Can a relationship survive if only one person is doing the work? I would say relationships are the great equalizer for all people, regardless of how much work you're doing. So let's say we take the opposite question. Can a relationship survive if both people are doing the work? In my experience, no, relationships, they ebb and they

flow. And so what we want to do as spiritually mature people is we want to look at what we mean by

survive. Is that even the standard? Is the standard of being in a relationship just to survive?

Or is the standard something else? This is a component of relationship that I think

that it's helpful and useful for all of us in each season of our life to really sit with and to

iterate on. Because think about when you were 16 and you were first starting to have romantic

feelings for other people. What was your standard of relating when you were 16 and you were first starting to have romantic feelings for other people,

what was your standard of relating when you were a teenager? Having someone to go to the dance with,

having someone to share ice cream Sunday with so you don't feel lonely. Well, that standard,

obviously, is not something that you want to have for the rest of your life. Then you become a young

adult and the standard evolves.

Someone who looks good on your arm. Someone who checks all the boxes. Someone who's attractive.

And then you continue having life experiences. It evolves some more. Someone who can be there with me in my

low moments. Someone who can deal with hard things, and you keep going and it continues to evolve.

Someone who allows me to be myself. When I'm with them, I feel seen, heard, valued, and appreciated.

So our understanding of what we want to get in a relationship is always changing. And you could

even say that it changes from relationship to relationship,

from person to person, because everyone is a little bit different. And then we want to also sit

with the purpose of the relationship itself. Again, from the spiritual perspective. Ground level

perspective, relationship for a lot of people is so you don't have to do life by yourself.

You can share some of the burden of just living

life. Spiritual perspective, a relationship is a showcase for whatever you're experiencing internally.

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