Open our eyes to see that life abounds;
open hearts to welcome it among us.
The light of love here shines upon each face.
May it bring faith to guide our journey home.*
Openings . . . of eyes, of hearts. The words of this song very easily become the prayer or mantra or meditation that we take into The Garden. That Garden, if we understand, really does go with us everywhere. It is my family’s garden. It is the community garden. It is the botanical gardens. It is all of these, but it is also the garden that is the rich life force within each of us. There is a garden at the core of us into which we may enter, plant, nurture, harvest, tend, and commune. That requires an opening. And many openings again and again to our own, deep inner life. The light of each day, and as the song says, the light of any face of love invites another opening to that life, that Garden within us. But, oh! That Garden within us is the very Source of the light of love on the other’s face! I find The Garden in me. I find The Garden in you! Open our eyes to see that life abounds!
To whom do we sing the words of this song? The words are written in second person, addressed to another. Some would say God or Goddess. Others Spirit. Others the Interconnected Web of all Existence. Whatever term you use, or however you see Life in this world, The Garden allows us to find that the Life Force in us shows up in the face, feelings and fullness of the other.
Welcome it, The Garden, wherever you find it today.
Bob Patrick
If you would like to listen to a UUA General Assembly choir sing Morning Has Come, go to this link, and forward it to 4:08 in the video.
*Jason Shelton, “Morning Has Come,” in Singing the Journey Home, 2005
