Love has no agenda …

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We hear a lot about how to maintain romance and passion in a relationship. It’s mostly a matter of maintaining mystery and intrigue. And if we continue to grow, we also provide newness for ourself and our partner.

But let’s not forget how satisfying it is to come home to love, the kind of love that’s constant and reassuring … while also growing.

Passion without intimacy falls short. We can have both. … More

When we learn a lesson worthy of the pain, we also learn the sweetness of pain.

Pain is a small price to pay for moving forward. And there is no moving forward without it. It is, therefore, our friend.

The sweetness is commensurate with the lesson we are willing to see and apply. And we can trust that there is a lesson in the pain. We can trust that there is sweetness in the pain.

And we can do that while we’re still in the process of learning what the lesson is.… More

We’re bound to wonder why somebody else — you know, the loose cannon down the street — can’t seem to commit (or break away, as the case may be) once and for all. But we don’t have to look that far to find an emotional roller coaster. Chances are there’s somebody under your own roof you adore one minute and want to blast to the moon the next.

Our emotions can be irrational and still override our intellects.

“Emotion is stronger than thought, preceding it both in evolution and in the wiring of our brain, so an emotion — frustration, rage, sadness, sexual desire, fatigue — can take on a reality independent of external circumstance,” says Henry S. Lodge, M.D., in “Younger Next Year for Women” (also true for men, but I read the women’s version of the book).

It’s no wonder we find ourselves reacting disproportionately when we get caught up in our emotions. While intellectually we know what makes sense — and manage to act on that at least occasionally — our emotions often kick in, particularly in affairs of the heart. No brainer, right?

We may act on the “reality” created by our emotions — or at least spout off about it — almost before we know it.… More

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