“Remove the emotion,” he said. “What do you have left?”
The words rang in her ears, heart sinking bit by bit finally accepting what she refused to for so long, “oh”!
Relationships are supposed to be on a two-way street. There’s a give and take. Sometimes you give more and sometimes you take more but there should be an ebb and flow of two people investing. If this is lacking, then what’s left?
‘SLAVERY’! They said together.
It made perfect sense. The one-sided investments, the inconsistencies, excuses and lack of consideration can only mean slavery to someone else’s emotions, needs, time or money.
No matter how noble you want to be, no matter how many pats on the back you get, the bottom line is for relationships to survive and thrive (be it professional ones or personal ones) there has to be a give and take dynamic.
Intentions indeed matter and should come first but if you are always giving, rarely ever included and given, there is little to no consideration of the impact of their words, actions and silences on you; when you are the constant ‘sacrificial lamb’; then you are no more than an enslaved person to them, something to be used at their convenience. A fact that will cause harm to that soul eventually. Even a saint is not immune to the reality of these emotions.
Even if you give your all, even if you do everything right it will never be enough to be on their radar. Even then a thousand excuses will be ready and waiting for why they aren’t able to invest in you, put in the effort to make that relationship work for both parties. Even then it’s YOU who feels like the burden, like you are not worthy, as you watch them show up for everyone else including the ones that would never do the same for them.
If you take away the emotion and you see the whole picture, the lack of appreciation and respect tells you a story of its own. You are asking to be seen and heard by those not interested in being amongst those who care enough. You are asking the wrong people.
And little by little his heart broke and so did hers as they thought about it all.
‘Send your bill to all those people!’ he said, “after all even politicians get paid and they do nothing.”
