Eden's Charm...

We walked up the dirt track with the sun in our backs. My eyes darted across the hill that we had climbed looking at the city below and I sucked in the fresh air like a starving lion on its prey.
‘We are almost there,’ She said quietly and almost to herself.
I did not respond. If only she knew, were my thoughts. If only she could see what was happening, the change, the difference, her past that had slowly melted away leaving this new person that now walked beside me with a need to give to another.
When I first met June, she told me she was selfish. That was an understatement. I think what she meant to say was that she needed to take out her vengeance on someone and who best than one so willing as myself. Life had not been good to June in the past. She had faced all sorts of problems and now they haunted her in kind. Today on the other hand was different, she had planned this day out to show me the world, teach me about nature and I was intrigued.
We climbed steeply for another fifteen minutes passing other hopefuls and then we were alone walking through the bushes as she searched for this place, this special place where she planned on teaching me something new.
Soon we were there and staring straight down this huge hole that had been carved out in the hill.
‘Look, that’s it. There is some grass now but during the winter it’s empty,’ She said.
‘What does it remind you of?’ She continued, gazing at me searching past my eyes into my soul seeking a reaction.
‘You.’ I said and smiled.
‘Correct. That’s how I feel sometimes and I wanted you to see and then maybe you would understand.’
‘I do, but would you like to see something else?’ It was my turn. She’d had her fun now I was about to have mine.
‘What, tell me, what?’ Her eyes defiant, inflamed and ready to laugh me to scorn for what I could offer.
‘Do you hear anything?’ I asked quietly.
‘No, not really. Well maybe the birds, the trees in the wind and some noise from the city but nothing.’
‘Ah that’s your spirit, you hear these things because you are at peace. You did not bring me here to show me how empty you feel. You brought me here to show me when you are at peace, when your mind is away from the world and it’s chores. You brought me here because this place is sacred to you.’
‘Why do you do that?’ She asked grinning like a child with a new toy.
‘Do what?’
‘Take away my moment, my bad moment?’
‘You seek the old when the new beckons. You can’t go back because the future calls. You must listen to it like the wind in the air and follow it and then you will be free.’
We talked for a while staring down at the empty hole. Most times I listened because I wanted June to enjoy this new discovery. Today when I reflect on this moment I am reminded of the Garden of Eden. It is easy to remind ourselves of what went wrong that changed the course of events. It is easy to forget that other things went right and brought our Lord to us.