Learning life’s lessons
It happened to me again. I felt let down and cheated by someone I totally trusted.
This had happened before with someone else and I had forgiven him – completely.
Those of you who have read (and re-read) Andrew Matthews’ great cartoon illustrated books (we keep all three on our reception coffee table) will recall Andrew saying that life will throw lessons at you in the form of small pebbles. If you ignore them, you’ll get bricks, and if you ignore them you’ll get a great big boulder on your head and then maybe you’ll learn the lesson that the first pebble was trying to teach you. The theory is that once you’ve learned the lesson, it won’t return – you move on.
So why was it coming at me again? I mean, I really did get it right the last time. The answer is actually quite simple. Yes, I forgave the last guy, but I didn’t learn the lesson. If I had, then when a similar (but bigger) thing happened again, I would not have been hurt. I mis-read the last lesson so I got the boulder this time. The word on the boulder is “tolerance” not “forgiveness”. There’s another one coming sometime. I think I’m ready for it, but I won’t know for sure until it happens.
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