Return to Eden

Return to Eden

This was submitted to Return to Eden Contest, hosted by WakefieldDesigns, where the theme was, “You've returned to The Garden of Eden, what does it look like now?”

This was also submitted to The Devil in the Details Contest, hosted by ArcaneVault, with the challenge to tell the story through the details in the picture.
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If Adam and Eve, or their modern counterparts, returned to The Garden of Eden now, with their children, Lu, Cain, and Abel, would they look up from their phones long enough to even notice the wonderful, natural world around them?

It’s getting harder to find Nature in the modern world. Wilderness and wildlife are being pushed out of their habitats with urban sprawl, and city satellites, as people move out of the cities, only to cut down the forests to build monster houses, and destroy the natural world they claim they were looking for.

Maybe, Adam and Eve weren’t expelled from The Garden of Eden, after being tempted by a serpent to disobey their God, who put an Angel, with a flaming sword, on guard, to make sure they wouldn’t try to sneak in to steal more fruit.

Maybe, the story is meant as a warning that they, or their descendants, are all too likely to pave Paradise, and put up a parking lot.

Maybe, they should have taken more than one bite out of the apple, the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Maybe, they should have eaten the whole thing, including the core.

-Cat…
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Memo- This replaced my initial submission, The Hedge-Bird at Bay, for the Devil in the Details Contest, hosted by ArcaneVault.  Since, in this the hidden details tell the story, while in the other picture, it might not be obvious, without reading the text, that the bore on Nain’s pistol is probably too large a caliber to have shot the wounded man, at the range indicated. -Cat…
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Stock Resources:

Eve, Adam, and Children:

FA_Val_WildDTD_04, by jademacalla

Sun Dress Cell Phone Lady, by FantasyStock

Where You At? 7, by ThePropagation3

2 Schoolgirl 10, by shiver-stock

steampunk boy stock, by DemoncherryStock

 
Angels, Animals, and Wings:

Seraphim Angel 1, by Random-Acts-Stock

Swan wings open - Stock, by Sassy-Stock

Flame Angel Wing, by Shadoweddancer

Technoseum Stock 04 (private use), by Malleni-Stock

Butterfly Wing Stock 3, by SilentGod88

Hare,by LucieG-Stock

Striped Ground Squirrel, by kayosa-stock

Snowshoe hare stock 1, by alphasoupstock

Bird 2, by markopolio-stock

Squirrel I, by KelbelleStock

Edinburgh Gardens Animals 14, by PirateLotus-Stock

fox, by Quiet-bliss

Bunny 3, by LucieG-Stock

Lonely Mourning Dove, by JocelyneR

I see you, by Stygma

Crow-raven, by InKi-Stock

Forest:

Forest Stock 046, by Malleni-Stock

Forest Stock 13, by Sed-rah-Stock

old forest 4, by DarkBeforeDawn23

 
Flames, Flares, Sky, and Other Resources:

Little flame, by MD-Arts

Flame 001, by ISOStock

Big Lens And Optical Flare Collection, by daWIIZ

Lens Flare Pack, by daWIIZ

Stock - Fantasy - Dark Warrior's Sword, by Mahafsoun

sword lady 5, by Lisajen-stock

Sky, by TinaLouiseUk

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Notes:

[1] Adam and Eve, according to the creation myths of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They were living in the paradisiacal Garden of Eden.

They were told to eat of all the fruits in the Garden, but were forbidden to eat the fruit from The Tree of Knowledge.

After they listened to a serpent, who tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit, God expelled them from the Garden to prevent them from eating the fruit from the Tree of Life and becoming immortal.

Then, God stationed Angels with a flaming sword to guard the Garden and the two trees. [biblehub.com/genesis/3-24.htm]

[2] Eve, Adam, and their Children:

According to some traditions, Eve and Adam had a number of children, both daughters and sons [Re. Daughters of Adam and Eve: Awan, Luluwa, Aklemia.]

“⁵ And God looked at His maid-servant Eve, and delivered her, and she brought forth her first-born son, and with him a daughter.

⁶ Then Adam rejoiced at Eve's deliverance, and also over the children she had borne him. And Adam ministered unto Eve in the cave, until the end of eight days; when they named the son Cain, and the daughter Luluwa.

⁷ The meaning of Cain is "hater," because he hated his sister in their mother's womb; ere they came out of it. Therefore did Adam name him Cain.

⁸ But Luluwa means "beautiful," because she was more beautiful than her mother.”

[www.sacred-texts.com/bib/fbe/f…]

[3] “They paved Paradise, and put up a parking lot.”

Lyrics from the chorus from the song Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell, originally released in 1970, on her album Ladies of the Canyon.

Live version, 1974, Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi - YouTube

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Memo-

Thanks to all the stock providers. Your work is greatly appreciated.

And, thanks to everyone for your patience with the notes and spelling corrections. 

It might be too late to get back to The Garden; but, whether God made Adam and Eve, and their children, “stewards”, with “dominion” over Creation [Genesis 1:26], to look after the world, and the wildlife in it, or billions of years of evolution (not that those are mutually exclusive) have led to this point, there's a lot of work to do to clean up the mess.

-Cat…