We returned tonight from a short trip to the West Virginia mountains. We stayed in a cabin in the woods on the side of Spruce Mountain and had some wonderful hikes around the Seneca Creek/Spruce Knob back country. The weather was sunny and glowing until today. But today we enjoyed the wilder sides of Dolly Sods in wind, wet and rolling mists, alternating with brief patches of sunshine.

One day, as we were sitting in bright autumn sunshine eating lunch in an open meadow on the side of Spruce Mountain, gazing out across the Seneca Creek Valley to Allegheny Mountain on the other side, I exclaimed "this is Eden", wondering somewhat tentatively then: "Do you suppose they have fall in Eden?" Iona responded wryly "Eden had a fall!" We laughed. Indeed religion would agree. There was a fall in Eden. Or, more sadly, there was a fall from Eden.

Or, maybe there is a fall from Eden every time we become sad or angry or despairing and forget that we are still one with Great Spirit and can visit Eden any time we choose, even stay there if we really want to and can keep the key in some part of our conscious mind and will. A Course in Miracles constantly stresses this option in its lessons and teachings.

It is unwise to dwell on "sin" and its inevitability. This only serves to keep your mind in chains, feeling helpless and hopeless. It is much more important to keep on remembering to break out of these chains whenever you feel yourself sinking "into the fall" of despair, depression, fear and anger. Prayer, meditation, contemplation are all within reach of all of us. You become conscious of what is taking place in your mind and what you are looking at in the world. Forgiveness and healing of the tortured mind can follow such a practice, forgiveness both of self and of others. There is no need to keep on falling from Eden.