The place pictured is as untouched as they come and every time I go there it’s a reminder of what true harmony feels like.
‘The unity of opposites’ is the ancient concept that everything is in harmony as a result of opposing forces that meet in balance. Similar to the concept of Yin and Yang in the eastern tradition. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, illustrates this: ‘The cosmos works by harmony of tensions, like the lyre and bow’ (Fr. 56). Whilst a bow is in harmony with its own form, this harmony is created by the pull of the string against the wood and the pull of the wood against the string. If the string were to break, the bow would snap back, indicating the constant tension that was not obvious when the bow was in harmony.
Philosophically, we can view all things in the universe and life as being made up of the unity of opposites. Whether it be the structure of atoms, the formation of a cloud or even the feeling you are having right now. These opposites are also always in flux. Constantly part of a process of flow and transfer. Nothing can ever be static and nothing can not be a part of this process.
Think about what you're doing right now. Your thoughts are changing as you read and as you think, the temperature of the air around you is hitting your skin and your skin is reacting as a result. Your blood is moving nutrients and oxygen around your body. Your tum is digesting something, hopefully something tasty. You're mood is whatever it is, but it has been made up of all the components that have come beforehand and it's changing slightly now too (either to annoyance at me or to a consideration of itself). The light coming through the window is changing the temperature of the room and the little specs of dust and air floating around you are moving, in what had before seemed to be stillness. The light from outside is filtered by some tree leaves which are having their own internal processes as a result of the air, light and flow around them. Those processes are moving all the way down the branches, trunks and roots and into the soil...there's a little fella down there (I'm thinking a worm) who's having a delectable meal I'm sure...the roots are bringing nutrients up through the trunk and out into the branches and leaves until oxygen hits the air. There's a bird singing while he waits for that worm to surface, his little feathered body is warmed by the sun and his blood is moving around too as his breast rises and falls. The air around and above him moves in fluid pockets of temperature, carrying pollen, moisture, dryness, insects, birds, the person in the garden next door's breath. The clouds out there are gathering and dispersing, with infinite processes of movement and flow that are just as much a part of the air, the bird, the tree, the leaves, the light, the temperature, the dust...and you. There is no blank space. No nothingness. Everything is in flux and everything is what makes up life, and that means you too.
When nature is not in harmony, it means that there is an underlying imbalance. Everything genuinely affects everything. It really does. Even though it may not be personally apparent. That's not to say that a polar bear's disagreement with a penguin in the Arctic is going to put me in a bad mood in Australia, but it is to say, once again, that there is no blank space. We are all part of the planet, a flowing motion of atoms, energy and thought. When the world and the movement of flux is in harmony and balance, we don’t need Disney magic, we live it.