Time will tell

From a distance, it is a fairytale. Bountiful of cheers and laughter. Of only good fortunes and luck. But look in, peep in through the tainted window and see what it really is. And the tiny cracks are exposed. From the outside, what looks like a grinning smile has with it a teardrop at the side of the eye.

We learn it the hard way, the way which crashes us so many times we lose count, that life isn't perfect. Nobody's is. We learn to pick ourselves up, to devise new game plans to get us through the days, the weeks, the months and the years. There are times when the curtains fall down on us, sooner than we expected, and so we perform cautiously, ensuring that we have enough emotions left in us, for one good performance.

Sometimes we need other actors to empathise with us, to run the lines with us, to get the customary hug.. and sometime we want to be alone, to be strengthened by our loneliness. Sometime hope is what gets us through, and sometimes hope is what lets us down. And yet we trudge through the snow, walking cautiously through the ice so we don't fall, and hope the rain won't fall down on us and drench us in pain and longing. That there will be sunny days to come, when masks will come down and real faces will be unveiled.. and that the cracks in the pictures will fade away and genuine smiles will replace the tears. But will this hope, like many other hopes, lead us to our doom. Only time will tell.

Picture taken in Southport, 12th November 2010