I do not think we owe each other happiness. I do not think we owe each other constant availability or perfect understanding or the absence of disappointment.
But I think we owe each other the attempt.
The attempt to listen before we respond. The attempt to stay in the room when the conversation gets hard. The attempt to see the person in front of us as someone whose inner life is as complicated and real as our own.
I have failed at this more times than I can count. I have been in rooms with people I love and been completely elsewhere. I have listened to someone tell me something important and been composing my response before they finished.
What I keep coming back to is this: the people who have mattered most to me were not the ones who got it right every time. They were the ones who kept trying. Who came back after they got it wrong. Who treated the relationship as something worth returning to.
That is what we owe each other. Not perfection. The attempt, and the willingness to try again.
“The people who mattered most were not the ones who got it right every time. They were the ones who kept trying.”
A question for you
Where in a relationship are you being called to try again?
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