watermelon.

Life never really happens like we think it will, does it?

For instance, watermelon.

I grew up spending my summers at the beach. Pawley's Island, SC was our family's home away from home. One of our favorite things to do has always been to escape the mostly unbearable hot Columbia summers to the breezy, salty air of PI.

In essence, there were five main food groups in these almost endless summers:
1. boiled peanuts. { straight from the refrigerated section of the gas station }
2. peach fuzz. { a delicious, slushy blend of fresh peaches and ice }
3. Cheerwine. { for the love of all soft drinks, the most delicious cherry-twisted one out there }
4. popsicles. { the brightly colored kind that you had to cut the top off the plastic tube }
5. watermelon. { ripe, red and seeded with watermelon seed spitting contests on the regular }

But I never liked watermelon. Maybe it was because I was stubborn and refused to try any new foods for the majority of my life. Maybe it was because I was such a daddy's girl and well, if he didn't like watermelon then I wouldn't like it either! Maybe it was my way of trying to rebel from what seemed to be the "norm" { aka everyone else liked it so I certainly couldn't! }. Or maybe it was just a genuine distaste for this particular fruit.

For all my life I stuck my nose up at the stuff.

Then I moved to Nicaragua. And watermelon is abundant here...and cheap. For the first six months, I stuck to my guns. I refused to give in. But eventually, I began to realize: I might want to give it a shot. So I did. At first, it was simply taking watermelon whenever it was offered to me...swallowing down just one piece didn't seem so horrible. Then it came to a point that I would actually choose watermelon over other fruit - and enjoyed it!

I still remember the day I bought my very first watermelon to bring home. I didn't even have any idea how to cut it up so I had to google it. It began with smoothies - frozen strawberries and fresh watermelon. And at some point, I stopped putting it into only the blender and began eating it by the forkful - scooping a couple of pieces into a separate bowl { only to abandon that tactic all together and eat it straight from whatever Tupperware container that housed it in the fridge }. And so began my love affair with watermelon. Six months in and I haven't looked back, eating at least one watermelon a week.

Had you told me in those summers growing up that one day I would love watermelon, I would have rolled my eyes. I would have argued with you. I would have been so very sure that I would never in a million years eat watermelon.

Life, I think, happens in this same way. This slow, gradual drift from what I thought I was sure of into something terrifyingly different. Sometimes I see it coming and fight it with every inch of my being. Sometimes it sneaks up on me, surprising me with its changes. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to. Sometimes it feels as easy as slipping on my favorite pair of jeans.

But these watermelon moments, I'm discovering, are what life is all about. These uncontrollable, often unforeseen pieces that come slowly yet still shock, scare and confuse me. Because life isn't always a loud, booming, fireworks type of thing - sometimes it's a simple movement that seems quiet and ordinary - but bit by bit, it pieces itself together into something beautifully and sweetly unexpected. And through lots of surrender and lots of open-hand praying...I learn that leaning into these watermelon moments isn't quite as scary as I thought.