Commitment

When you make a commitment to a significant other there is so often the feeling of the beginning of an endlessness. There are thoughts of growing old together. Loving each other through the good and the bad, through sickness and health. And, yes, there may be years of bliss and love filled moments, when things are easily achievable in the relationships as the newness of the relationship conquers any stresses. And then the issues become such that they seem they cannot be surmounted. There sometimes comes issues that love can't conquer. And with these issues comes the reality of a realtionship. Can it move forward through the times when there are problems not specific to the realtionship, but are specific to life? Sometimes the problems are of a fiduciary matter. How can a couple pay the bills when money is short because one of the partners doesn't make as much as the other? Problems at the job may have an ill effect on the relationship. Bringing work home by stressing about what has happened in the office may weigh on a relationship. Many things that happen in life can cause a shifting in a relationship that is healthy. The relationship is the same as when it began as the love is still there, but elements outside of the relationship, seep into its confines, shifting and influencing the relationship. This time, then, is the true test of the relationship.

Can the realtionship sustain rocky times? Many times relationships are fine and true and that can be forever, but when something, a life issue, happens, it is in that moment when the inevitable change can effect the relationship. It is then that more work has to be put into the relationship than expected. A job change means the other person has to decide to relocate with the other. A parent becomes sick and the significant other has to help with the caring of their in-law. All the changes happening outside of the relationship, that happen to the individuals that are in a relationship, ulitmately affect it. The other person has to decide to do the work that is involved with supporting their mate when that mate is dealing with issues outside of the realtionship. The persons in the relationships must then work harder at sustaining the love and respect of the relationship that is always there but ultimately shifts when life issues come forth.

Romantic committed relationships are the most rewarding of all relationships. They are the corner stone of society as they are the stabilizing entity of civilizations. From these relationship spring forth children, homes, communities, sustaining economies, etc. But all who enter them must know it is not only the good times, but the bad times and the work that has to come about to deal with them, that make the romance real. Romantic relationships shift and ebb like contents in a bowl. Though there are happenings outside of it, that make the contents shift, the contents of the relationship are still there. Work must always be done in relationship so that the contents don't dissapate.