The Garden: There’s A Choice

There’s a choice we’re making.

Is there a difference in “the world” and “The Garden” as we have been reflecting on it these past few weeks?  I think most of the time, there is, but I think that is a sign of the amnesia that we suffer.  We have forgotten our oneness with The Garden.  We have believed that sad tale that the Divine has thrown us out of The Garden.  Perhaps out of the shame of that one tale, we have created another, that we human beings are superior to the Earth.  We believe that the Earth is not us and that we are not the Earth, so the World and The Garden are two separate things.

There’s a choice we’re making.

Thirty years ago, an incredibly gifted band of musicians from every sector of the musical industry conspired together to produce the song “We Are the World.”  They affirmed:  “we are the world, we are the children . . . there’s a choice we’re making, we are saving our own lives.  It’s true.  We make a better day, just you and me.  So, let’s start giving.”

There’s a choice we’re making.

This song, a part of a world hunger crisis, had it’s own agenda, but some part of me, deeply moved to this day as I listen to it, feels that whether they knew it or not, these artists tapped into, again, the reality that we are deeply connected to The Garden, that the world and The Garden are not separate, are one, that what you and I choose to do today does make a difference.

There’s a choice we’re making.

As we go through our day today, let’s try and notice those moments when we find ourselves living and acting as if we were separate from The Garden.  Let’s try and notice those moments when we are aware of our connection to The Garden.  Those two things really are the same, for the very moment that we realize our disconnect, we reconnect.  We are The Garden.  We can make a difference by living into that reality.

There’s a choice we’re making.

Bob Patrick

Want to listen to We Are the World.  Click here.