I was lying in bed the other night nursing a sinus headache paying attention now and then to the television in the background. Sometimes the commercials are more entertaining then the shows and sometimes there seems to be more commercials then show, but I will save that for another time. last night, it was the Terminix commercial that resonated with my spirit. Not because we have termites, at least I do not think we do, but there promise of how they can come and remove all the termites from your house, keep them away, and if their treatment does not work they will pay for the damage. As I was sitting there watching this commercial, I found myself thinking that it is too bad there is not a parasite removal plan for our lives. It would be so much easier if we could just spray ourselves down and have all the lies, poisons, infections and other parasitic materials, which have crept into our spirits, minds and bodies just leave and stay away for the rest of our lives.
So when did I eat this stuff. It is not as if I sat down and said, “Today, I would like to eat a plate of lies, dysfunctional ideas, prejudicial thoughts, self-negating ideas.” I never did that and then I started thinking about the Bible story of Adam and Eve. God told them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. 
Eat anything else you want here, but do not eat from this tree. Then this serpent says, “Hey Eve, come eat this, it is so good.” Then I started thinking about how so often people would present me with damaging thoughts wrapped in love and concern and so I would internalize them because they were people who were presenting me these words wrapped in compassion. It was kind of like in Snow White how the poison was snuck into the apple. Snow White probably would not have eaten the apple if she knew it contained poison.
Sometimes I feel like Snow White. There have been times in my life when I have taken a bite of the poisoned apple, and while I did not fall asleep, I have had to go through a process of cleansing myself of the poison. Sometimes one bite is all it takes, I never had to eat the whole apple. When I was reading The Secret Life of Bees recently she talked about the bees who remove the bodies of the dead bees from the hives. Even with this hard work done by the bees, the beekeeper must ensure that the honey is clean. This seems similar to the process I undergo as I remove parasitic thoughts from my system. I can take the idea, throw it out, and think the hard work is done. Then I turn around sometimes months and years later and find a remnant of what I thought I had already worked through.
I have come to the understanding that removing these parasites from my life is an ongoing process. Even when I have removed the bulk of the parasite, I may find effects of it later on. At times, I have come to realize that some of the parasites have been with me so long they almost seem normal. What is important is that each day I do my best at removing the old parasites from my life and preventing new ones from entering.