Hello Hive family, I’m here again. How are we all doing? I hope we’re finding our feet and working towards our monthly goals, one day at a time.
Hmmmm, this morning, my three-year-old daughter taught me a hard but valuable lesson: you can’t keep someone who doesn’t want to be kept.
I guess you're guessing what happened, about 4:30 a.m. Nigerian time, I heard some sounds from their grandma’s room, where my daughters usually sleep. Since I was already awake, I went to check.
I found my little girl trying to wake her grandma because she wanted snacks. This wasn’t new; some mornings, she wakes up hungry and acts that way.
So, I quietly told her to come with me so she wouldn’t disturb her granny. She followed, and I took her to my room, cuddled her, and offered her some snacks I had in my handbag.
Now here’s where the lesson came in: I distracted her by offering more snacks at every attempt she made to leave my room. She ate, drank some water, and I thought she’d finally fall back asleep. But the moment I got carried away with something on my phone, she slipped out quietly and left despite all my efforts to keep her close.
The lesson suddenly hit hard: you can’t keep a person who doesn’t want to be kept after she disappeared outside the door.
Think about it, how many times have we gone out of our way, even beyond our limits, to hold on to a friend, a spouse, a relationship, or a situation that doesn’t want to be kept?
Sometimes we even compromise our values to make things work, but in reality, the other party’s mind is already made up. The more we push, the more we only buy ourselves time before the inevitable happens.
Often, fear makes us cling to shadows. We give more, do more, bend more, and yet it still goes unappreciated, because we’re trying to hold on to something that was never ours to keep in the first place. Ultimately, we’re left drained, exhausted, and wondering why we didn’t let go sooner.
So, if this resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Thank you for stopping by, and I wish you a restful weekend.