Transitions

Cange, Haiti

Transitions

Yesterday I was outside in a blizzard of gold, orange, and crimson; raking up the leaves of autumn blowing down in cool November breezes. Today I am in the humid closeness of warm tropical evening air. All of my plants are now sheltered the garage and house against the encroaching cold of winter, their blooms long lost. Trees here are verdant green with full canopies. Here vibrant tropical blooms are fresh and full. Winter does not come here.

Morning dawned with brilliant red and crimson, only as it can be seen from nearly eight miles up. The adamantine walls of Florida’s gold coast reached up into the clouds, much liked the fabled city of Chiron. The opulence of the world’s richest country was startling in its image from miles above the morning mists. Even more compelling was the image of another world from twenty feet above the ground. Standing at the top of a stair case on the Port Au Prince tarmac I saw metaphors of failed dreams and ambitions. In my travels to forty one nations I have not often been startled as much by what I saw today. There was a profound sense of barely contained desperation and chaos. I have not before experienced a whole culture in fervent bids for survival. It seems everyone was trying to stay alive. There is not much left for being nice or sharing.

Yet, here in this place I have found profound proof that one or two people can make a huge difference, even in one of the poorest places on earth where nothing makes sense and no one is really in charge. Up here in the mountains at the end of a fifty mile rut, one finds an oasis of hope where people find employment, possibilities, community, and shared dreams. In a short few hours I have met priests, students, engineers, physicians, nurses, laborers, and children trying to build a better world for each other. To be in a place where people are so completely outside of themselves is stunning and rich beyond words or money. Out of nothing but dreams and visions a hospital, schools, libraries, churches, communities, water systems and hope are being created.

Only in Gods’ economy are the greatest riches to be found in one of the poorest places on earth.