Why relationships?

This week, a client asked point blank, "why be in a relationship at all?"

 

It's an excellent question given that relationships, at times, bring out the very worst in us.  It isn't the storytale 'happily ever after' our culture seems to promise.  The reality is that it requires persistent effort - to resolve inevitable differences, to attempt to communicate clearly, to make life decisions with another, to process through one's back baggage....  So why bother?

 

Because relationships offer the opportunity to heal - ourselves and the world.  To grow as a human being, to transform old hurts, to free up one's innate capacity to love fully, to be present in each moment - this is our human destiny.  All that bubbles up in relationships becomes the very catalyst for our growth.  Even more expansively, if one is truly interested in creating peace in the world, then we have to understand our own inner anger, hurts, aggression and violence.  Committment to this exploration, to developing this consciousness, begins in one's own intimate relationship.  Our transformative process then contributes to the changes we so desperately need in humanity at large.  It all begins at home.