We Are All One

                        We Are All One- Lyrics of first verse

When I look into your eyes I see who I am.                                                                       When I look into your eyes I know who I am.                                                                  When I look into your eyes, my heart opens wide.                                                            When I look into your eyes my judgements subside.                                                         And I see and I know, We are all one.                                                                                                                          Black and White  Rich and Poor  Left and Right  Old and Young                                       We are All One.

Songs come through me. They have since I was a little girl. My pre-school report card said, Andie sings and makes up songs. As an adult, during the process of losing most of my hearing, it became less and less possible for me to listen to music. Music sounded like pots banging together.

After receiving my cochlear implant and after hours and hours of practice,  music began to be a pleasurable experience again. I began to sing every day and the song We Are All One bubbled up. I am so grateful that my implant gave me back my music.

For the past two years I have been practicing with a meditation sangha or community in the tradition of Thict Naht Hahn. His concept of inter-being means the connection of all living things. Inter-being was really an inspiration to me and is reflected in my song. I sang my song on my birthday at my sangha and shared it with the community. Then there was an arts night where people shared their original creations and I sang my song again.

John Bickham, who is a member of my sangha and a superb musician, asked me if he could put my song to music. I am an untrained singer and can barely read music. I was thrilled at his offer. I got to record my song in his studio and then he created the beautiful soundtrack which enhanced the song immeasurably. I am so grateful to John. John and his wife Rita also did the lovely backup vocals for my song.

The next step was posting the song on Facebook and YouTube. My daughter Monnya and I painted pictures for the video and she created the visuals for the video using our artwork. She did a wonderful job. 

We posted the song on Valentine’s Day. It is my gift of Love to the world. My vision is to spread the message of we are all one to the world.

Please help me to spread the message by going to YouTube and searching for We Are All One by Andrea Silver and sharing my song with whoever you think would benefit from it. Thank you, I am grateful for the opportunity to create this song and share its message. We Are All One.

Interspecies connection- the fly and I

 Hello, I’m not sure how to write about this. Here goes. A few nights ago I was in the middle of a class and I noticed a fly on my living room floor on its back struggling to turn over. Upon closer observation I could see that one leg and one wing were different from the other leg and wing. The fly struggled and struggled and was unable to move from its back to its front and move away. As I watched I thought, maybe I could help. 

I remembered the story of the boy watching a butterfly struggle to get out of its cocoon. After a while he decided to help. Part of the butterfly’s transformation was the struggle to break through from the cocoon to emerge and fly away. The boy helped the butterfly get out and it immediately died as it emerged.

So I watched for a long time rooting for the fly to turn over on its own. I felt connected to the fly and its perseverance was inspiring to me.  I then decided to try and help not knowing if my help would even be helpful. With the arm of my glasses I gently turned the fly over. He or she began to move. What a triumph! Then in a few seconds she/he was back on her back and struggling to turn back over again. I am going to use they as a pronoun. I think they would have liked that. By now the fly’s journey had my complete attention and we completed our ritual many more times. I would turn them over and they would begin to walk and then they would be flipped over back on to their back. I tried to make a little ramp to even out the discrepancies between the leg and wing on one side. That allowed them to stay on their front a little longer. We kept at this for a very long time. The fly’s efforts to right themselves never availed. They didn’t seem to effort any less as time went on. Eventually I knew I had to stop and go to bed. After several failed attempts to let go and leave the fly to its struggles alone, I was finally able to go upstairs and get ready for bed. I was so inspired by the tenacious spirit of the fly.

In the morning I came down and observed that the fly had ceased moving and was dead. I felt sad and wondered if my helping had prolonged a struggle that would have ended in an easier death. I could make up lots of stories about what I think this fly’s experience might have been. I don’t know how this all works. It got me thinking about life and death and rebirth and how all of life is a mystery and a miracle.

What I do know is that my experience with this fly changed me. I have always had the belief that we are all interconnected. I don’t know that I would have included flies before. Later that day I held a little service for the fly and asked how it wanted me to dispose of its body. Intuitively I felt that it wanted to be composted and that’s what I did. Who knows where that information came from? I have thought about the fly fondly many times since I put them in the compost. This experience of interspecies connection was very strong and I am grateful.  Have you had similar personal experiences?