"Within each of us lies the knowledge of how the worlds work together, how the images of the soul come into being and determine the fate of humanity. This knowing is a part of life, part of the miracle of creation. When we are present both within ourselves and in our life, we can see the patterns of connection that bring things together — the ordinary human connections of our outer life, between family, friends, and colleagues; connections of trade and commerce that move goods, services, and money through our local and global marketplace; and now all the new connections created by global communication, by the Internet, satellite TV, and cell phones. We are also beginning to rediscover the interconnections of our ecosystem that knit all of creation together into a single living organism, and if we pay attention we can begin to rediscover the deeper connections between the inner and outer worlds that bring the meaning of the soul into our daily life. And underlying everything are the connections of pure love that link together all of creation with the Creator. We live in the midst of so many connections, and there is so much power and meaning in these connections that we presently overlook.
"The connections of life are its lifeblood. We are physically nourished by our natural ecosystem, and also by the connections of trade that bring food to our tables. We are emotionally nourished by our family and friends, and sustained in emotional and practical ways by the different types of communication that play an increasingly important part in our life, the cell phone and e-mail that have so quickly become a vital source of connection. The connections of the soul are more hidden in our culture, but are present in our dreams and in our search for meaning. And the primal connection of love that is the foundation of creation is what nourishes us all at the deepest level — and, paradoxically, what we all search for, knowingly or unknowingly.
"We are at the center of so many connections, and yet we imagine ourselves isolated and alone. Our isolation is one of the most potent myths of our time, and it keeps us from consciously receiving the nourishment that comes through these different levels of connection. We feel disempowered because we feel alone, rather than being supported and empowered by the whole of which we are an integral part. Even as we are being given conscious access to a greater degree of connectivity than ever before, our entrapment in our myth of aloneness makes us feel more and more separate. Stepping into a global era still caught in the conditioning of the previous era, we remain cut off from and unaware of the real potential of what we are being offered.
"Life is recreating itself through these patterns of connection and the relationships they form. This is the primal oneness of life expressing itself in new ways. Yet this simple awareness that life is one seems too threatening to fully accept. Seeing our interconnectedness through the veils of separation, we fear that it might take something away from us. We easily withdraw into old patterns of protection, defending our autonomy, our possessions, our status, and are thus unable or unwilling to embody its real meaning. But all these patterns of connection are just ways through which the oneness of life is manifesting itself, and the more we are aware of this, the more we can embody the power and dynamism that belong to life's oneness. Unity is far more powerful than separation.
"As a part of life's oneness, we can never be isolated. When we pick up the phone or connect to the Internet, we know that we are part of a global network of communication that is instantaneously available. We wear clothes that are made in distant countries, and when we change the channels on our TV we see images from across the globe. Even the food we eat now comes from all over the world, making us part of life's ecosystem as well as the network of trade that brought it to our table. We are all a part of this interrelated oneness, and yet we have not fully grasped the real opportunity this is offering us. It is as if we were watching a movie frame by frame, never seeing the connection between the frames and so never getting the story the movie is telling. And the story we are missing is our own story, the meaning of our own life seen through the eyes of oneness."
