14 Comments
User's avatar
Melissa Barringer's avatar

Paradise is a walled garden... I had no idea. You’ve got my gears turning, thanks. Interesting as you’re sitting with “paradise” I’ve been sitting with “paradox”. Paradox can be a gate to paradise, can’t it?

Expand full comment
Adam Sommer's avatar

I think so. Like 'walling' off nature to create a 'paradise' you mean? That seems paradoxical, for sure

Expand full comment
Melissa Barringer's avatar

It does seem that way, doesn’t it?

Expand full comment
Adam Sommer's avatar

it does indeed. Been thinking more about it actually...

Expand full comment
Camille Sheppard's avatar

As a lifelong avid gardener and lover of wild spaces I can attest. There's something very paradoxical about trying to "improve on" nature to "create" paradise. And Virgoan as well. You two are getting at something uniquely human here. We were given paradise by landing here on planet earth and most of what we've done trying to improve upon our inheritance is mess it up, yet from time to time, we do create these human paradises. It gets at the notion of progress as an ideal as well. I feel like the answer to these mysteries is something about getting our training and trauma out of the way enough so that the uniquely human expression of divinity can move through our individuality and express itself in ways that we recognize as paradise. I guess that's what having an open mind really is about anyway, no?

Expand full comment
Adam Sommer's avatar

I would like to think so. And yes, it is quite human; There are many layers to this. One I've been thinking more about today is simply around predation and safety. Duh, but there is something profound in that....enter the snake, and the beginning of the story

Expand full comment
Melissa Barringer's avatar

Yes, safety, good one. Also: privacy. And a sense of containment. And maybe even just the concept of boundary. I’d say in paradise there must be solid boundaries :)

Expand full comment
Adam Sommer's avatar

All that...and then the need to break them, just like A & E =) Breaking rules and boundaries haha

Expand full comment
Camille Sheppard's avatar

So many layers... The snake in the garden... Boy Melissa, quite a topic you opened up!

Expand full comment
Cathy Sparks's avatar

"There are many ways to expand the mind, but first, we need to open it. Only then can the universe flood on in."

I loved this. The very first step ... then the rest can happen.

Expand full comment
Adam Sommer's avatar

not an easy one either

Expand full comment
Cathy Sparks's avatar

Very true. Maybe having the willingness to be a bit curious? I find that really helps me.

Expand full comment
Adam Sommer's avatar

absolutely! Asking more questions than giving answers is a good metric

Expand full comment
Veronica Carneal's avatar

Was listening to a podcast with Martin Shaw and a man named Mark Vernon last night. He described a quality in a person who “speaks from the Eden within”. He mentioned a man named Malcolm Guite as one who embodies this quality.

Expand full comment