Marriage & Relationships

When Kindness Reaches Its Limit I have often wondered what happens when the kindest person in the room finally reaches the point where enough is enough. We sometimes assume patient people possess an unlimited supply of patience because they have tolerated so much already. They listen, forgive, make allowances, smooth over disagreements, and give people

A Sentence Worth Hearing Twice I once heard someone say, “Think about how hard it is to change yourself, and you will understand how hard it is to change someone else.” That statement caught my attention because I knew exactly what they meant. I wish I had said it myself because there is a whole

Becoming Our Best Self I have heard people say that becoming the best version of yourself will help you attract the kind of person you want, and there is some truth in that. Taking care of yourself can make you more confident, healthier, interesting, financially stable, and comfortable in your own skin. People notice those

We Never Listen With Empty Ears I came across an idea from philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer that made me think differently about what it means to truly listen to somebody. His work suggests that we never approach understanding with a completely empty mind because we always bring some history with us. We carry previous conversations, disappointments,

The Conversation Beyond Words The older I get, the more I realize that some of our strongest messages never come out of our mouths. We can say everything is fine while our face tells somebody that nothing is fine at all. We can say we are listening while looking at our telephone, folding our arms,

A Sentence That Made Me Think I once heard someone say, “If your identity depends on having somebody beneath you, you were never standing very tall in the first place.” That thought stayed with me. It sounded simple at first, but the longer I sat with it, the deeper it became. Some people can only

When Gossip Gets There Before We Do I have come to realize that sometimes we meet people long before we ever shake their hand. Somebody tells us a story about them, and that story gets planted in our mind before we have a chance to form our own opinion. We hear that he is jealous,

Attraction Has to Begin Somewhere One thing I have learned about relationships is that attraction cannot be forced simply because we want somebody to feel what we feel. We can present ourselves well, start a conversation, show interest, and give another person an opportunity to know us. What we cannot do is manufacture genuine desire