What is Dirty Water?
Imagine a glass of pure water and you place a couple of drops of another fluid into the glass. Look how it spreads and how the two liquids combine. The water is contaminated with something else and is no longer pure or clean. This concept can be applied to relationships.
Would it be possible to separate the two liquids after they have combined completely? A filtering process may be able to disunite the two components, but would you drink the water afterwards? What if the second ingredient had poison, fecal matter, or an infectious disease within it. Would you still be comfortable drinking the water? I know I wouldn't. We may be forced to in an "end-of-the-world" situation, but this post isn't about that. Maybe we can discuss that at another time.
Think of your relationship as a beautiful beach along the coast. The water is crystal-clear and bright blue. Both your partner and you can see your feet below as you step into the water. One of you pollutes the beach with waste that spreads and contaminates the water. It becomes a murky brown color and eventually you can no longer see your feet down below. When a relationship starts off on lies and distrust you are adding trash to your water, thus making it dirty. It spreads like a disease and the water is forever tainted.
Most of us tell little fibs everyday and sometimes we don't even know we're doing it. A white lie here and there usually isn't harmful, especially in social settings when you're using it to avoid an uncomfortable situation, an awkward conversation, or hurting someone. But when it comes to relationships, many small lies can snowball into bigger ones and can be very hurtful. Trust can be broken causing devastating results.
Depending on your relationship, there are many actions that we might count as cheating. It would be difficult for me to define what cheating is because it can mean a lot of things to different people. Either way, if you are betraying the expectations of your partner, you're violating their trust. Being deceitful is like pouring gasoline on your relationship and lighting a match. Disloyalty kills a relationship. You might be inclined to revive it, but it will never be the same again.
You can be sneaky, the best con artist or an incredible actor, but lies will always catch up with your relationship. The contamination in the water will eventually spread everywhere. It doesn't matter if it takes days, months or years, dirty water will eventually be the demise of your relationship. You can continue trying in hopes that things will get better, but no one can truly be happy when the water is dirty.
Once the water is dirty, trust is jeopardized and like shattered glass the relationship is irreparable. We can attempt to put the pieces back together and try to work things out, but it's like putting a band-aid over a really serious wound. Wounds that deep don't heal properly and scars tend to be very traumatic. Integrity is very important in a relationship and when trust is broken, so much is lost. No one benefits from dirty water, so keep your relationships clean and crystal-clear right from the beginning.
