{"id":30699,"date":"2014-06-14T16:51:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T21:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=30699"},"modified":"2014-06-14T16:55:15","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T21:55:15","slug":"literary-worship-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2014\/06\/literary-worship-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"Literary Worship: Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fruit<\/a><\/p>\n

Two of the most inspiring parts of life to me are seeing new places and learning new things. So it’s no surprise that I’ve long been fascinated with the story of Eve, the woman who lived in Paradise and gave it up to see and experience things she could never have imagined, and learn things that would change her forever.<\/p>\n

The traditional religious line has been to condemn Eve for her fateful choice and blame her for the evils of our fallen world. But as Mormons, we think differently. As Orson F. Whitney described it, the Fall was a fall forward as well as a fall downward. It was a difficult choice, but a good one, and to Eve we owe the gift of our own ability to discern and choose between good and evil.<\/p>\n

Imagine her in Paradise, surrounded by every beautiful and needful thing, happy and contented in her perfect life. And yet wanting more. I think I’ve felt a similar sensation walking into the streets of a new city in a foreign land, or when the wind changes in autumn, or standing on the rim of the endless ocean–the feeling that there is something more, and the urge to know it, to experience it, to become it.<\/p>\n

In this poem, I tried to capture that moment of decision, and the sudden thrill of stepping into the unknown with only her inner voice to tell her it was the right direction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eve<\/p>\n

He saw her rise in solemn splendor,
\nFlesh of his flesh, yet fashioned new.
\nTaking her hand in breathless wonder,
\nTurning again, he felt it true:<\/p>\n

\u201cMother of all,\u201d he named her, \u201cmother,\u201d
\nThough she, like he, was but a child
\nWalking the garden with the Father,
\nInnocent yet, and unbeguiled.<\/p>\n

Did she but feel a call within her
\nAs swift deceit slid slyly by,
\nWatching him speak and strive to win her,
\nSensing the truth behind the lie?<\/p>\n

Seeing the tree of light and learning
\nOffering forth a brighter way,
\nDid she feel then a hope and yearning
\nBidding her go and not to stay?<\/p>\n

Touching the fruit, and trembling, tasting,
\nFeeling her heart beat fresh and free,
\nStanding a moment, struck, then hasting,
\nFlying to bring him to the tree,<\/p>\n

Till they stood face to face like strangers,
\nFlung from a fabled, fruitful land
\nInto the world with all its dangers,
\nInto forever, hand in hand.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

photo credit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of the most inspiring parts of life to me are seeing new places and learning new things. So it’s no surprise that I’ve long been fascinated with the story of Eve, the woman who lived in Paradise and gave it up to see and experience things she could never have imagined, and learn things that would change her forever. The traditional religious line has been to condemn Eve for her fateful choice and blame her for the evils of our fallen world. But as Mormons, we think differently. As Orson F. Whitney described it, the Fall was a fall forward as well as a fall downward. It was a difficult choice, but a good one, and to Eve we owe the gift of our own ability to discern and choose between good and evil. Imagine her in Paradise, surrounded by every beautiful and needful thing, happy and contented in her perfect life. And yet wanting more. I think I’ve felt a similar sensation walking into the streets of a new city in a foreign land, or when the wind changes in autumn, or standing on the rim of the endless ocean–the feeling that there is something more, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":30700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2462],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corn","category-poetry-arts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Fruit-of-the-tree.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30699"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30713,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30699\/revisions\/30713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}