Untethered Garden

I’ve been reading St Teresa of Avila’s classic book on contemplative prayer, The Interior Castle. While reading, I came across this quote:

“The soul of a righteous person is none other than a garden in which the Beloved takes great delight. What do you think a place might be like that such a king–so powerful and wise, so pure and filled with all good things–would find so delightful. I myself can come up with nothing as magnificent as the beauty and amplitude of a soul?” St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

Upon reading this, the garden stuck out to me. For whatever reason the Lord brought an image and an idea into my mind; the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. What if each of us is both Adam and Eve? Our individual souls are where the Garden resides. Our soul is Paradise. And yet because of the snake, our desire to be God, we’ve been kicked out of the center of our soul. We’ve been untethered from our true selves. We’ve been untethered from the part of God that resides within us. The beautiful thing about this image is that in the story, God never leaves the Garden. He’s been within our soul the whole time. Our journey of salvation and sanctification is merely being reunited with Him, rediscovering our true selves, in a sacred union of the Beloved and the Bridegroom. This is a human soul. I attempted to capture this reality in a poem that I’d like to share with you all.

Untethered Garden
By T.A. Prewitt

Heavens and angels give me words
that will ring in the center of stone hearts.
May I be shorn from myself
So not I that speaks but truth alone. 

But how can mere words describe
What is real
And good
And true
And beautiful?

Hoisted and hovering 
above the clouds of reality,
I glimpsed a whisper 
of the truth.
It rang quietly down my spine
As if I always knew.

Long forgotten in the recesses
Of old dreams and ancient songs.
Scales fell from my blinded eyes
To discern something old, yet new.

An ancient prophecy once foretold,
A garden once both venerated and scorned,
Filled with fruit and snakes alike.
Simple yet misunderstood.

But it was not where 
I remembered it to be.
My mind muttered west, 
while I remained east.

North always had called to me, but now
South is where my spirit yearns.
A voice calls out to me
From deep inside.

What is a human soul?
Is it not a garden of delight?

Is it not a garden overflowing 
with life and vibrance?
Is it not a sanctuary for
The lost, the broken, the enslaved?

Lights and hues permeate everywhere and
I see the sun dancing through the leaves
Aromas waft on the gentle air and
I smell the sweetness of bright flowers and blooming fruit.

Melodies frolic from tree to tree and
I hear birds singing to one another of great glories.
Grace and mercy embrace me from every corner and
I feel the breeze of the cool air against my skin and the dirt between my toes

I am grounded
I am real
I am true
I am good
I am beautiful

But where is the gardener?
Is it his voice I hear calling?
I look desperately for him, but then
I come across a fruit tree.

I taste the fruit of the tree
But it is poisonous.
How could I not have known
And suddenly I’m dragged out of the garden.

Tears stream down my face.
My heart bleeds.
My spirit wails
My teeth gnash.

There are gates around the garden.
And I do not have the key.
It exists in a shroud
And I do not know how to get back inside.

I weep for I know in that garden 
I will find life and truth and what is real
I have been exiled from the center of the universe
At least the center of my body

Paradise was lost one day
When I wanted to reign on high
Or maybe it was someone else
that pushed me off that royal seat

Untethered vertically
Cleaved inwardly
Severed horizontally
I must get back in.

How do I get back to the center
Of myself where I was meant to be?
It is there that my beloved calls
For me to come home.

I am not without hope
For the garden gates bleed.
I think the only way back
Is to be me

I pray that this is a blessing to you.