Some relationships, especially romantic ones, are like cheap shoes. At first those shoes look great – shiny, colourful and of the moment. You’re drawn to them. The shoes look so fabulous you think they’ll make you look fabulous too.

But when you put the shoes on your perfectly healthy, tender feet, very quickly those “great” shoes start to hurt and chafe and rip your tootsies to shreds.

But… you paid money for these shoes. They look fab. So, you decide to wear them a little longer and pain be damned. In no time,  you’re practically crippled with pain. And finally you have to admit that those shoes are a bust and you simply cannot wear them.

There are times you’re so invested, you just can’t bring yourself to part with those shoes, as if somehow magically they or your feet will change. The shoes get chucked into the back of the closet and eventually you forget about them.

Months or years later, you rediscover the shoes and they are so laughably out-of-date and so clearly wrong, you toss them out.

But sometimes those shoes still look good and you try them on one more time and… OUCH! They still hurt. So the cheap shoes are finally sent to a charity or a little girl’s dress up box.

Soon enough, you’re back in the shoe store checking out the really great, high-quality, made-to-last, always-in-style and right-for-you shoes.

Or you might just choose to go barefoot instead.