The grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it

We are the disposable generation, we grew up on disposable plates, with disposable cups, and disposable hearts. We were taught that everything, even love has an expiry date.

They tell you ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, but if it is broken throw it away.

How can relationships survive when there is more support if you leave them, and only judgement if you decide to stay?

‘Deal breakers’ lurk around every corner, the expectation of perfection suffocates the possibility of growth. They say, ‘the grass isn’t greener on the other side’, but they forget to add that ‘it’s greener where you water it’.

When will we begin to see the love in imperfection, when will we find the hope in growth?

I was always the first to run, a chaser of honeymoon periods, at the first sign of dry patches I would flee. I want to say that it’s because I found the perfect love that my garden flourished, but perfect love is a myth. I only became entwined in the vines of our love, because when I searched for dry patches, my partner the ever-attentive gardener emptied his watering can of kisses over each surface, planting new seeds of love in every crevice of dry ground.

He taught me that love was not disposable. That on the days we liked each other less, we had to fight to love each other more.

I can’t promise anyone, not even myself a life of blissful love. I know there will be days when the storms of our minds will brew, when we will look over and see the flourishing gardens of our neighbours and ache to cross into their land. But any garden without water, without love will wither.

Being human means imperfection, loving means living though, overcoming, and learning from disappointment from time to time.

So maybe its time to take our running shoes off, breathe, pick up our water can and remember ‘the grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.’

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Please note - I’m not telling you not to run, I’m not saying that if you look down and your body is battered and bruised, your voice has been stolen, your mind suffocated, that you should stay. Your safety, and the safety of your family is always top priority. This post simply relates to the ‘deal breakers’, and our initial reaction to run at the first sign of rocky waters.