Leaving your own little fish bowl for a while can do wonders for shifting your perspective. Turning your head and looking up can have the same effect.
Pieter and I travelled to the Palace of the Lost City outside Rustenburg for a media conference last week. As many readers may know, the palace is right out of an Indiana Jones novel – even though it is almost 30 years old!
The opulence and sheer size of the place is quite awe inspiring.
As you walk into the royal entrance hall through enormous 8m-high hand-carved timber doors you are instantly transported into a fantasy of mythical proportions.
What I love about the palace is the attention to detail.
If you tarry a moment and lift your eyes upwards you will discover the detailed painting on the ceiling of the royal entrance chamber.
Created much the same way as Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the evocative African landscape alive with animals and birds was hand-painted over some 5 000 hours.
The palace and its extensive grounds is a place to wander through slowly, soaking up every detail.
Our national flower, the King Protea, is everywhere you look.
I have recently been considering the language of flowers, and it struck me that the protea symbolizes diversity, daring, transformation and courage.
It is therefore not by chance that it was chosen to represent us.
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Last week all eyes were on Senekal in the Free State. Growing racial tension amid rumours of ‘civil war’ followed the murder of 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner earlier this month.
Senekal resident Andre Pienaar was then arrested and stands accused of inciting violence at the Senekal Magistrate’s Court during the court appearance of the two accused of Brendin’s murder.
The town was at boiling point.
Malema’s merry band of troublemakers could not resist this combination of knife-edge tension and racial angst and jumped to join the fray.
Although I am still confused about his role there. Taking a stance against a protest on farm murders, does this mean he is openly in favour of them?
Add the Economic Freedom Fighters to any situation and you immediately expect blood in the streets.
But in this case Malema did not get his way.
The people did not kill one another, they grasped hands and prayed together.
The call to pray for Senekal spread rapidly across the country and mass prayer meetings erupted everywhere.
Senekal pastor Hendrik de Beer was quoted by Times Live at a mass prayer meeting of people of all colours:
“People say that a war is going to start in Senekal, but I’m here to tell you today that revival is going to start in Senekal.”
In Ballito we had near 200 people on bended knee at Townsend park last Friday.
This shows a deep concern for peace in our nation.
It will take courage to bring about true transformation to South Africa, to face racism and long held hurts with love instead of hatred.
The residents of Senekal and everyone who answered the call to pray showed immense courage in the face of adversity.
The result was heavenly.
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