Just returned home(?) from the island of enchantment with a stop-over in the sunshine peninsula. Reflecting on the time spent in my second home city, my thoughts are jumbled with longing for what were the best days of my life so far and pure awe at how I ever survived them. Long days filled with high responsibility, constant stimulation, and a myriad of faces to spend time with interrupted gratefully yet all too quickly by semester endings and occasional hurricane fiestas. Even with no responsibilities and knowing far fewer faces than ever before, I am exhausted by the past few days' activities of reconnecting with old friends and recounting to each other the recent wins and losses. While frolicking in the spectacular new library with one such friend, I saw a book jacket that was featured among others as great new books to read. I stole its title to give nomenclature to this post and stole it also for my heart to give label to a feeling I often experience.
Sauntering down Olive to a tune in my head, I'm met by two of my favorites, one on handlebars the other pedaling hard rushing to class from...Mango. Worn from the day but not yet ready to wake up to the next, I plop on a red plaid couch in a room that contains elation in ...Mango. Checking email on the internet-serviced lawn, Tucker, Tammy and I are interrupted by a slew of rolls snowballed back and forth that inevitably leads to a knock-down, kick and slap gorilla fight at...Mango. Fresh fish, famous mashed potatoes, church leftovers, early morning pancakes, and decadent Ghirardelli brownies enjoyed within...Mango. Hammocks sway while Micho Acana melts under a dinosaur tree with...Mango. Always best in costume, fighting for best in lip-sync, worshipped by underclass girls, leading ministries and unintentionally good intramurals, kayaking out to engagements, chugging milk gallons, and forming bike gangs, the campus looked curiously to...Mango.
These things form within me a space where I retreat to when my journey of constant transition is overwhelming. I want to go back, but I have this secure hope that the best is still coming. I'm convinced the New Earth will be Mango-shaped.
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oh gosh, i couldn't contain my laughter after reading this blog. i too have that mango shaped space in my heart. i flip the pages of that memory album every single day and i'm not even exagerating. okay maybe i admitted to too much there but who cares. i miss those days very much. but i too see the light up ahead and there is one reason. when it comes to mango, in my mind, i have zero regret. we took life by the horns and made the most of that old run down complex. we made the most of the God-given time spent with the people He made to live. . .in mango.
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