A letter from Leslie Clay in Nicaragua
February 2013
WHAT IS BLISS?
Once in a while a Nicaraguan woman I am meeting for the first time will wrap her arms around me like she is saying, ‘Welcome home." It’s overwhelming. I imagine it’s a bit like heaven.
Not long ago one of our favorite podcasts, Radiolab, aired an hour-long show centered on the theme of bliss. The hosts, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, opened the show with a Norwegian adventurer named Alex Gamme, who traveled solo to the South Pole on skis. Radiolab had discovered Alex on YouTube, where he had posted a video that illustrated the idea of bliss.
On his round trip to the South Pole every week or so Alex buried a small cache of food and supplies for the return trip. The video captures day number 86. Alex is tired and hungry. He has lost about 50 pounds, and he is at the flag marking his last cache. Almost out of his mind, he digs and digs to discover the mystery of what he had left for himself. He pulls out some matches, Vaseline, zinc ointment. Nothing remarkable. But then…this moment of sheer bliss happens. Alex screams “YAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! YAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” to the barren ice and whips out a double pack of cheese doodles. Then more bliss, and more screaming and laughter: a chocolate bar and some Mentos. His extreme happiness, captured on video, has become an Internet sensation.
Emily Hill-Smith of Los Angeles takes a moment at the Youth Encounter to savor the connection with her Nicaraguan friends.
When was the last time you were so happy you screamed? Or cried? It’s a rare moment. Maybe you experienced it holding your newborn baby, or winning a challenging competition, or seeing a brilliant rainbow. Your heart was leaping! Everything felt brand-new, expansive and infinite—a moment of connectedness like no other.
Our youngest daughter, Ella, experienced this when she returned to the United States after a year in Nicaragua. She was 3 years old then. At our first hotel we heard a wild squeal from her in the bathroom. When I checked on her she was just staring and smiling, and very quiet. Then she yelled: “Mommy, look, a bathtub!” She had not seen a bathtub in over a year, and until that moment didn’t really miss them. Total delicious bliss at the thought of taking a warm bath!
A bliss moment is a moment of recognition. It’s a moment when you KNOW that life is good, and that God meant for us to experience this.
This past July our Nicaraguan partner organization (CEPAD) hosted a Youth Encounter in which 10 youth from Nicaragua and 10 youth from the Los Angeles area came together to learn about ways they could care for God’s Creation. During that week the youth observed firsthand that this is a small world after all, and we are in this together. They experienced a kind of bliss in their connection with one another.
“I had the best time of my life forming these friendships,” wrote Emily Hill-Smith in reflection after the trip. “At home in the United States, we often get caught up in superficial matters, but in Nicaragua we felt the spiritual aspect in not just forming a partnership, but in making a second family.”
For our family in Nicaragua the experience of bliss has come often. Perhaps because of the challenges we face in another culture, we also experience many moments of deep, deep appreciation. My bliss moments occur most often when I experience the welcome of my Nicaraguan brothers and sisters. Elderly women will greet me like they have known me all my life. Once in a while a Nicaraguan woman I am meeting for the first time will wrap her arms around me like she is saying, "Welcome home." It’s overwhelming. I imagine it’s a bit like heaven.
Recently bliss happened again when I returned to Nicaragua from Christmas break, and I was greeted with a most wonderful welcome from my 2-year-old neighbor Marsela. She saw me from the end of the road and came running as fast as her little feet could take her. I felt a happiness that comes from being loved and recognized unconditionally.
Three years ago we spent the first Christmas of our mission assignment here in Nicaragua. It was a bit stressful to be away from family in the States, and it felt strange to go to a restaurant for Christmas Eve dinner. We were at a beach area called Tola and had heard good things about a local restaurant called Yolanda’s Café. When we arrived, Yolanda herself greeted us with giant hugs. She looked me square in the eye and said Bienvenida mi reina! (Welcome my queen!) Yolanda was like a grandmother welcoming us home. We felt so special that night, almost to tears.
We soon observed that Yolanda welcomes everyone to her restaurant like that. People come from far and wide, surfers and tourists and Nicaraguans alike, to experience her big bear hugs as well as her heaping plates of seafood and gallo pinto (rice and beans). If bliss were a restaurant, it would be Yolanda’s.
We thank you so much, dear friends and supporters, for sharing our journey with your prayers and contributions. We wish you many blessings and many blissful opportunities to feel recognized and connected. So for now we leave you with this blessing for your journey:
May you find your own double pack of cheese doodles.
Leslie
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 22
Read more about Carl Agsten and Leslie Clay's ministry
