Relationships and people are important. For a long time, I didn’t place as much value on them as they deserved but as I have gotten older and wiser, I realize relationships are the fabric that holds this world together. And it holds our individual worlds together too. One rip in it can be like a hole in a sail.
Relationships require a lot of work and in our outcome-oriented culture, it is hard to see the immediate “gains” of investing in a relationship. Time is a limited resource, and short-term satisfaction feels more relieving to our stressed nervous systems than trying to instill and practice a longer outlook.
But the longer outlook is necessary. And developing the capacity to work towards something long term is critical. Focusing on building, repairing and nurturing relationships should be seen as vital activities. Depth is important. Quality over quantity. Staying over running. Building over tearing apart.
Note: This is not encouragement to stay in toxic relationships but to recognize when ruptured relationships are at the fault of our own egos.