I happen to think that Eve got a bad rap for sending us out of the Garden of Eden. Eve, the biblical “mother” to us all, when she bit into that apple, gave us the world as we know it – beautiful, flawed, dangerous, full of wonder. She gave us smallpox, the polio vaccine, the atom bomb, wheat, and daisies “Eve’s radical curiosity, s Barbara Grizzuti Harrison tells us in Out of the Garden: Women Writers on the Bible, “also gave us desire, appetite, and hunger.”
Without Eve, none of us would be wondering what to fix for dinner tonight. Without Eve, I would not be thinking p creative projects that often leave me pacing neurotically until they are completed. But, I also would not know the earthly pleasure that I love, as well as the intense desire for mystical morsels that only God can provide: inner peace, joy, and harmony.
Most of us eat at least three times a day, but how often is our hunger actually satisfied? A good sized piece of lasagna does much more for me then grilled salmon and asparagus, but unless I want to be the size of the Great Pumpkin, I cannot indulge that often. Many of us constantly hold ourselves in check in so many things – food, relationships, careers – stuffing our desires down deep into the self; as if sheer determination can keep the lid on longing. However, I am gradually coming to understand that hunger is holy. Why else would the first petition in the Lord’s Prayer be for daily bread, even before divine assistance?
Our souls know many different kinds of hunger; physical, psychic, emotional, creative, and spiritual. But God gave us the gifts of reason, imagination, curiosity, discernment; we possess the ability to distinguish between our hungers. Are you really hungry this morning for a breakfast biscuit? Is it passionate kisses you desire or pasta?? Or is it simply a good night’s sleep?
Don’t despise desire, daughters of Eve. For within that desire is the spark of the Divine. Spirit desires to be loved. A woman with a lusty appetite was created to satisfy that longing.
Love.
Hunger.
Appetite.
Desire.
Wholeness.
They are all ONE.
Blessed be.
