When you make a commitment to a relationship, you invest your attention and energy in it more profoundly because you now experience ownership of that relationship.
- Barbara De Angeli
When I was younger, my brother and I shared a game. I would take it out of the box and play with it carefully. I would make sure all the pieces were all together when I'd finished playing with it, and I would put it back in the box ready for next time. My brother however, was more careless with the game. He would pull it apart, chuck it about and often lose the pieces, until eventually, the box had fallen apart and too many pieces were missing and it became useless to play with.
My brother and I often shared games and toys and they would always end up broken or useless because he hadn't looked after them properly and so many of our games were thrown away before they were properly played with. As I grew older, I would take more of an ownership with our shared games and look after them for the both of us.
A relationship can become broken and useless too, if one of the persons in the relationship doesn't look after it properly and isn't committing to investing their attention or energy into it. A relationship doesn't just mean between lovers. A relationship can be between friends, colleagues, pupil and teacher, neighbours, etc. What happens when someone in the relationship isn't looking after it properly?
I'm experiencing broken relationships in my life right now and I think it's time I gave up ownership of these relationships. It's hard to maintain a relationship when I'm the only one investing into it.
Sometimes, we have to admit defeat and throw the game away.
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