A few weeks ago a reader used a descriptive metaphor. She said, “Trust is like broken glass, even when you put it back together it’s never the same“.
I stopped and considered her comment. It’s one of those statements that with surface validity, yet on closer examination isn’t true.
In the real world, if broken glass was ‘never the same’, there would be no recycling. Once broken, the glass would be useless for any other use.
When broken glass is under sufficient heat, it fuses with the other pieces in making a new piece of glass. When my wife and I took an art glass class, we saw this in action.
The heat transformed the glass projects we constructed. All those broken pieces of glass fused together forming new bonds.
Some portions of glass grew darker, some grew brighter, depending on the glass there were differing transformations occurring. The various pieces of glass of all colors all fused together in the kiln.
In terms of trust, some people try gluing the broken pieces back. It takes more than that. If all you do is try recreating what you had before, it doesn’t work.
Even when you glue glass, a special adhesive is needed. Although your typical glue all claims it can be used with glass, in practice, glass repairs need special adhesives.
I suspect that many people leave out vital ingredients when putting their damaged trust back together. You need all the ingredients in order to have different kind of trust. You need all the ingredients for a stronger bonding.
I share what those ingredients in “The Trust Formula” from the video, “How Can I Trust You Again?” along with ways of how they fit together. It could be that you or someone you know are putting pieces together the wrong way or leaving out some key ingredient.
Trust is one of those subjects that everyone has opinions about, yet there are gaping holes in their awareness of trust. Although it’s part of all your relationships, it’s likely that you haven’t seriously studied the topic.
It could be that there’s more to trust than you were aware of. It’s humbling admitting when you don’t know as much about what trust is and ways of rebuilding it as you thought you did.
Best Regards,
Jeff
