The mountains… aren’t they beautiful? Besides the beach, the mountains are my favorite place to be. Breathing the fresh air, and inhaling the majestic and calm scenery is so peaceful and refreshing to the soul. Mountains are indeed one of nature’s marvels. Joan Harrington in Retribution knows the mountains very well. She sees them in her dreams where she is warned of things to come. Although she doesn’t realize it till the end, her dreams mean something. Unfortunately for her, the fictional mountainous setting in upstate New York was not the best place to be. This is where she is betrayed by someone she trusted with all her heart.
Betrayal is a hard pill to swallow, especially when it involves someone you love. How does one handle the shock, heartbreak, and sorrow involved when one is betrayed or backstabbed? Well, here is an answer- one has to stop dwelling on it and move on. If it involves getting back up, wiping the dust off, and being even more determined to triumph, then go for it. Life is filled with such setbacks. Some of these setbacks, believe it or not, can make us stronger and more resilient. It all depends on the way things are perceived.
Getting back to the book, when Joan was betrayed, a whole bunch of other people who loved and cherished her were betrayed. How did they manage to move on? They had to take it one day at a time. Different people react differently to situations that bring hurt. Some retaliate with hatred, some lose their purpose in life and are lost, and some forgive those who hurt them and choose to move on with greater resolve. Which path would you choose?
Photo by Paolo Costa Baldi. License: GFDL/CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19522820