Darcy vs. Nature: The Mango Tree

I've had an interesting problem at my house lately. 

Mango tree branches hang 12 feet over my tin roof, and while raindrops pattering on a tin roof sound nice, big fat mangos hailing down on it do not. It is full into mango season right now, and I love mangos, but many of these looming tropical frenemies have been gracing me with their booming arrivals. Either the neighborhood kids shake the mangos down while I'm inside the house, which sounds like WWIII has descended upon me, or the mangos go unshaken and drop on their own in the middle of the night to wake me up. So I've been caught in a lose-lose situation... Until today. 


Today, I discovered the solution. When the kids came, instead of experiencing a false alarm of the Rapture, I was outside and helped the kids shake the mangos down. This turned into a game. One kid would shake a branch, causing the mangos to fall on the roof, and the other kids would run back and forth to catch the mangos as they rolled off the roof's edge. It looked like a video game born into real life. Meanwhile, we were having so much fun that more and more kids were pouring into my yard to join, which turned into a wild mango feeding frenzy. Really though, these kids looked like mango juice-covered sharks. As it ended, everyone was happy. We all had fun, we all had mangos, and I reached a cease fire agreement with my mango tree. Ca-ching! 

The morals of the story? 1) When life gives you mangos, make a game, 2) If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and 3) Fairy tale endings do exist, y'all. 



Adapted from a Facebook post