Gippos

The picture didn't come out to good, ho hum, just wanted to write about gypsies. When I was 20, I spent some time working for Irish gypsies in Germany. A very strange and eye opening experience, which I say honestly scarred me for many years.

I had loads of what you could call adventures while with these people, alot of which involved doing things their way, by their laws, maybe I will write them down here some time, or write a book about my experiences.

The last thing that happened to me while I was with the gypsies involved me getting drunk, and trying to stop them beating up a Polish guy whom I shared a caravan. The gypies tried to kill me , chased me, ran me over at one point, chased me around some place in Germany, through fields in the dead of night, I was scared, more scared that I have ever been in my life. I remember the next morning finding a telephone and phoning my wife, and just crying, sneaking on to a train to Berlin, hiding at the airport until I could get a flight. I could go into so much more detail but its not important right now.

I escaped back to England, but I was scared for a while after, that they would come for me.

since then I have referred to gypsies as scum, I put them all in the same box, and have had no compassion for them at all. A bit of a challenge in my life now.

I forgive them. I liked some of those guys I met, The ones I didn't, well I understand that they have been brought up a certain way, not an excuse for them, just me trying to understand.

They caused me pain and fear. I am sure I have scared people in the past, I have acted cruelly, there are probably people out there who hold a grudge against me, for wrongs I have committed, well I'm sorry. and to those who have hurt me, I'm trying to understand, I am not holding onto the pain or fear anymore.

Forgiveness can be very hard to do, it can feel like letting go of justice, letting go of revenge, letting go of someone getting their just desserts. But really it is freedom, it is saying that how you have treated me, has no control over me, your pain, fear, bitterness, anger, hatred does not control me, I am free of it all.

Most importantly it is what Jesus tells us to do, and as with everthing else I find, the stuff God tells us to do is not just for his sake, but for ours as well, as we are set free, kept safe or taught the best way to live.