Reason, Season, Lifetime

Whether my actions have reflected it or not, relationships have always been important to me...so important that I wonder if I don't know when to admit that a relationship may never be what I want or need. When I have left jobs that weren't satisfying to me, I've often overlapped, going back for several weeks to make sure that the transition is a smooth one.  Those employers never did anything for me.  I've always attempted to stay friends with people I've dated or married, figuring that I didn't want any bad karma piling up. I don't seem to be able to let go of people.

If I am honest with myself, these twice a year friends are the same thing.  The relationships aren't satisfying but somehow I think that I need to hang on to them. It is time to let go.  I don't think that there needs to be ugliness.  The question, I believe, is how much energy I am willing to keep investing with people who don't want the kind of relationships that I seek. Gosh. I don't think I've articulated that until it came out. I am ready to invest in relationships with people who do want deep and meaningful ones.

There is an old expression that some people come into our lives for a reason. They connect us or we help them with someone or something that is important or help us through a challenging time.  Some are there for a season. These people may be with us for a longer period of time but we drift apart. Since I've moved around a bit as an adult, I know that, no matter how much we profess to each other that we will stay in touch, there are few people that actually do that. There were there for the season of Ohio, Oregon, or North Carolina. I think others may be with us in life stage.  Friends from the newly-married-couple stage drift away as some have children and others do not.

Other friends are with us for a lifetime. These are the warm fuzzy relationships that I wrote about on the 5th.  We are bonded for life.

Whether a person is there for reason, season or lifetime hasn't always been clear to me, but if I am honest with myself, as I reflect back over time, energy just sort of goes out of relationships with people who are there for a reason or season.  The lifetime folks delight us every time over the years.