October 14, 2025 • 28 mins
Have you ever faced a storm and later realized God was painting something beautiful behind it?
In this episode we open up about our unforgettable trip to Puerto Rico — where sunshine and rain taught us the same lesson: every season has purpose. From laughter at the sunny poolside to moments that tested our faith, we discovered that God’s hand is always at work. Although the skies change, God does not. We hope this story reminds you to see beauty in your own journey — in love, in faith, and in life’s unpredictable seasons.
Top 3 Highlights:
Connect with Maurice and Kafi
In this episode we open up about our unforgettable trip to Puerto Rico — where sunshine and rain taught us the same lesson: every season has purpose. From laughter at the sunny poolside to moments that tested our faith, we discovered that God’s hand is always at work. Although the skies change, God does not. We hope this story reminds you to see beauty in your own journey — in love, in faith, and in life’s unpredictable seasons.
Top 3 Highlights:
- God’s Hand in Nature: Their ocean-view room revealed God’s detailed handiwork in calm seas, stormy waves, and local wildlife.
- Seasons of Life: The hosts explain how nature’s weather shifts parallel life’s varying seasons, emphasizing the importance of appreciating them all.
- Marriage as an Island: Maurice describes marriage as an island experiencing diverse weather, where every season helps shape a stronger love story.
Connect with Maurice and Kafi
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So from the forest, the trees, even to the open sea.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Every view in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I know it reminded me of God's beauty isn't limited
to perfect conditions, but it's revealed through every season in
your life.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We'll talk about it right after this.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Let's talk about love and them the way of God.
Intend like experience to be shaw transform Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hey, hey, hey, everybody, hey cough. I think one of
the things that we need to understand in this moment,
even just in that high.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
There's beauty in that.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And what I mean by that is, or where I'm
saying that is, is that sometimes we don't we take
little things for granted, and.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
For what we had experienced in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Because our room overlooked the ocean, and so in that
we definitely were able to see God's handiwork most definitely,
and to see the beauty in the the sea or
(01:54):
the ocean, I should say, the blue skies, the white
puffy clouds. But then we were also able to see
the rough waters pounding the.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Shoreline.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We were able to see the haziness come over the
water that where we can no longer see the horizon,
but you get to see God's work in all of that.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And as I had explained to you that, I.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wonder in that moment, what were the disciples thinking being
on the boat or what would have been like walking
across the water and losing focus and now you're start
to sink, you know. And so in that I was
able to see God's love, his mercy, his beauty in life,
(03:00):
you know, because now you get to really because you
just stayd in another episode where you know, being in
that quietness or that stillness, because we weren't talking about
a whole lot of other stuff, like you stated, We
weren't you know, pulling out our phones all that type
of stuff or on our phones. We were able to
(03:21):
just sit there. I know you said to whole you know,
hold each other and whatever it was. But as we
were holding each other, we were looking out, you know,
and just being mesmerized like, Wow, God, this is what
it's like. Huh, this is this is your your your
true power at work. This is your true handiwork, you know,
(03:43):
whatever it might have been, you know, And so sometimes
you get to see how God maneuvers how you know,
as the Wisdom Genesis where it says his spirit, you know,
went over the land and the sea and all, you know,
all those type of things, like you get to feel
that a little bit now you now has a I
have a better visualization of what that's like and understanding
(04:10):
that if because even.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
When when that one day we were there, we were able.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
To see just the wind constantly because I told you,
I was like, yo, them trees ain't getting a break.
Like that wind was, you know, just pounding them trees
like for hours that end, and like the trees just
were not getting a break, you know. And so can
you imagine what life is like when you just feel
like you're constantly in a storm. Can you imagine what
(04:37):
life is like if you're like, hey, I'm in a
place of paradise and everything is nice and calm or
whatever it might be. You know, so from any aspect
of the trees blowing not blowing, to the rain, the
quick rain that we experienced by standing in walgreens, like
you know it's a rental downpour or whatever it was,
you know, to being able to just see what felt
(05:03):
like you know, national geographics walking across the street, you know,
you know, the the these as conflicult on free range animals.
To to have that experience. There's nothing like it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You know, sitting at the pool and having just the
iguana or whatever it was just walking around just you know,
you know, whatever he was doing. And these I could
call them salamanders. They weren't salamanders, but whatever they were,
they were fast as I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And then the birds, you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
All the experiences that we had, hermit crabs, all the
experience that we had, being able to see God's hand in.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
All of it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, definitely be able to see God and and
all of those things, you know, creatures great and small.
I can see God in them all, you know, as
Marie said, from the hermit crab to I think we
even saw a regular crab. Along the shoreline as we
went for a walk. We saw wild chickens. We saw
(06:12):
so many things, and everyone was All of the animals
were at peace, like they weren't.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, they weren't like skittish, you know, they were that
we was gonna go over there and try to fry.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Them right right now. The pigeons were, you know, a
little strange, but I don't like pigeons, so they they
looked a little off to me, a little suspect. But
everything else was just kind of chilling.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Except for the bird that we thought was a pterodactyl.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
He was chilling where he was, and he was just
chilling up in the trees for a while, and then
they started flying. So everything had its place. Everything stayed
for the most part, to itself, to itself, like it
wasn't you know. We've been to other shore lines and
(07:00):
the birds are like, oh, you got French fries, I
want some.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, I think those birds were looking at us pretty
you know, but.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
They weren't coming towards and like.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, no, they weren't coming to work. But they was
walking from our.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Chair, right, But they weren't again like other shorelines we've been,
it's like that movie you know, where the birds come
down and just you know, flock with you, yeah, pack
at you. No, they weren't like that. I didn't get
that sense. Like you said, they walk nearby, but we're
sitting still, and that's their habitat, that's where they are,
(07:33):
you know. So but they weren't trying to jump up
in the next chair next to us or up on
a table and snatch stuff from us. I didn't see
the snatches like I see uh. Here in the mainland area.
I've seen snatches in the New Jersey shore where those
(07:54):
birds coming just straight snatch your stuff. It's so again.
Being on vacation on the second honeymoon, I can say
everything that we experienced certainly was eye opening and remarkable
(08:15):
in the way of again of seeing God's hand in
it all. From the rain coming in as Mary said,
how it just the sky was blue and clear in
the morning when we first got up, when we were contemplating,
like okay, what do we get up and go, you know,
do a few things, and like what the forecast says
(08:35):
like ninety chance of rain. You know, I understand we're
in tropics and the rain can come and just hit
us for you know, ten minutes and be gone. But
we had no idea what time of day the rain
was coming. And I think it had a little bit
of a a sign of maybe a thunderstorm or you know,
(08:57):
a severe storm. So again, and we're in a land
where not a lot of people speak English, so I
couldn't like look at the local news and kind of
get a real good grasp of what's going on. So,
you know, I tried watching the local news, but they
(09:20):
were saying it's going to rain, and you know, I
couldn't pick everything else up, but so we had planned
that day but for that. But again sitting there and
seeing the blue sky and the sunshine and the happy clouds,
as Maurice had said, and then it kind of shifted.
It was like an overcast and then the sky got
(09:42):
a little darker and from the far far distance, as
far as your eye could see, it just it was
like a roll like it just kind of rolled in.
And it wasn't fast. You know, I think here where
we are, right outside of Philadelphia, like I've seen things
(10:03):
roll in, but it kind of rolls in quickly. But
this one was, I guess because it was so far
in the distance and there was nothing to obstruct it.
There's no tall buildings, there's nothing, yes, you know, so
it could have been rolling from you know, who knows.
And but because we couldn't see anything else but that
so as it came in, as he said, like the
(10:26):
sky changed, the horizon changed. At first you could see
the difference between the sky and the water line and
you could see the horizon. But then as time went on,
as we sat there and kind of marveled at God,
it kind of came in and then it all looked
like one color and it's just and that's where Maurice
(10:48):
was like, all right, could you imagine being out on
a boat. He's like, I don't care if it's you know,
you're out there with the Disciples or you out there
on the Titanic, Like can you imagine? And I was like,
well a Titanic. It was cold, so really know so
and it was night so I.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Mean, but we also said that hey when it got
really dark outside, and then You're like, could you really
be out there when the Titanic really happened? And I'm like,
uh no, because they had moonlight. Yeah, they had stars.
We ain't got no stars.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
We don't know. It could have had overcast in as well.
So so that was that particular time of watching the
storm come in. And then it came in and it rained,
you know, majority of the day, and then it cleared
up and became sunny again, and then we got ourselves
and went out for the evening events. But then there
(11:36):
were there was another event of just watching the sky
and everything shift and change as well, and you know,
again just watching God do what God does was just remarkable.
Along we're city people. We we you know, quite concrete jungle.
(11:58):
So but when we went here, it was a different
kind of a jungle, different kind of a jungle most definitely.
Again all of the creatures, great and small, flying creatures,
crawling creatures, swimming creatures. Quite interesting. The first day the
(12:19):
water didn't look as blue, but you know the next
day we could see how blue the water was. When
we got in the water, it was clear. You could
see the bottom and He's like, okay, I see rocks
and you know, other stuff. So it was quite interesting
to see again God's hand in. As Marie said, you know,
even with the trees blowing and bending in the wind,
(12:43):
you know, and you could look at it as a negative,
like wow, you know the wind just won't give up.
But sometimes like that's that's God blowing on you, you know,
blowing things your way, moving things in your life, and
you don't want that to let up, you know. So
so yeah, that one day the trees were all leaning
(13:03):
to the left, but then the next day, when the
storm had passed, they were just up standing straight up.
It didn't even look like they were leaning that long.
For that it seems like if they lean that long
that they would kind of grow that way or permanently
lean that way. But they didn't. They were like, yeah,
just a brand new day, and I'm standing here and
(13:24):
I'm getting all the sunshine and I'm giving God all
the glory and I was just like, wow, okay, trees,
I see you. So it was quite quite the remarkable experience.
When we first got there. One of the things I was like,
all right, this is it I'm not going to do,
especially when the rain was coming and the storm was coming,
like okay, this is our second time I think seeing
(13:45):
a storm come in. With having an hotel on the ocean,
you know, we're not a block away. We don't have
to walk like you come outside and boom, you're at
the ocean. So I was like, okay, maybe this is
my last time needing to be ocean front. But then
by the time we left, I was like, oh wow,
(14:07):
I didn't want to leave the balcony. Maurice is like
getting dressed and getting the luggage together. He's like, all right,
you ready, I'm like just five more minutes, you know,
just that piece of being there in the ocean, and
it was again different than other shores that we've been to.
It didn't smell like.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Dust.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And when we go to the New Jersey shore, like
we know we're close because it just has a distinct
ocean smell, a beach smell, and you know, grew up
on it, just know what it is. Even when we
went to the Delaware beaches, it was a little bit different,
(14:51):
like they.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Put extra salt in it.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
But there was just a different scent. But pulling up
on here, I was just like, it doesn't smell like anything.
I don't know if it's because of the humidity and
the mists and the rainforwt, Like, I don't know what
it is, but it just it didn't have that same
vibe and feel in reference to the ocean. Air was
(15:15):
vastly different. I don't notice because it wasn't as beachy.
Maybe it needs more beach. With the sand and the salt.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I think that there is no beach.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I think as soon as we saw where the what
you crow was, it was like a thirty foot drop.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
That's the way it looked.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, it did, you know, from outside.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Our room, it looked like like, hey, you know, even.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
When we went to the beach, like people weren't going
that far out and the ones that were out were
like doing major sports like they were.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Doing like we belong in the Olympic type, you know,
where synchronized diving stuff like yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
There were people who were doing some snorkeling. They were
quite close, but you know, maybe fifteen feet out people
were like really doing.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Some and so so understand, fifteen feet from where the
water is hitting the land out and they're doing that
like they're like submerged. And the guy that was doing it,
he's tall, he was told than me, and I'm six
feet you know what I mean, you know, and so
whatever it was fifteen feet yeah, I mean it was yeah,
(16:23):
it was yeah, whatever. And plus he was doing other stuff.
He was posing, you know, he was missed Olympia or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And so so one of the things I want to
say to each and every one of you that if
you take a if you listen to what we're talking about,
as far as the the the rain or whatever it is,
if you can find a beauty in that, then you
won't take the sun moments for granted.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
And that this shift a mindset, perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Or whatever it is, it can help all of you,
even us, because it has to understand that we're moving
from a place of frustration to now more faithfulness, of faith,
of believing in God, you know, and who He really
is in our life, and trusting that every season is
shaping they're our love story for His glory, you know.
(17:21):
And so I want you to kind of go away
with that mentality. You know that no matter what the
situation is, is that whatever you're going through, the rain,
the storms, or whatever it is, that when it is
time for the sun to come out, don't take it
for granted, because sometimes we do and we don't we
and I e. If we listen to another show where
(17:44):
we're talking about things being unscripted, is unscripted for a reason.
You know, it ended up being unscripted for a reason
our trip, because it was time for us to take
advantage of the moment that God had sentitas and not
take it for granted. And so so I think those
(18:08):
are the things that like kaf is speaking about of
just looking at the horizon change that was that was
crazy looking at the sky go from this beautiful blue
with the white clouds to literally literally everything was gray.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You couldn't It's almost like a h a curtain or something.
It was crazy. It was not.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
It almost felt surreal. Yeah, it almost felt surreal, like
is this really happening cough that.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Jesus supposed to come back or whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I know, No it wasn't, but that's what it felt like, like, Okay,
this is the this one director, you know. And maybe
what I heard wasn't you know, them little steamboats or
whatever else honking the horn.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Maybe that was the you know, whatever it might have been.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You know, but the reality is is that we sometimes
take the good time for granted and don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
We're going to go through these storms. We're gonna go
through these moments.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And so when Kapfa is sitting out there on the patio,
I mean on the balcony overlooking the clear blue probably
the most calm water that we had since we had
been there.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
There was a little calmer then most of the time
we were there.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I think at that time though, I was I was saying,
I wonder if people was gonna go out there and surf.
So it was still a little bit of waves, but
nowhere near what it had been earlier in the week,
and so so I was wondering whether or not because
there was a storm that was that had passed around us,
and so I was wondering if we were really getting
(19:50):
the residuals of that those waves, because that storm, those waves,
that water.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Is confiscated, like it looked angry, it did.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It looked look really angry, and it felt angry how
hard it was beating the coast, you know. And sometimes
we take those moments for granted, of the sun, of
the calmness, you.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Know, and we don't really give God the glory in that.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, I think outside of taking the sunny days for granted,
whether you know it's an actual sunny day or a
metaphoric sunny day, sunny days with your marriage, sunny days
at work, sunny days with your kids, with your aging parents,
you know, whatever that is. You know, we we want
(20:42):
those sunny days. We long for those sunny days, we
look forward to them. But as Maurice is saying, we
have to acknowledge and learn to appreciate the rainy days.
I can remember I'm just one of those weird type people,
but always saying like I didn't want every day to
(21:03):
be sunny, like I wanted to have some rainy days,
you know, because I think when you have rain days,
it allows you to appreciate the sun, because when things
become normal, normalized and always there and very predicted, then
that's you don't appreciate that anymore. So I think that's
(21:24):
part of what the benefit was of us doing this
type of vacation. It wasn't like any of the other
ones that we've had, you know, because we can predict
what we would do any other time. But because this
was unscripted, because this was you know, just whatever happened happens,
(21:47):
you know, type of a thing, we were able to
embrace it for what it was and to enjoy it,
you know, with the rain, wish, the sun, with all
of those things. You know, I appreciated even the more
(22:09):
so because we had the chance of having both, you know.
So I think that made the trip even the more
full because we did have rain days and we did
have sunny days. Because that's just one thing that I
appreciate about life that every day, especially for where we live.
Like people say, oh, you know, they live in other
(22:31):
parts of the world or other parts of the country,
and it's you know, the same temperature all the time,
and they don't have much rain or they don't have snow.
Like where we live. We get all four seasons.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Some of it might be only a day long when
I'll say, some of.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Them are shorter, you know. But you know, there's not
very many years that we go by without a rain season,
without a snowy season. You know, it might just be
one or two days. It might not accumulate to be
a whole lot, but you know, you have some snow
flicks that may fall, and then you know there's also
(23:05):
you know, your hot season and your cold season, and
then the repeat of a hot season. So but it
allows you to appreciate life. It allows you to appreciate
the days. You know, so when it's ninety degrees, I
can appreciate wintertime when it's you know, twenty degrees outside.
(23:27):
I look forward to summer coming. And I don't think
that one is any better than the other, you know.
I know, for you, with allergies and things like that,
you may not be looking forward to certain seasons. But
you know, because of having all of those makes me
appreciate them all the more. I don't know how much
(23:51):
I would appreciate winter if I had winter all the time,
I think I would get tireder the snow. I think
snow is pretty. I think when it falls, it's it's beautiful,
it's gorgeous again, another thing that we can see God's
hand in. But if it was like that all the time,
he'd be like, all right, you would lose sight of
(24:12):
its goodness. You would lose sight of God's hand in
it all because you have it all the time. So
it does take time to step back and look at
things to kind of see God's hand in it. So
with twenty five years of marriage and seeing Maurice's wonderful
face all those days, I don't get tired of it,
(24:38):
you know, like I would. I guess if I got
tired of the snow, I can see because he changes,
he has changed over all these years.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Face.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I don't know what. Just in certain places you're getting snowy,
snow covered. I can't say anything. I'm going through a
snowface too.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah, I mean it's a right now.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I'm just in some places it is a full blown,
you know, avalanche, and then some places it's just a flurry.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
It's a flurry here and there. So we're talking about
great hair in case you guys are not getting what
we're talking about with the snowface. So yes, salt and pepper,
things are going on in our lives. But yeah, so
you know, Maurice is definitely not the same person that
he was way back in nineteen ninety six and nineteen
(25:31):
ninety seven, and nor am I And yes, I said
nineteen ninety something. It's been that that long. So but
it's been a happy time, a happy twenty five plus
years of marriage plus friendship, and I wouldn't trade it
in at all. I'm happy for the sunny days. I'm
(25:54):
happy for the rainy days. I'm happy for the stormy
days that we've had before the heat waves, you know,
all of those things that we've had, and I look
forward to even more. And I think, you know, with
our past, I'm better prepared, better equipped to handle those
(26:17):
days as they come, but also appreciate them when they come.
So I look forward to that.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
So I just want your to understand why this all
matters while we're talking about this, because marriage in a nutshell,
because I'm gonna break down really what Kaifa said altogether,
marriage in a nutshell is like that island.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You know, you can have a whole lot of.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Mountaintops and storms with snow, and you can have a
lot of sunshine, sunshine and shade and so when you
start to see God's fingerprints, not even his whole hand,
but just his fingerprints in it all that you can
see even the.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Seasons can become holy, can become sanctified, can become.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
That breeding ground for what needs to happen for the
next season, and you can see it coming. Or sometimes
you might not see it coming because you're you're caught
up in all the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
But I understand.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
But when you understand, you just really start to see
God's fingertips in it all, you're really able to enjoy
what you have going on.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
So that's all I got to say. And I hope
that y'all have enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
I know these last couple episodes were getting a little
deeper because we really want you all to understand that
we're not taking year number twenty five lightly, at least
I'm not. I want you all to understand because of
the way the world is going or whatever it is,
(28:04):
we need to make sure that we are staying connected
most definitely, And so we'll talk to you just a
little bit later.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of a No
Fruit podcast where we bring you fruitful conversations.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Ripen wisdom and love that's deeply rooted.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave
us a review, and share it with someone.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Who could use a little inspiration in their death. Until
next time, stay rooted in love and remember every seed
you plant today shapes the fruit of tomorrow.
So from the forest, the trees, even to the open sea.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Every view in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I know it reminded me of God's beauty isn't limited
to perfect conditions, but it's revealed through every season in
your life.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We'll talk about it right after this.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Let's talk about love and them the way of God.
Intend like experience to be shaw transform Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Hey, hey, hey, everybody, hey cough. I think one of
the things that we need to understand in this moment,
even just in that high.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
There's beauty in that.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And what I mean by that is, or where I'm
saying that is, is that sometimes we don't we take
little things for granted, and.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
For what we had experienced in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Because our room overlooked the ocean, and so in that
we definitely were able to see God's handiwork most definitely,
and to see the beauty in the the sea or
(01:54):
the ocean, I should say, the blue skies, the white
puffy clouds. But then we were also able to see
the rough waters pounding the.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Shoreline.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We were able to see the haziness come over the
water that where we can no longer see the horizon,
but you get to see God's work in all of that.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And as I had explained to you that, I.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wonder in that moment, what were the disciples thinking being
on the boat or what would have been like walking
across the water and losing focus and now you're start
to sink, you know. And so in that I was
able to see God's love, his mercy, his beauty in life,
(03:00):
you know, because now you get to really because you
just stayd in another episode where you know, being in
that quietness or that stillness, because we weren't talking about
a whole lot of other stuff, like you stated, We
weren't you know, pulling out our phones all that type
of stuff or on our phones. We were able to
(03:21):
just sit there. I know you said to whole you know,
hold each other and whatever it was. But as we
were holding each other, we were looking out, you know,
and just being mesmerized like, Wow, God, this is what
it's like. Huh, this is this is your your your
true power at work. This is your true handiwork, you know,
(03:43):
whatever it might have been, you know, And so sometimes
you get to see how God maneuvers how you know,
as the Wisdom Genesis where it says his spirit, you know,
went over the land and the sea and all, you know,
all those type of things, like you get to feel
that a little bit now you now has a I
have a better visualization of what that's like and understanding
(04:10):
that if because even.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
When when that one day we were there, we were able.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
To see just the wind constantly because I told you,
I was like, yo, them trees ain't getting a break.
Like that wind was, you know, just pounding them trees
like for hours that end, and like the trees just
were not getting a break, you know. And so can
you imagine what life is like when you just feel
like you're constantly in a storm. Can you imagine what
(04:37):
life is like if you're like, hey, I'm in a
place of paradise and everything is nice and calm or
whatever it might be. You know, so from any aspect
of the trees blowing not blowing, to the rain, the
quick rain that we experienced by standing in walgreens, like
you know it's a rental downpour or whatever it was,
you know, to being able to just see what felt
(05:03):
like you know, national geographics walking across the street, you know,
you know, the the these as conflicult on free range animals.
To to have that experience. There's nothing like it.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You know, sitting at the pool and having just the
iguana or whatever it was just walking around just you know,
you know, whatever he was doing. And these I could
call them salamanders. They weren't salamanders, but whatever they were,
they were fast as I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
And then the birds, you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
All the experiences that we had, hermit crabs, all the
experience that we had, being able to see God's hand in.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
All of it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, definitely be able to see God and and
all of those things, you know, creatures great and small.
I can see God in them all, you know, as
Marie said, from the hermit crab to I think we
even saw a regular crab. Along the shoreline as we
went for a walk. We saw wild chickens. We saw
(06:12):
so many things, and everyone was All of the animals
were at peace, like they weren't.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, they weren't like skittish, you know, they were that
we was gonna go over there and try to fry.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Them right right now. The pigeons were, you know, a
little strange, but I don't like pigeons, so they they
looked a little off to me, a little suspect. But
everything else was just kind of chilling.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Except for the bird that we thought was a pterodactyl.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
He was chilling where he was, and he was just
chilling up in the trees for a while, and then
they started flying. So everything had its place. Everything stayed
for the most part, to itself, to itself, like it
wasn't you know. We've been to other shore lines and
(07:00):
the birds are like, oh, you got French fries, I
want some.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, I think those birds were looking at us pretty
you know, but.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
They weren't coming towards and like.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, no, they weren't coming to work. But they was
walking from our.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Chair, right, But they weren't again like other shorelines we've been,
it's like that movie you know, where the birds come
down and just you know, flock with you, yeah, pack
at you. No, they weren't like that. I didn't get
that sense. Like you said, they walk nearby, but we're
sitting still, and that's their habitat, that's where they are,
(07:33):
you know. So but they weren't trying to jump up
in the next chair next to us or up on
a table and snatch stuff from us. I didn't see
the snatches like I see uh. Here in the mainland area.
I've seen snatches in the New Jersey shore where those
(07:54):
birds coming just straight snatch your stuff. It's so again.
Being on vacation on the second honeymoon, I can say
everything that we experienced certainly was eye opening and remarkable
(08:15):
in the way of again of seeing God's hand in
it all. From the rain coming in as Mary said,
how it just the sky was blue and clear in
the morning when we first got up, when we were contemplating,
like okay, what do we get up and go, you know,
do a few things, and like what the forecast says
(08:35):
like ninety chance of rain. You know, I understand we're
in tropics and the rain can come and just hit
us for you know, ten minutes and be gone. But
we had no idea what time of day the rain
was coming. And I think it had a little bit
of a a sign of maybe a thunderstorm or you know,
(08:57):
a severe storm. So again, and we're in a land
where not a lot of people speak English, so I
couldn't like look at the local news and kind of
get a real good grasp of what's going on. So,
you know, I tried watching the local news, but they
(09:20):
were saying it's going to rain, and you know, I
couldn't pick everything else up, but so we had planned
that day but for that. But again sitting there and
seeing the blue sky and the sunshine and the happy clouds,
as Maurice had said, and then it kind of shifted.
It was like an overcast and then the sky got
(09:42):
a little darker and from the far far distance, as
far as your eye could see, it just it was
like a roll like it just kind of rolled in.
And it wasn't fast. You know, I think here where
we are, right outside of Philadelphia, like I've seen things
(10:03):
roll in, but it kind of rolls in quickly. But
this one was, I guess because it was so far
in the distance and there was nothing to obstruct it.
There's no tall buildings, there's nothing, yes, you know, so
it could have been rolling from you know, who knows.
And but because we couldn't see anything else but that
so as it came in, as he said, like the
(10:26):
sky changed, the horizon changed. At first you could see
the difference between the sky and the water line and
you could see the horizon. But then as time went on,
as we sat there and kind of marveled at God,
it kind of came in and then it all looked
like one color and it's just and that's where Maurice
(10:48):
was like, all right, could you imagine being out on
a boat. He's like, I don't care if it's you know,
you're out there with the Disciples or you out there
on the Titanic, Like can you imagine? And I was like,
well a Titanic. It was cold, so really know so
and it was night so I.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Mean, but we also said that hey when it got
really dark outside, and then You're like, could you really
be out there when the Titanic really happened? And I'm like,
uh no, because they had moonlight. Yeah, they had stars.
We ain't got no stars.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
We don't know. It could have had overcast in as well.
So so that was that particular time of watching the
storm come in. And then it came in and it rained,
you know, majority of the day, and then it cleared
up and became sunny again, and then we got ourselves
and went out for the evening events. But then there
(11:36):
were there was another event of just watching the sky
and everything shift and change as well, and you know,
again just watching God do what God does was just remarkable.
Along we're city people. We we you know, quite concrete jungle.
(11:58):
So but when we went here, it was a different
kind of a jungle, different kind of a jungle most definitely.
Again all of the creatures, great and small, flying creatures,
crawling creatures, swimming creatures. Quite interesting. The first day the
(12:19):
water didn't look as blue, but you know the next
day we could see how blue the water was. When
we got in the water, it was clear. You could
see the bottom and He's like, okay, I see rocks
and you know, other stuff. So it was quite interesting
to see again God's hand in. As Marie said, you know,
even with the trees blowing and bending in the wind,
(12:43):
you know, and you could look at it as a negative,
like wow, you know the wind just won't give up.
But sometimes like that's that's God blowing on you, you know,
blowing things your way, moving things in your life, and
you don't want that to let up, you know. So
so yeah, that one day the trees were all leaning
(13:03):
to the left, but then the next day, when the
storm had passed, they were just up standing straight up.
It didn't even look like they were leaning that long.
For that it seems like if they lean that long
that they would kind of grow that way or permanently
lean that way. But they didn't. They were like, yeah,
just a brand new day, and I'm standing here and
(13:24):
I'm getting all the sunshine and I'm giving God all
the glory and I was just like, wow, okay, trees,
I see you. So it was quite quite the remarkable experience.
When we first got there. One of the things I was like,
all right, this is it I'm not going to do,
especially when the rain was coming and the storm was coming,
like okay, this is our second time I think seeing
(13:45):
a storm come in. With having an hotel on the ocean,
you know, we're not a block away. We don't have
to walk like you come outside and boom, you're at
the ocean. So I was like, okay, maybe this is
my last time needing to be ocean front. But then
by the time we left, I was like, oh wow,
(14:07):
I didn't want to leave the balcony. Maurice is like
getting dressed and getting the luggage together. He's like, all right,
you ready, I'm like just five more minutes, you know,
just that piece of being there in the ocean, and
it was again different than other shores that we've been to.
It didn't smell like.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Dust.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And when we go to the New Jersey shore, like
we know we're close because it just has a distinct
ocean smell, a beach smell, and you know, grew up
on it, just know what it is. Even when we
went to the Delaware beaches, it was a little bit different,
(14:51):
like they.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Put extra salt in it.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
But there was just a different scent. But pulling up
on here, I was just like, it doesn't smell like anything.
I don't know if it's because of the humidity and
the mists and the rainforwt, Like, I don't know what
it is, but it just it didn't have that same
vibe and feel in reference to the ocean. Air was
(15:15):
vastly different. I don't notice because it wasn't as beachy.
Maybe it needs more beach. With the sand and the salt.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I think that there is no beach.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I think as soon as we saw where the what
you crow was, it was like a thirty foot drop.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
That's the way it looked.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, it did, you know, from outside.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Our room, it looked like like, hey, you know, even.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
When we went to the beach, like people weren't going
that far out and the ones that were out were
like doing major sports like they were.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Doing like we belong in the Olympic type, you know,
where synchronized diving stuff like yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
There were people who were doing some snorkeling. They were
quite close, but you know, maybe fifteen feet out people
were like really doing.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Some and so so understand, fifteen feet from where the
water is hitting the land out and they're doing that
like they're like submerged. And the guy that was doing it,
he's tall, he was told than me, and I'm six
feet you know what I mean, you know, and so
whatever it was fifteen feet yeah, I mean it was yeah,
(16:23):
it was yeah, whatever. And plus he was doing other stuff.
He was posing, you know, he was missed Olympia or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And so so one of the things I want to
say to each and every one of you that if
you take a if you listen to what we're talking about,
as far as the the the rain or whatever it is,
if you can find a beauty in that, then you
won't take the sun moments for granted.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
And that this shift a mindset, perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Or whatever it is, it can help all of you,
even us, because it has to understand that we're moving
from a place of frustration to now more faithfulness, of faith,
of believing in God, you know, and who He really
is in our life, and trusting that every season is
shaping they're our love story for His glory, you know.
(17:21):
And so I want you to kind of go away
with that mentality. You know that no matter what the
situation is, is that whatever you're going through, the rain,
the storms, or whatever it is, that when it is
time for the sun to come out, don't take it
for granted, because sometimes we do and we don't we
and I e. If we listen to another show where
(17:44):
we're talking about things being unscripted, is unscripted for a reason.
You know, it ended up being unscripted for a reason
our trip, because it was time for us to take
advantage of the moment that God had sentitas and not
take it for granted. And so so I think those
(18:08):
are the things that like kaf is speaking about of
just looking at the horizon change that was that was
crazy looking at the sky go from this beautiful blue
with the white clouds to literally literally everything was gray.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You couldn't It's almost like a h a curtain or something.
It was crazy. It was not.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
It almost felt surreal. Yeah, it almost felt surreal, like
is this really happening cough that.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Jesus supposed to come back or whatever.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I know, No it wasn't, but that's what it felt like, like, Okay,
this is the this one director, you know. And maybe
what I heard wasn't you know, them little steamboats or
whatever else honking the horn.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Maybe that was the you know, whatever it might have been.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You know, but the reality is is that we sometimes
take the good time for granted and don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
We're going to go through these storms. We're gonna go
through these moments.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
And so when Kapfa is sitting out there on the patio,
I mean on the balcony overlooking the clear blue probably
the most calm water that we had since we had
been there.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
There was a little calmer then most of the time
we were there.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I think at that time though, I was I was saying,
I wonder if people was gonna go out there and surf.
So it was still a little bit of waves, but
nowhere near what it had been earlier in the week,
and so so I was wondering whether or not because
there was a storm that was that had passed around us,
and so I was wondering if we were really getting
(19:50):
the residuals of that those waves, because that storm, those waves,
that water.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Is confiscated, like it looked angry, it did.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
It looked look really angry, and it felt angry how
hard it was beating the coast, you know. And sometimes
we take those moments for granted, of the sun, of
the calmness, you.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Know, and we don't really give God the glory in that.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, I think outside of taking the sunny days for granted,
whether you know it's an actual sunny day or a
metaphoric sunny day, sunny days with your marriage, sunny days
at work, sunny days with your kids, with your aging parents,
you know, whatever that is. You know, we we want
(20:42):
those sunny days. We long for those sunny days, we
look forward to them. But as Maurice is saying, we
have to acknowledge and learn to appreciate the rainy days.
I can remember I'm just one of those weird type people,
but always saying like I didn't want every day to
(21:03):
be sunny, like I wanted to have some rainy days,
you know, because I think when you have rain days,
it allows you to appreciate the sun, because when things
become normal, normalized and always there and very predicted, then
that's you don't appreciate that anymore. So I think that's
(21:24):
part of what the benefit was of us doing this
type of vacation. It wasn't like any of the other
ones that we've had, you know, because we can predict
what we would do any other time. But because this
was unscripted, because this was you know, just whatever happened happens,
(21:47):
you know, type of a thing, we were able to
embrace it for what it was and to enjoy it,
you know, with the rain, wish, the sun, with all
of those things. You know, I appreciated even the more
(22:09):
so because we had the chance of having both, you know.
So I think that made the trip even the more
full because we did have rain days and we did
have sunny days. Because that's just one thing that I
appreciate about life that every day, especially for where we live.
Like people say, oh, you know, they live in other
(22:31):
parts of the world or other parts of the country,
and it's you know, the same temperature all the time,
and they don't have much rain or they don't have snow.
Like where we live. We get all four seasons.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Some of it might be only a day long when
I'll say, some of.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Them are shorter, you know. But you know, there's not
very many years that we go by without a rain season,
without a snowy season. You know, it might just be
one or two days. It might not accumulate to be
a whole lot, but you know, you have some snow
flicks that may fall, and then you know there's also
(23:05):
you know, your hot season and your cold season, and
then the repeat of a hot season. So but it
allows you to appreciate life. It allows you to appreciate
the days. You know, so when it's ninety degrees, I
can appreciate wintertime when it's you know, twenty degrees outside.
(23:27):
I look forward to summer coming. And I don't think
that one is any better than the other, you know.
I know, for you, with allergies and things like that,
you may not be looking forward to certain seasons. But
you know, because of having all of those makes me
appreciate them all the more. I don't know how much
(23:51):
I would appreciate winter if I had winter all the time,
I think I would get tireder the snow. I think
snow is pretty. I think when it falls, it's it's beautiful,
it's gorgeous again, another thing that we can see God's
hand in. But if it was like that all the time,
he'd be like, all right, you would lose sight of
(24:12):
its goodness. You would lose sight of God's hand in
it all because you have it all the time. So
it does take time to step back and look at
things to kind of see God's hand in it. So
with twenty five years of marriage and seeing Maurice's wonderful
face all those days, I don't get tired of it,
(24:38):
you know, like I would. I guess if I got
tired of the snow, I can see because he changes,
he has changed over all these years.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Face.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I don't know what. Just in certain places you're getting snowy,
snow covered. I can't say anything. I'm going through a
snowface too.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah, I mean it's a right now.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I'm just in some places it is a full blown,
you know, avalanche, and then some places it's just a flurry.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
It's a flurry here and there. So we're talking about
great hair in case you guys are not getting what
we're talking about with the snowface. So yes, salt and pepper,
things are going on in our lives. But yeah, so
you know, Maurice is definitely not the same person that
he was way back in nineteen ninety six and nineteen
(25:31):
ninety seven, and nor am I And yes, I said
nineteen ninety something. It's been that that long. So but
it's been a happy time, a happy twenty five plus
years of marriage plus friendship, and I wouldn't trade it
in at all. I'm happy for the sunny days. I'm
(25:54):
happy for the rainy days. I'm happy for the stormy
days that we've had before the heat waves, you know,
all of those things that we've had, and I look
forward to even more. And I think, you know, with
our past, I'm better prepared, better equipped to handle those
(26:17):
days as they come, but also appreciate them when they come.
So I look forward to that.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
So I just want your to understand why this all
matters while we're talking about this, because marriage in a nutshell,
because I'm gonna break down really what Kaifa said altogether,
marriage in a nutshell is like that island.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You know, you can have a whole lot of.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Mountaintops and storms with snow, and you can have a
lot of sunshine, sunshine and shade and so when you
start to see God's fingerprints, not even his whole hand,
but just his fingerprints in it all that you can
see even the.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Seasons can become holy, can become sanctified, can become.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
That breeding ground for what needs to happen for the
next season, and you can see it coming. Or sometimes
you might not see it coming because you're you're caught
up in all the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
But I understand.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
But when you understand, you just really start to see
God's fingertips in it all, you're really able to enjoy
what you have going on.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
So that's all I got to say. And I hope
that y'all have enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
I know these last couple episodes were getting a little
deeper because we really want you all to understand that
we're not taking year number twenty five lightly, at least
I'm not. I want you all to understand because of
the way the world is going or whatever it is,
(28:04):
we need to make sure that we are staying connected
most definitely, And so we'll talk to you just a
little bit later.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of a No
Fruit podcast where we bring you fruitful conversations.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Ripen wisdom and love that's deeply rooted.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave
us a review, and share it with someone.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Who could use a little inspiration in their death. Until
next time, stay rooted in love and remember every seed
you plant today shapes the fruit of tomorrow.
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