Delicious Self Empowerment

Silver moonlight dappled the forbidden fruit of Eden’s boughs even as songbirds roosted alongside the serpent’s beguiling tongue. His whispers echoed angelic refrains, lulling the forgetful. Agency is power; granted only to gods, and choice is choice above all. One juicy bite, deliciously self-empowering, changed everything. The potency of a moment is found in the consequence of an impulse. The power of time’s march is realized in throes of loss remembered. Yet a clap of thunder bears tardy warning to one struck by a bolt, and at my core, I am overwhelmed with the power granted me, to alter, in small ways, the woven fabric of tomorrow’s reality. So take my hand, and let us march together over that horizon. May you, in hard times, support, encourage and remind me in my weakness that our strength in darkness is found not in heaven, nor in ourselves, but in remembrance of yesterday’s sunshine, and last night’s lullabies which carried us peacefully through the unseen horrors of night. From the mountain’s summit, as we gaze tomorrow by hopeful starlight, watching the sky fall around us, swallowing up the remnants of today, I beg pardon for my trembling soul, withering under the burden to shake off the comfortable, and to forge anew the coming dawn by force of will and careful expression of thoughtful introspection. For it is potential, not reality, upon which heaven smiles eternally; viewing through the lens of perfect-love our imperfections. Even an hour before the devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven, yet in a moment, by agency, endowed in grace by God to his children, a prince became a whispering serpent flecked with moonlight. Might it be, that to fall from grace, we need simply forget the weight of agency's burden? Might it be, that to rise from a fall, we need simply remember, and choose for ourselves a new reality? Might it be, that God thinks the devil beautiful still? 2/20/16 Inspired by, but not written for, the contest, "Expand Arthur Miller's Thought," hosted by Julia Ward.