spring is a time of new life. new beginnings. everything is fresh and bright. even when the earth is dry and scorched. we are in a terrible drought here in the Eastern Cape. someone said to me that no one will believe me, everything LOOKS green and the weather channel shows clouds and 30% chances of rain at least once a week - what they don't know is that 30% is not a very high likelyhood, and that looks can be deceiving! so it is in real life too. sometimes you think everything is ok because the surface makes it seem so. when you scratch a bit deeper, however, or when a layer is removed, some of the not-so-ok shows through. it is like that when people disappoint you. when you think you know someone and then they start showing their true colours - and they might have been showing some of it to you over a long period of time, but because you so desperately want to believe that they are not what they obviously are, you ignore the signs. you try and help, you give advice, you make excuses for them and you keep holding on to the glimpse of the person you once saw. but, alas, that was just a mirage. you listen to the same refrain they give when they want sympathy for the umpteenth time, and you wonder how you could have missed the manipulation the first 100 times. and my main desire is to lash out and confront them. but then i remember what Jesus told Peter - that we have to forgive 70 x 7 times. and i know that i will forgive. but i also know that i will not allow myself close to that person again. Jesus told the disciples to shake the dust of the towns who shunned them, off from their feet. so i do think it is ok to shake some people, who do know right from wrong, from your feet. gently, though, with as little damage as possible.
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