Why do we invite the same problems into our lives?
“Run faster, Jill! He is going to catch us!” screamed the distraught blue-eyed mother to her daughter. Their wavy blond hair blew wildly in the rain as they both dashed down the dark streets with multiple baggage in hand.
“Mommy! I forgot my bear in my room!” cried the little girl as she tightly clutched her pink poke-dotted backpack in her arms.
“It’s too late! He is going to kill us! We need to go!” screamed the mother. They quickly scurried down the stairs of the nearest subway station. But just as they reached the bottom, they could hear a loud yell bellow from the top of the stairs, “STOP! Come back now! You are not going anywhere!”
Without glancing back, the mother clutched her daughter even more tightly and began shoving her way deep into the crowd. As she neared the opening door, she instinctively picked up her little girl and thrust her into the subway car. She began leaping in as well, when suddenly she felt a powerful yank on her arms. Something had latched onto her luggage and was in the process of dragging her back onto the platform! It was her boyfriend… and he grinned menacingly at her. Even though the the subway door was almost completely closed, he wouldn’t let go. And so she did instead.
A sigh of relief washed over the two runaways as they both collapsed into the nearest subway seats. Her little girl gently whispered into her mother’s ear, “Are all men dangerous, mom?”
“No” whimpered the defeated and tearful mother.
“Then how come all the men in your life are?” inquired the little girl. But no reply was ever returned.
The sad reality is that a lot of us end up repeating the exact same mistakes in our lives over and over again. Like this woman who keeps finding herself being stuck in an endless string of abusive relationships, we tend to find ourselves attracting the same kinds of problems in our lives. The reason why this happens is because we tend to seek out and take comfort in what feels most familiar to us; even when that familiarity may not actually be healthy.
