Clouds, Mangoes, and Hope
One of my favorite places in the world is a thin piece of land nestled between two rivers and a stone’s throw from the Atlantic Ocean. Dolphins leap and frolic in the rivers, sunlight dances on the water, and roaming peacocks dazzle me with their beauty.
The clouds along this thin stretch of land have been magnificent this week! They have been a collection ranging from white and fluffy to dark blue and menacing to wispy and pale, but always mesmerizing and inviting. The clouds draw my awareness upward. “Look up Becky. Widen your gaze. Expand your view. There is more here,” they say. With a widened view and an expanded gaze, my perspective shifts. I remember who I am. The clouds have a way of reorienting me and reminding me of reality. Here. Now. I am part of God’s bigger and better story. It truly is God’s story, not mine. I don’t invite God into my story. No, God invites me into God’s story. This is reality. When I get outside, see all that is there, and look up, the world is far bigger than my little perception. The clouds remind me that I am constantly being invited into a bigger and better and more hopeful existence. When I get outside, look up, and see the clouds, I am ushered into a hope-filled awareness of something bigger, something more. That something more and bigger is God’s story, and I am invited to be a part of it.
The soil on this thin stretch of land is unique in that it sits between two rivers that flow in and out of the Atlantic Ocean. The rivers are part salt and part fresh water. The proper lingo for this is brackish. Somehow this soil is ideally suited to produce the most deliciously magical mangoes. Truly. People came from near and far for Merritt Island mangoes. I call them the sweet fruit of the gods. They are beautiful, succulent, meaty, and dripping with juice. Their colors range from purples to yellow-greens, all melding together. There are many varieties: Tommy Atkin, Thai, Odell, Valencia Pride, Sunset, and Southern Blush. When perfectly ripe, they are firm with a slight give to the touch and all meat inside. Often when I eat them, juice drips down my chin as I am taken with the delicacy of the taste and I imagine pure delight radiating from within me. Joy and Hope fill me when I eat a mango. They are a super-fast highway to heaven. One day, as I was eating a mango, an image filled my mind. I paused and listened. I am convinced that I heard the delighted, joyous, hopeful, explosive laughter of God. I could picture the Three of the Trinity grinning from ear to ear with mango juice dripping down their chins. For me, this is a picture of hope in the present moment.
This week I noticed something I had not noticed before. I saw hope in the changing clouds. I tasted hope in the juicy mangoes. Hope was crying out to be heard, seen, and experienced. Yes, in the clouds. In the mangoes. Everywhere. It opened the possibility that in every situation, hope can be found.
I have come to realize that hope is a signpost pointing to the Creator of all things and a vision of what is possible—hope is an opening. I believe hope is a promise of transformation: the transformation of habits; the restoration of relationships. Hope takes us beyond the present patterns of fear, practices of greed and violence, and the assumptions of being in control; it is for a new order of freedom, how to live well, and how to become a human being. It is a promise of transformation of heart, mind, and body. Hope initiates a recalibration of behavioral practices, emotional patterns, and thought templates recognizable as God’s image within us. Christian hope is bold. It is an invitation to live differently, in an alternative reality of flourishing and shalom.
What is your super-fast highway to God?
Where do you find hope?
How do you experience hope?
What is hope for you?
I am here to serve your soul in whatever ways you might need or long for … spiritual direction, spiritual companionship, leadership coaching, enneagram coaching, Ignatian Spiritual Exercises guide, and guided retreats. What does your soul need? What does your soul want?
Becky
Photos from the thin piece of land between the two rivers.