I recently spoke at the Woman's Journey to Wholeness Retreat in Santa Barbara. People always ask if I prepare for my speaking engagements or topics and I suppose I do if you consider the incredible drive from San Diego to Santa Barbara preparation.
The earth is still black, trees still stripped and charred along the road as I drove north. But incredibly there is the most vivid shades of green, new life, rising up through the darkness of the earth. Flowers of yellow and orange and violet were sprinkled across the hills to my right and to my left, the blueness of the ocean. It was breathtaking.
I called my friend Sally and described to her my road trip and told her I wanted to hop out of my car and take a bite out of the scenery. That statement reminded me of my "mango" moment just a few weeks before.
Since the violent kidnapping of my daughter and me seven years ago, a crime that forced me to face my life of child abuse and teen run-a-way life, I have been on the path of purpose, awakening, and a spiritual uncovering that has allowed me to fall in love with life, God and finally discover self-love for the first time.
I was in my kitchen eating one of my favorite fruits, a mango. It was gorgeous...the color, the scent, the sweetness. But it was also messy. It was dripping down my fingers, my chin and onto the counter. I know, a neatly sliced mango is probably the proper way to go. But I I just had to take a bite right into it, my teeth sinking into the center of it as though I picked it myself. In that moment I realized that to me, life is like a mango: sweet, delicious, sexy, and sometimes messy, but so worth biting right into and getting all over you!
When I shared this with the participants at the retreat and told them my story, my journey and how now I embrace my MANGOliciousness, the response was humbling to say the least.
I didn't prepare what I was going to say, the Universe did. So, here's to taking a bite out of life and getting it all over you!
Michelle Renee is the Author of Held Hostage: The True Story of a Mother and Daughter's Kidnapping. Available at all major booksellers and on Amazon.com.
Follow Michelle Renee on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dreambiglife
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