Low Hanging Fruit

Like chandelier earrings dangling from the most graceful form, luscious mangos accessorize the trees this time of year in the Dominican. The whole town is decorated with their juicy sweetness. Every morning the street in front of our apartment building is dappled by fallen fruit whose heaviness pulled them to the earth. Like candy flung to the ground from a busted-wide-open piñata, people rush out to gather up the juicy prizes. Kids sit on corners peeling mangoes with their teeth and slurping up the vibrant display of mango meat. 

The funny thing is that every day, random people come by on their motos with pvc pipe tied together for extra length to stop and knock those that are ready but have not fallen yet into their hungry hands. I wonder if they have a mango tree loop that they drive to knock down the low hanging fruit, or in this case, the high hanging fruit that can easily loose its grip with the bump of a pole. Everyone is on the hunt for low-hanging fruit (and sometimes that means mangos down in road!)

Do you know what happens to low hanging fruit that isn't gathered up? It rots. Sweetness never smelled so stinky! Mangos on the ground remind me of gifts and talents that go unused . . .  qué triste!  How sad to let the gifts God has given us sit like a mango on the ground. Of course, if it's a juicy mango in the D.R., no one is going to let it go to waste because they recognize a piece of fruit for what it is - a gift :)