Choose Your Addiction

One tiny, beautifully captured droplet of transcendent cocoa-bliss,
and like an addict, I'm craving more, More!, MORE!!!!!

rich, creamy
bitter, sweet

oh-so-smooth
velvety delicious

I love it all!

Yet, sadly, I have significant health-motivated reason to use moderation...
or rather, avoid it altogether.

*sigh*

While living in Europe, land of the world's most famous chocolatiers, I tasted some of THE BEST CHOCOLATE EVER MADE!!!

On the first day of ninth grade my English teacher did not begin with "Hello, my name is Mr. Miller.", but with chocolate!  (tiny shavings of  gourmet chocolate!)

When the sliver of divinely blended cocoa and sugar melted on my tongue, he had me.  I wanted more, and I hung on his every word:

a healthy addiction

"Reading is a drug,
with a habit forming addiction you can freely indulge in for a life time.  It will take you on trips beyond your wildest imagination.  This year we're going to sample the 'good stuff', and as you acquire a taste for the great literature, you'll never be completely satisfied by anything less."

John Keats

I didn't know about craving books. Till then, I hated reading!  But, by the end of the year,  I was hooked.  Mr. Miller became my favorite teacher and Literature my favorite subject.  From U2 lyrics, to Wilfred Owen, to Shakespeare, I learned to appreciate the best of poetry and prose.

Some how, this girl, who once teased her sister for spending her allowance on books, transformed into a woman who annually spends more on books than clothing for the entire family.  As bizarre as it sounds, I genuinely enjoy "the classics" and have a serious weakness for poetry anthologies,

La Belle Dame Sans Merci - Frank Dicksee (public domain)
(FYI - art is my other healthy addiction) 

 but if fiction is the milk chocolate of literature and poetry, white chocolate, my absolute favorite is the richest dark chocolate, non-fiction.

and NOTHING is richer

than MY GREATEST LITERARY ADDICTION:

"SCRIPTURE"

 

In secret every morning, every night, and in stolen moments throughout each day, I indulge on words that are sweeter than honey.  The more I feast, the more insatiable my hunger.

Knowing that in many places this healing drug is illegal, I treasure every word and stash away bits and pieces in the hidden places of my heart.   

Even if you hate reading, taste a little of the "great-est stuff".   
Try just a sliver, savor, meditate on one verse.
Bet you'll be coming back for another, then a chapter, then a book...

Better yet, why not read the best selling, most addictive literature of all time from cover to cover? 
"Taste and see that the Lord is good" Ps. 34:8

Check out The Listener's Bible, an audio book, only

77 hours for the New International Version

75 hours for the English Standard Version

and 80 hours for the King James Version

You can read along or just listen!