This holiday has caused Julie and I to reflect on the past year. I suppose it’s only natural that as 2014 comes to an end, we would look back and come to certain realizations.
1. Nothing is ever gone forever. A loved one may pass away or a relationship may end, but if love truly existed, it will always remain. The heart is an extremely accommodating organ and it will always make room for as much love as you can find to put into it!
2. Relationships should always add to your life, never take away. If you find someone that you are forced to give up your friends, family, career or home to be with, they probably aren’t the “one”. True love will never ask you to sacrifice what was there before it was found.
3. Family, no matter how dysfunctional should come first. I was the first person to hold, kiss and love my children. No matter who comes into their lives, I will always have that. Because of this truth, I will love them until the day I stop living!
4. Time is a bitch! It makes us older, more cynical and less flexible. It causes us to lose sight of our dreams and goals and has a way of robbing us of our strength. Because of that, live for now! Tomorrow may never show itself.
5. True love never dies. It may fade, it may be forced to the background and it may be wrapped up in anger and frustration from time to time. But true, unconditional love will never go away.
6. No matter who we are with we will hurt them. It may be an angry word spoken in haste or an unintentional moment of selfishness, but if you love someone, you will cause them pain. If that love wasn’t there, the pain wouldn’t be possible.
Probably the most important of all!
7. Anger, frustration, confusion, jealousy….these emotions WILL fade. If I find myself feeling any of these, I stop and remember the truth of #5. When the negative slips away, the love is still there. Never make a permanent decision based on a temporary feeling!
Happy holidays, my friends!
TX bridgefarmer 
I’ll add #8 – you are in it for the long haul (not the u-haul). You have to think about the long term consequence of your actions, and be prepared to look at it from their perspective. This may include admitting you are wrong (ouch ouch ouch) and doing some things differently (I will remember to hang up my coat and not leave it on the dining room chair instead of pointing out an annoying habit of hers).
Good point. I have learned one thing through all my relationships that I use now..don’t sweat the small things. It’s the imperfection that make us perfect. Maybe not for the rest of the world, but for that one perfectly imperfect person.