The other day I was talking with my mother telling her that I was done with trying to reach out to a particular person. I had tried to engage in a conversation with this person and show interest but they didn't reciprocate, so I was done trying on my part. My mom responded to this in very typical mom fashion by telling me to not 'burn my bridges' so quickly because I might regret it one day.
I thought my feelings were justified so I was slightly offended by this. But if you know our mother/daughter relationship it really shouldn't have been too surprising that I would take offense. It did get me to think about the relationships I keep and the effort I put into them. Typically if you do me wrong, I'm done with you no questions asked and it's a very black and white situation. But that really isn't the case for some people. Some people get this huge gray area that I never realized I give out.
So really I feel I don't burn as many bridges as I probably should. There are certain people that I put up with so much from and forgive them so quickly. Why is this? Some relationships get so much more attention than others. I guess I look at the give/take ratio for most of them. But there are a few where the give part on my side is way greater than the take part. So why do I put up with this instead of burning those bridges and moving on?
I really don't know what the answer is to that question. I find it funny though with some relationships how I can be so sure and set on giving up on it and putting it in my past. I guess these quickly abandoned relationships are typically ones that never matured and went anywhere. And now they don't have that chance because I've decided to be done with them. I'm not even giving them a fair chance. But in reality, I feel everyone has to pick and choose what to put their energy into. There simply isn't enough energy and time to put equal amounts into every relationship I have. So therefore I pick and choose the ones most important to me or the ones that I think are the most important.
I do wish I could figure out a way to stop saving those relationships that don't necessarily deserve it though. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to burn those bridges but for some unknown reason I continue to put more effort into them than they really deserve. I guess some people have a stronger hold on me than I thought.
Peace.
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