If "Life is Good" why is it so painful?

The following is a story, which I hope captures your attention as well as provides a different perspective on your life and relationships. 

The dark, cramped box tugged open and light beamed down on me. A large firm hand lifted me and out and placed me on a shelf. I stood straight and tall, as if I had a choice, along with the other “Life is s good” water bottles. I found life was okay on the shelf but then, one day, everything changed.

A lovely young woman walked up to our display started examining various water bottles. After quite some deliberation I felt her soft, thin fingers lift me up and hold me, inspecting me all around. To my delight she took me to the counter and paid for me. A week later I was stuffed into a gift bag and presented to Mom for her birthday from Eileen. It was a fun party!

For Mom it was love at first sight, I admit most of that love was due to the fact that she is especially fond of her daughter. Mom, or Barb, as I found out later loved my lovely blue color, strong metal body and particularly my “life is good” logo. I had no idea life could be SO GOOD or adventuresome.
My first adventure started a couple weeks later when I went with Steve and Barb to Glacier National Park. This was right after Barb finished her chemo treatments for breast cancer and we were all grateful to move on. It was a memorable trip with lovely sights, lots of hikes with Barb making obnoxious noises so grizzlies wouldn’t eat them. I would survive! We went on a kayak trip in the San Juan’s a couple weeks later. It was terrific to see Barb enjoying herself.
Back home I was run through the dishwasher and stuffed into a cupboard. In the winter I went over to Seattle every week for Barb to work at the King County Dispute Resolution Center where she was training to be a mediator. One afternoon she left me sitting on the desk. No one paid attention to me. They all went home and I was stuck all alone in the dark! I was SO SCARED but survived and the next week Barb took me home and wrote all over my bottom side. I am pretty sure all the writing had to do with my identity and what to do if I was lost.

The next couple years were FULL of adventure. Life has been good for me and especially for Barb. She took me hiking, canoeing, kayaking, beach combing, golfing and traveling. I have no ideas how many miles we traveled. Sometimes Eileen or other family members were along. While all the travels are great, I’ve suffered, too. Barb is awfully clumsy and can be forgetful. I’ve been stuffed into a backpack, left full of slimy water or worst of all being dropped onto rocks—full of water. OUCH!! That really hurts! My beautiful slick body is dented and some of my blue paint is coming off. I am afraid someday I will roll off a trail and get stuck in a crevice, impossible to retrieve. I am very scared that someday I will be left all alone in the wilderness or worse, as I experienced last winter, in a foreign country.

We went to El Salvador for the third time to work in a remote village. Annie, Barb’s best friend even had to stay home! On our first morning everyone gathered for Bible study in the common area of the hotel before going out to the village. I was sitting next to Barb’s coffee cup. Then, all of a sudden everyone left. I just stood there with the coffee waiting for Barb to pick me up but she didn’t come. The silence in the building was heavy as I realized the group had left. It was frightening. Where was Barb? Why did she leave me? I wanted to tell all the people around me to look on my bottom side but, they spoke another language and besides…I can’t talk.

At first I was really scared and then I was angry and then I was just plain sad and so lonely.

What I didn’t know was that Barb had hunted all over for me and had some calls made on her behalf, thankfully for cell phones and was relieved to know I was safe. A few days later, I heard a familiar voice asking for me and I felt Barb’s warm familiar grip around my middle and then I was shoved deep into her backpack where I could relax again.

Now I am back to being drug around filled with water. I continue to get dropped on rocks and other hard surfaces. I continue to get shoved into backpacks or washed and stored in the cupboard. Life IS good. Sure, I have had more than my share of jarring, bumps and bruises. I could have serious abandonment issues. With all these dents, I look old but I FEEL young. At least I don’t have wrinkles like Barb!

Even if I worry, I love going along on Barb’s adventures. Don’t even mind when Annie comes along! I realize Barb does love me even if she is insensitive to my needs and clumsy. Unlike a “life is good” water bottle still on the shelf she is imperfect. If water bottles come out with imperfections that are sent back to be made over. People aren’t like that. They are all flawed in one way or another. To be a happy person or in relationship with a person you need to accept their flaws…and wrinkles. When people are able to accept themselves or one another’s imperfections life is a lot more interesting and satisfying…I’ve learned that it is part of what makes life good. Just like a cool drink from a “life is good” water bottle!