January in Lane Cove brings us an abundance of stone fruit and it is the peak of Summer. We get peaches, plums, cherries, and mangoes. This year we’re particularly lucky to be blessed with an oversupply of mangoes. We’ve had many and they’ve all been so fragrant and juicy. Talk about living the gift, eh? Fruits are the ultimate gift of nature in these hazy, dazy Summer months before work picks us up and sits us down in its structure and rhythm.
In Turkey, I grew up with cherries and peaches. They were available by the kilo at the street markets. I didn’t get to taste a mango until I was a little older, maybe around 7. It was brought to us by my Auntie Aysel, who was living in Kuwait with her family at the time. I didn’t know much about Kuwait, and I imagined it to be a place out of the Arabian Knights, with lots of golden sand, desert, and the occasional caravanserai. This was in the 80s, before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Seeing mangoes has inspired me this year to focus on the colour yellow. Yellow is like the sun, like gold coins, and is the colour of the Solar Plexus chakra, which is the energy centre in our gut region, supplying us with personal power. Though my fruit of choice had been the pomegranate, I’m inspired by the mango and its juiciness. It’s suggested a story to me.
The Mango Tree
Once there was a woman who lived near a mango tree. She loved the tree and looked after it so that it always had enough water, nutritious soil and received sun on the branches where the fruit would come. When it was season, she’d pick the fruits and share them with everyone in the village. Her tree would yield so much fruit that there was no way she could eat all of it herself.
Her sister lived under the shade of a huge mountain. Though sisters, these girls had no need to see each other. They were as different as night and day.
The Devious Envious Snake
One day, a devious envious snake visited the dark sister. She’d never seen a creature like that before. The snake told her there was a whole life and much sunshine outside of her surroundings. When they spotted the golden fruits of the mango tree, the sister knew she had to have the tree.
One night, she stole it. She planted the tree in her shady garden and the tree died because it needed plenty of sun.
She asked the devious envious snake why she couldn’t grow a mango tree and her sister could. The devious envious snake revealed with an angelic smile that the mango is her sister’s gift. The snake showed the girl her own trees. She had cherries that didn’t mind the shadow and blossomed into luscious fruit. The sister had never noticed her own fruits before.
One Garden
When the two sisters came together, they could see that they were all in one garden. There was no separation between them but in their own minds. The light sister missed her mango tree very much and the dark sister fed her sister and the villagers cherries until a new mango tree would take root and bear fruit. The devious envious snake was not evil after all. He’d shown them a way to be together whilst remaining true to themselves and their preferences when it came to whether sunny and bright or shady. The girls had different fruit, not one better than the other and when it came to feeding themselves and the village, cherries would do as well as mangoes.
Over to you…
Who are you holding out from? Is it a brother or a sister whose seeming success has eluded you? Why are you comparing yourself? You have done so much in your life that others would not even dream of. We all have. You are unique and no one can have your experience. It’s time to draw a line in the sand, start a new chapter, and start inviting people to your part of the garden. Please don’t be ashamed of the dark and shady areas. We all have those!
