The Mango Tree

We live in a concrete jungle.  The driveway is hot, and sometimes it burns my feet as I trot across the paving stones to open the gate when the kids get home from school in the afternoons.  We’ve put in lots of flowers, and I even grew some bougainvillea over my little coffee corner…  but my shady solution for the mid-afternoon basketball game heat and dinky car races along the garden’s edge was a mango tree.

I bought it the first week we were living here, from a lady selling plants along the side of the road.  We put it in a clay pot because it was so small and sad looking, but within months it sprouted to life and found it’s home in the front garden.  I tied it to a pole to keep the dogs away and trained it to grow out to drop some shade onto the pavement.  And it grew.  And grew.  And grew…  and I love it :)

Our mango tree, still in it's pot (far right)

But after a crazy storm one night that filled our bedroom (and my face!) with water while we slept, the landlord came for a visit and she saw my beautiful, little mango tree standing outside the window.  

My view from the "coffee corner" of the kids playing football one afternoon in the driveway
(mango tree, far right)

Now she says it has to go.  It has deep roots, and it will ruin the foundation.  

There have been so many things I’ve loved in life that haven't been good for me, and giving up those things up always really hurts.   Even when I know in my heart it’s time to let go, it is still hard.  Over the next few weeks I’m going to give up more still - but I can trust that there’s a bigger plan - and something better will come out of it.  

Because the foundation is important…  and in the long run it is for the best.  Because those roots run deep, and the foundation is far more important than the mango tree.