Life is a Symphony
Sunday, 14 August 2011 20:01 | 
Written by dharmaputra | 
Life is a symphony
It is freecingly cold in Plum Village, New Hamlet. The rain is pouring out oft he sky. My suitcase is packed with dozens of colourful, extra-thin, summer clothes. Breathe and smile … I wonder if this will help me now.
Text&Photos by Julia Brugger
No way, this is far too cold for this season and for my holiday. However, I get up in the morning, tip with one toe out of my warm bed and tell myself: „Present moment, Wonderful moment.“ My leg moves slowly back under the blancket and I fall asleep once more. Two hours later, I stretch my body, get out of my bed and walk mindfully to have breakfast.
Waking-up slowly
It is still cold. My dear room mate Rini borrows me a jacket, which she has borrowed from a sister. I develop much understanding for poor Rini, who, as an Indonesian woman, suffers so much from the low temperatures in France.
My selfmotivation for getting out of my bed early does not really work. But luckyly, my room-mates – each from a different country: US, China, France, Spain, Austria, Indonesia – share their motivation with me: „Julia! It is lunchtime! Get up! Quick!“ that was Helen from Hongkong, who wispered on day three to me: „Call me by my true name Julia: call me Romeo.“
We had lots of fun in our room – despite the weather. France is mindfully fun-fighting against China
Indonesia who always cares for me when I am ill, changes between sleeping and meditation, saying: „ Oh, meditation makes me so lazy.“ Breath and smile. An me? I change between sleeping, trials in meditation, which often turn out to become meditative sleep, painting, taking pictures and reading.
Something starts to open up
I am busy taking care of all the sadness, anxiety and anger, which first overwhelm me and – due to the loving kindness and help of the sister – finally find some warm and cosy room inside myself while my mind starts calming down. I feel extremely grateful for being in this place, which the nuns of New Hamlet care so much for. With all their love and compassion, they keep an open and safe space for all suffering and for the realisation of all happiness in oneself and in the world.
The rain is so much of an analogy of what happens in myself. I start crying and my tears carry with them all the weight, pressure, feeling of over- and underestimation, of pain and a whole sea of lonelyness. Something inside myself starts to open up. How beautyful this is.
Light and bright
And as if life wants to show me another analogy of how the rhythm changes again and again, the sun comes back and shines on our faces.
Beauty, joy and peace spreads slowly from cell to cell, from eye to toe, from heart to hand. It evolves from within where it found a solid ground to grow upon. And I understand: Life is a symphony and I dance to the sound of it. Life is a garden and I am a flower. I need the rain as much as the sun, the cold as much as the warmth, the wind as much as the calm air. All of hem are there because I am there. All are there to nourish me and I am there to nourish them. The sun is always there – it is only hidden by the clouds. And the coulds give me shadow to rest.
Finally I can say: yes, indeed, it does help me a lot – breath and smile – these three little words that are written on every door and every wall in the Hamlet. They seem so simple – even banal. But they are so powerful. I bow in gratitude for this gift.
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