The Medicine with Two Feet

We are all familiar with the tv ads for up and coming medicines, am I right?  You know the ones that almost always have someone riding a bicycle, walking a dog or standing looking over the ocean. I mean it's totally obvious that by taking that medicine you'll be transported out of your pain and into a beautifully beachy place, all the while becoming an avid dog lover.  That's what draws us in though you know..... we get to the point where we just can't take it anymore and we want some sort of relief.  Why not be lured in by clever advertising.  What I find even more interesting is the fact that they throw in the fine print side effects of the medicine in the very last second talking 15,000 words a second.  You don't really hear what they are saying and you don't have time to process what they are trying to say at all.  Now I want to stop here and say I am in no way talking down taking medicines at all.  It's just that one day while watching one of these commercials something hit me.  Humans are like medicine.

Let me explain.

Isn't it cool that when we first meet someone and we click with them it's just like those pharmaceutical ads.  The sand is fresh, it's summer time and amazingly the wind blows through our hair as we glide down the path on our bicycle built for two.  Cue the music!  

Yep. It's glorious!

But...well you knew there would be a but, right?

There is this tiny part of me deep down in my heart that aches for them to accept me and fill me up.  It's in your heart too.   I cozy up to someone and open my heart up to them.  Everything goes so well until ...well....something doesn't.  Simple as that.  I am left disappointed.  

If I had only read the fine print.  Yep.  We've all got fine print that we should warn people about before they get on that bicycle with us.  

You see we all  have these things called personalities.  We all have histories.  We all have family systems.  Each and every one of these things have added to our fine print over the years.  My fine print might say...

sensitive, needs reassurance, moody when tired, clingy when left alone, thoughts can get jumbled, has difficulty letting go, easily anxious in the right circumstance..... and the list goes on.  

When fine print comes to the surface of relationships it gets tricky.  It's during these times when the make or break situations happen.  Am I willing to hang onto the beachy places of a person even though this part of them comes to the surface and makes the ride with them less than smooth?

The answer is always yes.

Just like the medicines they advertise are most of the time side effect free, they are still required to let you know.  And just like the relationships we have are usually side effect free, those fine print moments can happen.  They will happen.  We must recognize them and call them just that.  And we all need to own our fine print.  When you mess up, admit it.  When you've been hurt by someone else's fine print, admit that too.  Chances are they don't even know that their fine print was bubbling over and it will help them.  I know it has helped me.

Take a chance on someone, but just don't expect them to be side effect free.  After all, most things that are worth it aren't.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:  

If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10