A Perfect Life

Eve stood on a verdant precipice looking over the immaculate garden, her big toe tracing the edge where spongy grass met solid rock. The breeze wisped past her, raising goosebumps on her exposed flesh, reminding her of an unusual feeling that she couldn't exactly define - vulnerability it would eventually be called in a language she could not imagine. She didn't feel cold, exactly, because cold did not exist yet. Still, she folded her arms across her breast for comfort as she allowed herself to float into reflection.

Her memory of that first awakening went something like this:

"Eve, you're in paradise," he told her, and her eyes brightly scanned the arc of his gesture. She remembered feeling incredibly lucky and humble that she had the opportunity to exist in such beauty. That was when things were good, inspirational actually. The colors alone lifted her into a blissful oblivion, and of course, he - with his gorgeously curious features, his amazement at her graceful movements, the way he looked at her, as if she were the most beautiful, most amazing addition to the garden.. Yes. His being there was certainly a positive. Then.

"And now?" she thought. She still loved him. Absolutely. She loved him even though he was her master. She loved him, even though he had loved another before her. She still loved the garden, and her soul felt warm as she looked across the horizon. "It's not him," she whispered. "It's not the garden. It's not anything except that I want more." She silently numbered her desires on her fingers: ".. to know what God knows, to understand why things are as they are, to truly experience the full range of emotions that my soul knows exists - the ones that come from a place I don't understand.." Paradise was brilliant, but the humanness of her body, its yearnings, made it nearly impossible to enjoy fully.

"I have to leave here," she thought, and then blanched at the audacity of the thought. "I want to leave here," she thought again, more willfully, "even though the consequence will be loss of this place. I want to go and explore, to know and attempt to understand what it means to be human, to find answers, to truly live! Isn't this why God made me this way? Different from the angels?" Eve tried to imagine what the world would be like in that instance. She felt an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach - uncertainty, it would be called.

The sky darkened, and the first drops of rain brought her out of her contemplation. "Not today," she whispered.

This post was inspired by the Loose Bloggers Consortium, a small and feisty(!) global community. We write weekly on a common topic (A Perfect Life, this week) and post responses - all of us together, simultaneously, from all over the world. (Lovely!) Please visit Anu, Conrad, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Judy, Magpie 11, Maria and Ramana for other wonderful posts.