SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY

Some of my posts get rather long-winded and this one was in danger of falling into the same trap.  But then I realized what I had to share was a simple truth about GOD'S poetry in this amazing country of Haiti and I would best state it simply:

When I first came here (four years ago this month) and again when Melissa and I brought the kids in 2011 and yet again when we moved our family here over a year ago, I could not help but notice (and gag a bit) at the smells of burning trash and open sewers. Those scents were not by any means omnipresent, but when a breeze brought one, it seemed inescapable.

Now?

Well, last week a visitor made a comment about the amount of garbage smoke and other unpleasant smells and it occurred to me that those odors really don't register with my nose any longer - not on any regular basis.  And I don't know why.  I guess I kind of assumed people weren't burning trash as much.  (Which is goofy - there's nothing else you can do with it here.)

Later that same evening, I was taking Buddy for a run around the mission grounds to expend some of his puppy energy and as I came down the gravel road behind some of the houses, I inhaled deeply and thought, "Man, I love this smell."

Even as I sit at the kitchen table right now and type this, the same scent is wafting in through the screens of the windows.  It's a flowery perfume that permeates the air.  It IS omnipresent around here - at least in the evenings and early mornings.  It smells a bit like lilac, only softer.  And it's not produced by a particular flower - apparently (as it's been explained to me by good sources) it is produced by entire trees.  

It has become one of my favorite smells in this entire world - right up there with bacon.  Seriously.  THAT is how much I love it.

And since we returned to Haiti in late August to begin our second year here, after a summer in the States, I have noticed it just about EVERY DAY.  And each time I smell it, even if my feet are moving, I at least mentally pause and am reminded about the beauty of God's world. Each time.

And now I recognize this "tree perfume" as one of God's graces for Haiti.

And one of His graces for me.

And how beauty quietly lingers and grows stronger while ugliness fades steadily to a shadow is a mystery to all but God.  

It's His specialty.