Before there’s nothing left to break

Maybe it is a slight misunderstanding.

Maybe it is a spot of cloud over your trust.

Maybe it is a faint ache in your heart.

 

Nothing serious and can easily be ignored. A tiny and virtually unnoticeable breakage.

 

You think about fixing it for a moment. But since it is still only a small damage, you think it is not worth the time or the effort or the money to have it fixed at this point. It still works – not great, but fine enough – so you decide to put it on the side for now.

 

But the crack, the tear, the rip grows very gradually. Maybe there are a few occasions in which it makes a sound and draw your attention, but it looks intact, so you soon forget about it.

 

Then, one day, it reaches a threshold and cannot hold it together any more. It finally cracks open, tears apart, and rips away. Now you rush to get it fixed, but maybe only to the point where cracks are filled, tears are sewn back together, and what ripped apart are recollected. Only a quick fix, without getting to the root cause and/or going for the complete cure.

 

Well, what breaks once usually becomes prone to breaking again, more easily and with increasingly bigger damage. The threshold for breaking keeps lowering, until it just cannot be fixed in any way. Finally, you realize there is nothing left to break, and wish in hindsight you had not let it break in the first place – you regret too late for not fixing it when it was still virtually unnoticeable and required little time and effort and money.

 

Maybe you can ask for the intention to be clarified, if there is misunderstanding.

Maybe you can clear the doubt, if there is cloud over your trust.

Maybe you can come out and say that you have been hurt, if there is an ache in your heart.

 

Maybe you can break the ice, before you break down to a point where there is nothing – no communication, trust, or heart – left to break.