Since 5th January this year, I strapped myself in and put my foot hard down on the accelerator of life and attempted to do it all.

My house was decluttered, organised and contents put into storage then cleaned, decorated, made into a show home and put on the market. I’ve focussed on my dance classes, practiced at home….and beat myself up when I can’t remember everything. I’ve run around after an elderly relative, answering and supporting her every whim. ‘Destiny of Angels’ is available as an e-book and will be released as a paperback on 19th July. I’ve a compellation of short stories almost ready and my non-fiction book ‘Wendy Woo’s Year – A Pocketful of Smiles – 101 ideas for a happy year and a happy you’, has gone to first readers. I’ve instigated ‘The Amazing Karmic Sharefest’ and ‘The BOB Bonanza’ on my facebook page to help support fellow writers and ‘put myself out there’ as Wendy Steele, writer.  I’ve worried about my children’s lives when we move and attempted to make the pennies go round.

Sometimes I’m so tired I can barely speak, headaches have become the norm and sleep forsakes me at night but it took the Healing Weekend at Secret World Wildlife Rescue this weekend to make me realise, this cannot go on.

Within the supportive circle of my dance sisters, with the music of Touch the Earth to inspire me and amid kind, generous people who’s aim in life is to help and to heal others ……. I know how to change my life.

For many years, my mind and body were unbalanced, totally off kilter. Dance began to change that….writing changed it even more. My total change of diet helped but I was still seeking harmony in my life. ‘Harmony’ comes from the Greek ‘harmonia’ meaning ‘joint, agreement, concord’ and I felt I needed to acknowledge and subscibe to a life of balance. Within my busy life I tried to achieve that balance but circumstances knocked me off my feet and evertime I scrambled back up, there was always a rung of the ladder lacking…..

At the weekend, as the rain poured down on our tent and the green field around us turned to mire, my dance sisters and I began to drum, making music together as the storm broke overhead. We’d danced together on the Friday night and begun drumming on Saturday but my revelation didn’t appear until Sunday when the sun peeked from behind a cloud and the roar went up over the Healing field and people emerged from the tents and marquees, smiling and cheering. After our morning performance with Touch the Earth, we returned, in the sunshine to our tent. We opened the front and back flaps, allowing the sun warmed air to flow in, made ourselves comfortable and began to drum. Each beat began to flow through me….there was no thought involved and as the drum beats filled me, I knew that the drum was part of my life’s path. An evening of drumming and percussion with other friends comfirmed what I already knew and the happiness and confidence I felt has stayed with me upon my return home.

My drum was the missing link which, once slotted in and fastened to the whole, has made me complete, in balance and in harmony. A single drum beat resonates to the core of a human being, vibrating their soul and linking them to the past and the earth. My single drum beats with the drum of others, blending, merging and embracing the beauty of life. As the beats and rhythms fill my body, my mind understands my connection to all living things and my place within the world. My drum beat is not an extra, not a filler that can be added in when I’ve time but the most important noise I can make because it’s mine and my beat counts.

I have no regrets about the past six months…I’ve achieved much, learned more and met some wonderful people but now I know where I am, who I am, my focus has changed.

First, I embrace the earth…… all else will follow.

Namaste

(I’d always thought of  ‘nameste’ as a blessing when one person greets another, palms of hands meeting across the chest as if in prayer …….but it also means ‘may our minds meet’ ……. a hope and prayer for the future.)