December 2: Day 155

STONE TEN
 
Harmonize: I look for the harmony in all spiritual belief systems and seek to add my voice to the music of the Earth. I seek peace with myself and with all people.

Instruction: Join the music.

We can decide to listen to harmony or discord. When the orchestra is tuning up and everyone is doing their own thing, the main purpose of that disharmony is to prepare their instruments for the harmony that is to come. We don’t attend concerts to listen to artists tune their instruments, yet it seems that when it comes to religious belief, there is little harmony and a lot of discord, and we don’t get the impression that all the conflicting sounds are simply a tuning up of the harmony to come. Instead, it seems more likely that religious harmony will never bring us the music of heaven until religions begin concentrating on their similarities and pay less attention to their differences. There does, however, seem to be an overall movement towards a better understanding and acceptance in religious faith that could usher in enough harmony that we will, in time, be able to hear the music of creation and oneness versus the cacophony of voices that claim their religious belief should be the only one we listen to.

We live in a diverse world, and the music we listen to and enjoy is an example of the diversity we find. We see it not only in the variety of music that comes from all nations, but we also see the diversity that comes within each individual nation. A lot of that stems from the way music changes from generation to generation. My parents didn’t care much for the music that I enjoyed, their parents disapproved of their music, and I’m not a fan of the music of my children and grandchildren’s generation, but that doesn’t mean that I’m right and they are wrong. Music, harmony, the beauty of instruments and voices joined together or separate is not a matter or right or wrong. We add our musical talents, or supposed lack thereof, to the music of the universe and relax in knowing that when the Master Director raises the baton and engages the orchestra, our contribution will blend and create something beautiful.

Consider the example of the symphony and how a variety of instruments blend together to create beautiful music. Imagine what our world would look like if our religions understood that they are instruments in a greater religious and spiritual orchestra and each has a role to play and a contribution to make.