Remembering the gall

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Lamentations 3:19

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Acts 8:23

In my wood wanderings, the understory was lush with berries. In my hunger I picked a handful of what I perceived to be sweet, but tart wild blueberries. In the first chew all perception was at once realized by the puckering and spewing out.
Not all is as it seems in the beauty. Dwelling in the fields of gall, eventually one acquires a taste for the bitterness. First he spewed, then he chewed, then he swallowed to wallow in the bond of iniquity. My nature is to gravitate to the wormwood. I am tart of heart and full of gall apart from grace.
I suspect you are as well. We all dwell together in this thorn ridden field that yields tempestuous fruit. It is a common fall. The question is, have you come to the place where the emetic has been offered? Have you taken of the truly sweet fruit of life, or do you secretly eat the gall when you are thinking no one is in this wilderness understory but me?