A question often asked of ourselves or over a glass of wine after meeting someone with romantic relationship potential. “Going” implies there is a destination. Mutual love? Exclusivity? Long-term commitment? Marriage?
And then what?
To ask the question of another person is as ridiculous as it is to ask of life itself. For we all know what life’s destination is.
I’ll give you my answer to the topic question in a minute, but in the meantime let’s think about how everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. Whether it be that furry friend, our favorite sweater (yes, I’ve had a long-term relationship with a piece of clothing), our high school bestie, the love of our life. Oh, so many people and things that have come in and out of our lives – some staying for decades; some changing us forever in a moment. So it begs to ask another question: If we knew the ending, would we still start the journey? I would say emphatically: YES!
Given the nature of the blog, here’s one from my history. Our first meeting was intense. Electricity sizzled between us like I thought the table was going to catch on fire. No wonder that by the time we got outside the restaurant and the kissing and touching began, well, I had never experienced anything quite like that before. Who knew just that could take me to a place which had been previously confined to the throughs of sexual ecstasy. While our PDAs stayed in the G-rating category onlookers couldn’t help but feel the passion that raged beyond an R-rating. I soon realized however he offered me little more than that, certainly not enough to keep me interested for much more than maybe a few months. But even though I knew our time together had a short shelf life, I’m grateful for that experience. And if you’ve read my other blogs, you’ll understand what I mean by: he will be one of my death bed memories.
Every relationship starts with a hello and at some point, there is a goodbye. And BTW that’s the answer. We’re all headed for many goodbyes, and, I say, the more, the better. It means we’ve jumped into life with both feet, eyes wide open or not. For as long as we are on this planet we are going and growing and heading down our personal path towards an inevitable end and inevitable goodbyes. But no matter how painful the goodbye may be there is so much to be enjoyed, learned, treasured in the exciting middle.
Say hello, my friends. Something interesting is waiting for you on the other side of that word.