Unshackled Moments ~ April 2 ~ Truth, Ticks And Snakes

Yesterday as I scrolled through Facebook I came across a photo of a snake so covered in ticks that you couldn't really see the snake's head at all. It looked more like a child made a snake head shaped project with glue and used ticks instead of pasta. The words above the photo asked if the viewer had ever seen such a thing. I commented on the post that I had not.

No one else had responded to the photo, and I have quite a few snake enthusiasts as friends, so I began to suspect that I had fallen for an April Fool's prank. I didn't scroll back up and delete what I had written though. Joke or not the truth is that I had never come across anything like that. Unfortunately it wasn't a joke. A little research later showed this phenomena is all too common. I knew snakes could get mites, but didn't realize ticks were a problem.

Two things came to me as I thought about this. First, I saw something that was true, but thought it was Photoshop because it was so extreme, so beyond my comfort zone and out of my experience. The truth is sometimes stranger than fiction or at least a lot less comfortable. We need to be willing to risk looking foolish and respond to truth with truth. We can even respond to untruth with truth. If we hold on to the truth we know, we can face any situation no matter how strange and respond well. No, I haven't ever seen anything like it. Isn't it horrible? Why, yes it is. to No, I haven't ever seen anything like that. It's not real, April Fool! That would explain why I hadn't seen it before, to everything that could come between. And you never have to worry  about what it'll feel like when you say Yeah, I've seen a snake covered it ticks like this at my Grandpa's when I was little. No you didn't you liar! Snakes don't get ticks! I did this in Photoshop!

The truth is that snakes get ticks. The truth is that sometimes we'll encounter things and statements that are not correct or are based on false information or are flat out lies that we may believe because they're comfortable or what we want to be true. Sometimes we may encounter things and statements to strange or awful or too whatever to be believable that also happen to be true. But whatever may come, if we use the truth that we know to set the compass of our reactions to, we can navigate any waters of uncertainty we come across.

I'll save the second line of musing brought about from the photo of the tick covered snake until tomorrow. Be blessed Dear Reader, and hold fast to the truth.

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