Mango Days: A Teenager Facing Eternity Reflects on the Beauty of Life
Good Morning God!
Yesterday I worked VERY hard getting everything I could think of DONE so I could ENJOY a full Sabbath. This morning, I observed that if I had loaded the tea kettle last night, and put the tea in the pot — I wouldn’t have needed to do that this morning. I’m grinning, God! Is that ADVANCED LEGALISM? Or am I just getting the feel of Refraining from Work?
So, here I sit with my tea and half a BIG mango — a melt in your mouth, mango — pondering the 29th anniversary of Patty’s Death. Marveling at how YOU got us all through it. And at the same moment realizing we are all still IN IT! Just recently a new friend shared about her sister’s death and I realized that we are never done with the adjusting. It is an amazing Overload of Feelings. There is still sorrow over the loss . . . still thoughts of WHAT DID I DO or NOT DO that might have kept this cup from us. . . they are muted now . . . I have to turn and seek them out.
Cumulus Clouds: Photo by Peter Essick
And at the Same Time there is GREAT REJOICING for LIFE! I had Patty for 18 years! I still “have” her . . . waiting and maybe watching as part of that Great Cloud of Witnesses. And I have Sandy and Suzy and Kit and I am GRATEFUL!
When I see puffy clouds I often think of Patty DANCING above the Clouds. Actually those words aren’t part of her poem The Hike. Here is the last stanza:
Someday I’ll sleep below the grass
And dance above the sky
But now I lie between the two
and let the wind blow by.
Thank You, God for EVERYTHING — even the DARK DARK — for YOU are with us in it! And You LONG to comfort us and walk with us through it.
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
Yes, and children sense the immutable. After my mother, his grandma died, Michael then age 4, now 62, pointed to a cloud like that and stated: There’s Gow’s cloud!
Thank you for reminding me of Mango Days….that book has meant so much to me everytime I read and reread it….. God bless you, Margie