IT'S GONNA BE DIFFERENT FOR ME

We just can't help ourselves. As we live our lives, making observations and taking on different beliefs, we create a vision of what our ideal relationship will look like. We spend our time hunting for a relationship based on this idea of perfection and it doesn't matter what we haven’t seen or experienced in the way of perfection. Most of us have a preconceived notion of how our ideal relationship will go down. In our minds, our love will defy all odds. We will have perfect communication. We will keep our love alive. We will work through everything that comes our way. Our love will conquer all.

It’s always interesting when we get into the grit of a relationship; when the shine wears off and what’s left is the raw, guttural experience of two very different people trying to meet somewhere in the middle. In this place is where “…for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, …” begins to sound more like movie dialogue than real-life reality! It is in this moment of reckoning that we begin the internal dialogue of, “is this really worth it??” Sometimes we begin to think about the other character traits and positive aspects our partners are missing that would be more compatible with our idea of a “perfect mate." We begin to question our decision to be with our partner and look for an escape route, or worse yet, a way to change them in order to make them more acceptable. Our declaration to “conquer all” begins to seem naïve, and “I’ll choose better next time” becomes our new mantra.

But, have we ever stopped to consider how much happier and more fulfilled we could be if we focused on what we have before us in this very moment? What if we nurtured our relationships based upon our partner's capabilities, as we know them to be, instead of blaming them for not being what we expected in our relationship fantasies? What if we released the expectation and longing for having something different; could we simply choose for this experience to be enough? Could we allow “happy” to be the joy that we get from allowing them to be who they are, and conversely, them allowing us to be who we are?

Perhaps living the fairytale is knowing that the fairytale doesn't exist. That a "perfect" love is loving one another for who and what we are right now, in this very moment; without the expectation of more, better or different.