elephant and 5 Blind Men. It’s a story of how five blind men come to very different conclusions about what an elephant looks like because each has experienced a different part of the elephant – one feels the trunk, another the body, the third an ear, the fourth, a leg, and the fifth, the tail. Of course, they are all correct, and yet they are too blind to see that there’s merit in the others’ point of view.

I’ve received different insights from this story at different stages of my life, and today, the message I got from my dad is that once you’ve seen and heard all the points of view, take a step back to look at the big picture, soak it all in and find the harmony, the balance, the perfection in everything just as it is, and then take the final step; the step towards your dreams.

In other words, trust that the process will lead you down the right path. Always. Period. There is harmony in the Universe, you just have to recognize it. His message to me today is in complete harmony with the principles of my last two posts, which will make more sense once you read them.

In the meantime, find the harmony in your world just as it is, because without harmony, you cannot move forward towards the life of your dreams. Harmony makes things flow.