Had a really good conversation with my sweet friend Jessica this morning. She just got married to a lovely man from France, so that's where she lives now. It was so good to hear her voice. She said a lot of things this morning that really stuck with me, but one thing stood out in particular. We were talking about relationships, and she said, "Never fall in love with a man for his potential." I stopped her and told her I was writing that one down! It made me think. I definitely have been guilty of this, and it really is quite silly.
Made me think of the quote, "When a person shows you who they are, believe them."
In other news, my 2nd wedding anniversary is coming up in 4 days. I'm starting to feel some pretty intense anxiety about it. Trying to figure out how to navigate through that day without too much heartache....or I guess make sure I'm not going to make it any harder on myself.
I feel like I was just talking about this w/another friend...seems so obvious, but so hard to remember and live by. I think far too often people also look at a relationship for its imagined potential rather than for its reality and what the two people in it actually bring to it and are capable of/want...xoxo
ReplyDeleteI think this is particularly challenging for people who consider themselves optimists. I automatically see the best in people and believe in that, and I think we all inherently want others to see the absolute best in us. The only catch is that if you see it, it is hard not to expect it, and the reality of life is that there are so many obstacles in the way....mainly fear, that make it so difficult to obtain that kind of potential. So few people are able to even recognize their own potential, much less actually reach it. It isn't fair for either side, really, to have those kinds of expectations, and to almost set a situation up for automatic disappointment before it even has a chance.
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