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We either learn to leave the loose cuticle alone or we have ragged cuticles. 

It's not as simple as that, in that even someone who is careful might end up ripping a loose cuticle once in a while. 

In time you learn to keep them well moisturized and to flatten down the loose layers while applying some cream. Almost as if you were trying to stick them down. Soon it's healed and your dry cuticle falls off leaving healthy skin underneath. 

When you have a tiny hurt in your mouth. You know you need to leave it alone. If you just gave it a day or two, your mouth will heal itself. 

You didn't know this as a child but over the years you got this. 

Just leave it alone and it will heal. You sometimes find your tongue exploring the hurt and you reprimand it and make a note to keep an eye on it. 

Tongues seem to have a mind of their own. Little scamps. 

Then the little hurt heals and the pain is just a memory. 

Often not even that. 

It's like this with relationships. 

Something, somebody does, or says might hit you the wrong way. 

You know they don't mean it, and that it doesn't happen often. 

You need to make a conscious effort to not let the loose cuticle ruin everything and expose you to infection. 

Apply some soothing salve. 

Take extra care, and it will be as good as new. If you pulled it instead, it would be raw and bloody. 

Hold it tight. 

Put a plaster over it to keep yourself, from harming, yourself. 

Soon it will be perfect again, and you won't even remember that there was something worth remembering.. 

I am not advising that we be passive pushovers. 

What I am saying is that there are so many situations where we know that our actions or reactions will cause us harm and tear down things that are hard to build. 

When we learn to resist the urge to lash out, our world will be a beautiful garden. 

Or we just accept ratty, ragged, cuticles. 

As I get older I apply this internally and find myself in a frame of mind that would lead to worry. 

Or God forbid even depression.  

I sometimes struggle to focus on the good. My mind grinds on the minuscule irritation until it consumes me. Yet when the sun comes up I can't even remember what I was worried about. I know this about myself. I know it only happens rarely and that it's not real. So I try to think happy thoughts and leave the loose piece of skin alone. 

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴 

Oct 2021 Dubai