Handle with Care

Wouldn’t it be great if our loved ones came with care instructions?

Life and love would be much easier if people came with an instruction manual. Imagine having the ability to give every individual soul the exact care they need to become their best self.

An individualized instruction manual would be the foundation for our ultimate care and nurturing. Everyone who wanted us to be our best selves would know exactly what we need.

There would be chapters outlining our most important attributes:

My Strengths

My Fears

My Patterns

My Boundaries

My Life Purpose

Or maybe instead of a lengthy manual, every child would be born with simple care instructions. One child’s little tag might read:

Do:

Play music and dance with me daily.

Feed me avocados.

Listen to my crazy stories and my wild imagination.

Dress me in lavender.

Don’t:

Give me space when I am sad.

Push me to change.

Worry about my grades.

Forget I know who I am.

Another child could have a tag reading the exact opposite. The care tags would remind us that every person needs personalized care for our exceptional quirks and rare gifts.

With the simplest of instructions, we would all be perfectly loved and nurtured.

Life would be simpler if we didn’t have to learn about love through trial and error. With individualized care instructions, there would be no more guessing. No more misunderstandings. No more tripping over triggers. No more quiet disappointments.

Love is easier with understanding.

It would be so simple. And yet, we would lose something too. With every advancement in human history, something is lost. If everything about love was pre-written, we would lose the mystery. We would lose the discovery. We would lose the quiet, beautiful surprise of truly seeing another person for the first time.

Love is something we learn.

It teaches us to listen.

It teaches us to show up.

It teaches us to care.

Love requires our attention. Love demands practice. There are no shortcuts.

I’ve seen friends try to speed up love by reading horoscopes and countless relationship books. I don’t trust self-help books in the same way I don’t trust one-size-fits-all clothing. It may fit someone, but it doesn’t fit for everyone.

Every person is remarkably different and in need of individualized care. We do all come with an instruction manual. It just isn’t printed. It is quietly written in our heart and waiting to be discovered.

All we need to do is ask better questions and stay long enough to hear the answers. For our best care, we need someone to listen.

To notice.

To ask.

To understand.

To adjust.

Maybe the best way to love someone is to be willing to learn, grow and discover each other as we journey together. Maybe the only tag and instructions we need to truly love someone is:

HANDLE WITH CARE.