What Happens When You Run Out of Band Aids?
Band Aid (Noun): Used to cover minor wounds.
Do you ever wonder what happens when you run out of band aids? Normally, it’s an easy fix. Just jump in the car, run to the store and go straight for the medicine isles. A simple task of replacing what ran out…but what if there aren’t any more band aid’s available? Then what do you do? Buy a gauze or something more triage related to cover a wound? Seems like an easy thing to do.
In my life I have realized that band aids have a cabinet life. There are only so many to a box and eventually they run out. I couldn’t count how many times I’ve had to reach into that cabinet and find a band aid to put on someone else. To help cover their wounds while mine remained open.
Always I would jump to the aid of another person and help them before I helped myself. I had to make sure that they felt good and felt better before I could ever dream of doing it for myself.
I’m sure that there are a lot of you that feel that way. Always running to be by someone’s side to bandage them up, knowing that you also needed medical care. It’s honestly exhausting. So WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF BAND AIDS? What really happens when you no longer have that little strip of plaster to help cover a wound?
Nothing is what happens.
Band Aid (Verb): An action of healing yourself or another person.
I think it’s fair to say that when we finally run out of band aids, we reach the point of throwing our hands up. What else can we actually do? If there is one thing that I am learning it is that no one truly knows you better than yourself. You know what you are capable of and your healing process. We can only do so much for other people before we have to start thinking about ourselves.
Maybe that means drawing a line in the sand and saying that you can’t cross or maybe it’s leaving someone you love to find your own happiness. It could be relocating yourself somewhere else to avoid those that hurt you, hell it could even mean completely disappearing. At the end of the day the one person we should really be worried about is our own self. Eventually the band aids run out and it comes down to who you are going to nurse back to health. Yourself or someone else. My bet, you’ll pick someone else because that seems to be the thing to do.
It’s breaking that habit of putting yourself second or even last that needs to be addressed. The longer it goes unnoticed, the likelihood that small wound will get infected.
Self love ain’t selfish.
Band Aid (adjective): A quick solution for a long-term problem.
Can you count on both hands how many times you actually tried to find a quick solution for something? Your eyeglass leg breaks, super glue it. You run out of hooks to hang string lights, just tap them up; no one will notice. How many times do those solutions actually work? Probably not many. But hey, it’s a quick solution.
So many times we try to find the easy way out. What makes sense at that time so we don’t actually have to deal with the main problem. Just lift up the rug and sweep it under. What they don’t see won’t hurt them. Yeah, I guess it doesn’t hurt them, it hurts you. It hurts us. Those of us who are so busy trying to make everyone else happy. Put a smile on and hide your feelings; wear a mask to cover it up, they’ll never know. If they don’t know we are hurting because of them, well that means there’s no conflict. Oh, look there, we just went right back to the cabinet to get a band aid. Gotta make sure they are happy. It’s what’s best…right?
We are so good at lying to ourselves.
Band Aid (Adverb): Meaningless
Slapping on a band aid just covers up what’s underneath. It’s what underneath that really needs the care. Hiding it doesn’t help the problem. The problem is still there. Maybe instead of worrying about WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF BAND AIDS, actually address the problem. Come to a solution and allow the wound to heal. You’ll find out that you don’t need a band aid to heal a wound, the healing comes from within yourself.
It’s time to find it.
