When the pandemic first started, we started watching the mass from Mary Gate of Heaven Church located on the beach road. Mostly the masses leading up to Easter that year since we basically couldn't leave our house. Anyway, during those early pandemic masses, Father Jim would walk outside and talk about this Palm Tree located just outside the church along the wall. It was frail and looked to be dying. Father Jim then used that Palm as a metaphor for the times, saying that yes, the Palm is sickly and dying now, but it will come back to life some day and be a beautiful palm again, just like we will all recover from the pandemic someday. I liked that, as it gave me something to look forward to. I'm not an overly religious person, but his words stuck with me and over time I have been snapping pictures of that Palm to show its progress. The first picture is from November of 2020 (we purposely left the USA to avoid the election ****show). Notice how sickly it looked even then.

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Fast forward to last week, and I took this pic. Not sure the world has healed from the pandemic yet, but Father Jim was certainly right about the Palm, simply beautiful.

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I may post some other random thoughts about the trip last week as the days go on. Thanks for reading!!