Chapman's Peak Drive South Africa

Photo of Chapman's Peak Road which has recently been re-opened for the public. (Cape Peninsula South Africa)

One can only get a true feeling of how big things such as mountains and cliffs are when you have something to compare it with. Look at how small the cars look in the picture above against the almost vertical cliff faces next to Chapman's Peak drive near Hout Bay in South Africa. Numerous people have plummeted down these cliffs with their cars in the past. This road has been opened for the public end of 2003 after wet conditions on the cliffs would cause rocks to fall on cars below. They solved this problem now by putting up huge nets and supports.

I can see something similar in real life...relationships. Relationships in real life are much similar to high cliffs. The view can be breathtaking at times, providing us with picturesque possibilities along this mountain pass of life, but the possibility of getting hurt is always there. But if we stay away from this coastal road out of fear of getting hurt we will never experience the joy of being able to share our most intimate and deepest thoughts and feelings with somebody else and getting to know their inner beauty. We're safe if we take the necessary precautions - just as the struts and nets provide the traveler with the much needed safety. A road on high cliffs next to the sea are not built using gravel by simply bulldozing a path...no, it is made by carefully laying a concrete foundation, covering it with the necessary tar to provide sufficient grip, making sure that there are enough strong nets above to protect against falling rocks which might come loose due to the inevitable rain which will fall. In a similar way a relationship must be built on a strong foundation of love and trust consisting of always speaking the truth with oneself and one's companion. You need to cover the road of life with enough caring and listening to prevent each other from losing grip. The nets of forgiveness and saying "I'm sorry" must be firmly fastened to protect against falling words which can crush and hurt. Safe relationships take years to be built just like safe mountain roads...

Though we might not always know where the road will lead us, we can travel securely, knowing that if we obey all the rules of the road, we won't plummet down to the rocks. And even if we might go too fast at times, we know that there is a barrier, a guard rail preventing up from falling.

The rules of these types of roads are : to go too fast is to die too fast. Don't feel rushed into having sex before all the guard rails and nets are in place!!