Today's Thought - December

[bluidkiti]

December 18

Successful, healthy relationships allow for both people to form a bond which lets them not only grow together but also grow independently as people.

~Mara Opperman

If we expect our romantic partner to meet all our needs, we're bound to be disappointed. No matter how rewarding that relationship might be, we need other people in our lives, too: friends, relatives, and others who share particular interests with us. No one person can speak to all the aspects of our lives. Still, we might wish we could lose ourselves in a romantic closeness, as we once lost ourselves in addiction and codependency. Then we get hurt and angry when the impossible doesn't happen. Or we fail to understand that our partner's perspectives and reactions are different from our own.

An intimate relationship will always be a mixture of fascination, mystery, frustration, and new understandings. When we realize we cannot merge with our partner, we will be better able to meet as separate, individual people, and our relationships will become vastly more peaceful.

Thanks to God for the differences among us. Let me learn more about them and accept them.

Today's reading is from the book Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men*