31 Days of Story {Day 19} A Five Minute Friday edition :: Looking with Eyes to See

Want to read the entire 31 days of story?

Click here to see a list of all of the posts, updated daily.

If you do not want to miss even ONE day, please subscribe 

at the top of this post by entering your email address.

Look around you little girl.
Look and see.
The way the marchands {street merchants} get up early every morning to sell their wares.
Cheecos and candies.
Sugar cane and dous {carmelized sugar}.

Look and see the smiles
Bright white on molasses skin
Enjoying moments of laughter
often with strangers
in the midst of the busy day.

Look, little one.
Look at the people who love on you
with haggard-lined hands
with well-worn souls
with tender hearts.

Look, dear sensitive soul.
See the people.
Your people.
Though your skin may be alabaster
You are one of them.
In more ways than you can understand
In your mere sixteen years of life.

Look and remember
The feel of climbing up the flamboyant tree
The moisture of the juicy mango running down your fingers
The cool of the Caribbean breeze blowing across your sweaty brow.

Look.
See.
Imprint the faces, the hearts, the moments on your heart and soul.
You were made here.
Formed into the beginnings of womanhood.

Oh please look....



{with a bit of spell checking and Haitian word editing this week}

******
{And the context of these Five Minute Friday words....}

It was the biggest decision of my life to date.

"Should I stay or should I go now....?"

I did not know much about The Clash back then, or now either really, but these words were precisely what cycled through my adolescent brain.  For such a long time, I had longed to be like everybody else -- every other American teen that is. Then quite suddenly and almost without warning, the choice of a lifetime lay before me.

Should I complete my high school education at the newly established Christian school in Haiti or move back to the States, live with my aunt, and attend the stateside Christian school I had attended for three months of my junior year?

In true Rory Gilmore style {five years before Gilmore Girls ever aired}, I labored over my pros and cons list, and still anxiously travailed over what THE right decision was.

Could I really leave home at sixteen....going on seventeen?
{I know, I know...I have a thing for one-liners set to music in the BIG moments of my life.}
Would it be more advantageous to have an American diploma?
How would I handle all of the changes sure to arise without my parents as a support system?

I asked my mom what to do.
In fact, I insisted she tell me what I SHOULD do.

But she would not.
Nor would my dad.

They simply weighed all the pros and cons with me.
"It's your choice." they would say.

That was the scariest and best thing they could have ever done for me.
And for themselves.
I can only imagine how hard it was for them.
Especially when I decided
to go.
to leave Haiti
for the last time as a child.
The next time would be different.
Seeing my homeland with a brand new perspective.

But it was time.
So I embraced the last six months of my Haiti girlhood days with renewed vigor and sentiment.
Looking with eyes to see.

Welcome to all the (in) This Season ladies and ANY of you who would like to share your moments, your lessons, your truths, your paradigm shifts of this week or of life in general.

Let's continue to foster a heart of encouragement and community here by reading and commenting on at least the person who posted before you. Sometimes we all need a little extra bloggy love, right?

Here's to FABULOUS you!

and

Happy Weekending!