~*~
There’s something about Gogo Flora that makes me wonder if she’s telling the truth.
I ask her what memory, of any throughout her entire life, has been her happiest – and she answers that her life has been filled with grief and pain. She says she cannot remember a time when she was happy – all-together making me wonder if she’s telling the truth.
Gogo Flora is pretty stubborn, a trait that is apparent across the language barrier and shines through her mischievous eyes. Eyes that tell me she knows she’s trouble and when our eyes lock, we knowingly unite in a bond of harmless stubbornness and laughter.
I ask her how she is feeling and she says she is cold. Five minutes later, the sun begins to beat down on her hut and I ask her again how she is feeling – and she says the sun is too hot. And then she laughs.
Gogo Flora lives in a hut down the road from the anchor center. She lives with her 9 grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are constantly playing around her home. There is a fresh batch of puppies sleeping next to the front door and I immediately pick one up despite the fleas and warnings from my teammates. There are baby chicks rummaging around the dirt and kittens popping their little faces around corners of protection. There are mountains and smiles and friendship and life happening all around us.
I bend down to pick up a puppy for Gogo Flora and place it in her lap as she laughs and pets the handful of puppy nestled underneath her large bosom.
There was a reason I asked Gogo Flora what her happiest memory was – I want to focus on what makes people happy. I want to learn why they smile and I want to learn in what ways it’s different than what makes me smile.
I don’t want to be insensitive to the trials that have pained her in the past.
Everyone has trials – every human life. They vary in weight and degree, and their presence will inevitably impact the ways one’s life is shaped. But if we focus on life’s trials and don’t take time or even a moment to appreciate our happiest moments or favorite days – then our lives will be filled with memories of grief.
Appreciating the joy in one’s life is a forever reminder of life’s best moments – memories of happiness and catalysts for joy in the future.
Gogo Flora’s story is filled with sadness. There is grief. There is pain. And there is a reason to experience all of the emotions that go along with hurt, it’s expected, it’s necessary, and it’s an important part of life.
But there is also happiness all around her. Happiness that I want her to experience.
Seeing joy in places where it’s not obvious is one of the hardest things for people to do, myself included. What I’ve learned is that sometimes, finding joy takes effort. Sometimes it takes a deliberate step out of stubbornness in order to see the good that is all around.
As a team, we were able to visit Gogo Flora and her puppies a couple more times. Every time we prayed thankfulness into her life. Thankfulness for her grandchildren – her new grand baby – her health – and each time we left she grabbed our hands and smiled.
~*~
One of the following days there was a double rainbow above the anchor center. Double rainbows are cool things in general and this one was no exception.
I was looking at the rainbow from the doorway of the anchor center and it was beautiful. But a group of people walked even closer, enticing me to take a few extra steps and look at whatever they were marveling at – and there it was:
Behind the trees and shrubbery, I saw the place where the rainbow ended and smoothly dissipated into the ground.
Usually rainbows are far off pictures – distant and mysterious – their beginning and end hidden by the nature and life bustling in front of it.
But here it was, right in front of me – it was beautiful and honest. There was no pot of gold waiting for me, but that isn’t what God promised us.
He promised hope.
For me, for you, and for Gogo Flora. Sometimes it just takes an extra step in the right direction – it takes a little more effort to see the good that arches itself over our lives and urges us to see it for what it is. Whether it is intangible or tangible, it is always worthy of attention and the extra effort it takes to find.
And as it arches itself over our lives it becomes easier to see. Even after it’s light has faded, it leaves us with a beautiful picture engrained in our mind, a precious memory. There is new motivation to step out in faith in order to find the joy that is hidden in small places.
It is the hidden joy – the average and simple things we usually overlook- that has the majestic potential to change the way we think, the way we live, and the way we remember life’s happiest moments.
