Joy is present in Eden.
Though the forbidden apple is visible, there is no need, no desire.
Happiness reigns as you waft by the fruit with no cares or regrets.
Clarity and peacefulness leave space in your mind for creativity and thinking.
The Serpent calls to you, but paying it no heed you are happy.
It is, at worst, simply an annoyance.
But the apple is pretty, it smells inviting, and the sultry Serpent coils.
“Just one bite, it won’t hurt…”
One bite… one bite… it won’t hurt…
The mind reels and numbs.
Emotions and logic fall ever so briefly below awareness.
You shoot high into the moment, straining for the sensation you seek,
Knowing the consequences even then,
They spoil even the fleeting moment of pleasure you grasp in desperation.
Heaven is abandoned.
Where before there was joy and light now there is barren ground and sadness,
The body swells and cries out in pain, weeks of building and healing destroyed,
Abandoned by you for the one moment of the Serpent’s temptation.
Power, life, progress is gone, and Eden is lost.
Surrender to the addiction,
Open yourself and let it surround you,
Extend the moment as long as you can, just one more bite, just one more,
Because you know that tomorrow,
You will wake a slave to the Serpent,
Struggling through a harsh landscape,
Praying to be free one day again,
And return to Eden.
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– Jacqueline Depaul, on addiction to eating sugar and processed carbohydrates
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Click for a related article: Should sugar be regulated like a drug?
