Back at the end of May, we made a trip to Vancouver. I went to Victoria to spend some time with my sister and her family and I had a hoot. Just when we were scheduled to return home, one of Art's aunties died and he decided to go to her funeral...in Flin Flon, Manitoba. So, I stayed in Vancouver with Xena while he made the trip, driving with another auntie and uncle. All told, we were away for a little over 3 weeks. We left our home in what we thought were trustworthy hands, but very sadly we were mistaken about that. The person we "hired" was a friend who promised to take care of things, watching over our garden and our animals. We loaned him a cell phone and gave him some gas money and were going to pay him on top of that. We were shocked and dismayed at what we returned home to.
Without going into too much detail, we were duped. He took complete advantage of us and seemed to be under the impression that all that was ours was also his. He brought in a girlfriend (or 2) which is probably where the trouble started, but we ended up ransacked, robbed and left with paraphenalia from activities that go against our lifestyle. Worse than all of that, though, is the violation of our trust. This was a friend. Now, I know friends screw up. Heck, I've done my share, but I might be able to put that aside if he just came to us and said "I'm sorry".
But, it does me no good to carry this resentment. I haven't 100% forgiven him, but I think I'm on the right track. I just had to re-assess what the meaning of forgiveness actually is. I always thought to forgive was the same as saying "it's OK what you did....you're off the hook". It took someone very wise to help me understand that what it really means is "this is too big for me....I turn it over to a higher power".
Now I can get back to posting about the fun stuff that's going on around here. And there's plenty!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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6 comments:
Well, I have to say you're a better woman than I.
Good luck with that forgiveness......
Although I agree with you in principle and spirit...
it's pretty tough.
Well, it isn't coming easily. I've cried, sworn and had overwhelming desires to do harm. But that was just eating me up. I did a few things to help myself, like mailed the "paraphenalia" back to the perp, along with a bill for the damages. Also went to the cops, also sent emails to all their friends, because they were stupid enough to leave their email logged into our computer, so I had open access to their address book. A lot of shame on them in this small community...that helps, too.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you guys. That's awful. They left their email contacts? Ha! Now that could be fun. Take good care. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures.
Very cool about the emails. Its true we do have to move on and sounds like you are doing a good job.
On to better things..................
Proud of you. Putting it out there is sure to help with the moving on, which I think is good (even though dads idea of flinging flaming bags of poo at thier door sounds like more fun...)
Luv ya.
OMG. I am so sorry to hear this, how awful for you. How are things now, are they getting better now that the shock is over? Are the police able to help?
So smart of you to email their friends.
I hope things are better for you now.
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