Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop reading about kidneys (which are fascinating! They filter ALL of your blood 60 times a day! Maybe see something on this later) and, as fascinating as they were, there was also a very fascinating discussion going on at the table next to me. It was a man and a woman, probably in their 50's, and it seemed like it was a date, early on maybe, and they were discussing previous relationships. I did not hear much of what the woman said, but the man had been married, and involved with his ex-wife for around 25 years. They had problems and ended up divorcing. He said there were periods of trying to work through things, but they couldn't pull it off. He had a rough time and went through therapy and eventually learned that he had a lot of problems with himself and he needed to work through those. It sounds like he made some progress, and went back to his ex-wife, but I clearly heard him say that she was strong and was no longer interested in a mutual future. They had kids together as well. He said it was all so awful for him - having that fall apart, and also being a confident man and acknowledging that he was fallible and imperfect.

I found this story to be quite interesting because these two people had been involved for the entire duration of my life. To think that something as big as my whole existence had to crumble and fall apart because two people failed to communicate - failed to be patient with themselves and with others, failed to be open to growth and change with each other.

Maybe it is easy for me to say because I have not been through something of that magnitude. However, I have had some incredibly turbulent human relationships and I think the bottom line is to always remember to be open to the idea that each person is doing the best they can from their point of view. And that's enough.