Broken promises
Integrity lost
As I look around at this world we live in, I am TERRIFIED. I see broken promises everywhere. Promises to ourselves, our loved ones, our country, just crumbling to pieces. As if a promise means nothing.
I am not trying to be dramatic. It’s how I feel. That’s what I see. I don’t know where things are going or how to make things better or why all of a sudden people think being barbaric, spiteful, dehumanizing in actions and attitude is ok. I don’t know what happened to integrity. Common sense. When did everything become so twisted? Where’s the respect for others? What happened to kindness, to doing the right thing? How many people promised to always be the bigger person? To set a good example? How can you make a commitment to uphold those standards and then act that way?
Into the future
I am scared for the future. But, I’m hopeful for the future too. The future means infinite possibilities. Infinite do-overs. It’s going to take a rude awakening. It’s not going to be pretty. But there’s a chance. There’s some semblance of hope. Yet I can’t help the feeling of impending hardships.
It should be easy to promise ourselves that things will be ok, but it’s not. We all know what it’s like to make a promise only to find once again, we’ve broken it. Letting ourselves and others down. Even in small matters that have little to no effect, it’s hard to keep our promises. We make promises with no intention of following through. ( New year’s resolutions anyone?) Perhaps, I am being cynical. Maybe, most of the time we just need some hope. And so we say things will get better, we make a promise to ourselves that they will. And we hope they will. We make commitments that we hope to keep because we think that’ll fix things. If only good intentions mended every problem.
What we’re wired for
We are problematic creatures. We are hardwired to make mistakes. As sucky and crappy as that is. Which is why just having good intentions and no follow-through doesn’t work. But we’re also hardwired for connection and love. Which is why I think we keep trying to fulfill promises. We’re all looking for a place where we aren’t let down. Where we feel safe, secure, loved, unconditionally. We’re hardwired for improvement. For change.
So yeah we reach too far sometimes and we run faster than we have the strength to. We create broken promises. In turn, hurting ourselves and others. Doing so erodes trust, faith, hope. Makes life harder in so many ways. And what about the people who purposely make a commitment with no plans to ever follow through with it? They break their word as easily as glass. Cutting through the faith bestowed in them. It’s hard to ever trust again once you’ve been through something like that.
Keep moving forward
But, the fact of the matter is, you can only control yourself. Stop making excuses as to why you break promises and don’t make promises you know you can’t keep. Live your life. Give yourself the grace to hope. If your gut instinct is to give someone a chance, give them a chance! They just might earn your trust and you just might be so grateful you gave them a chance to do so. And if not, once everything is sorted out people will stop making excuses for others and their behavior. Then you’ll see who they really are.
Time is speeding up. Every second, of every day, time is chipping away at our exitance. Life is fragile. It could be over any minute. Spending our time in false hope is a waste. Spending our moments in fear is a waste. (I’m not saying be stupid. Please don’t intentionally put yourself in harm’s way.)
Yes, broken promises suck. But you can use them to weed out those who deserve to be in your life and those who don’t. Use them as fuel to reach your goals and not let yourself down anymore. After all, if you can’t keep a promise to yourself should you be making them to others?
-Kay
