Marriage

If you are planning on getting married how much thought have you given to why you are getting married? Everyone seems to contribute a lot of thought and planning to the marriage ceremony and reception, plus, somebody is making an investment by kicking in a bundle of money for the production. What are the advantages of marriage for both parties? Marriage is a form of partnership---what is each party bringing to the partnership? Love? Overpowering love? If so, get a handle on it. Where did this love come from? If it comes can it also go? What do the parties want from a marriage, which, to ensure some success, includes a large dose of what they want to give. Do they plan to become dependent on one another, intertwine their lives, and while taking care of themselves, put the other first?

Change

We may want to be fixed; but, we don't want to be changed. Where can you find the master surgeon to do the changing, and where is that perfect candidate willing to undergo change? Fixing is different; a little tweaking here, a slight adjustment there, like going to the hairdresser, it's over in a few minutes. And now, you are so beautiful and wonderful, you need to be reintroduced to all the people you know.

Love

Before you fall in love know what you want to give and what you are open to accept. If you are not planning on giving 100%, what are you holding back? In looking for a qualified candidate, be sure that you have found a good match for your giving and accepting. Mismatches are difficult to fix by planning to make changes in your partner. No one wants to be changed. Get it right by making the right pick.

Gifts

It is always Christmas because we are all gifts. Gifts when we learn how to appreciate one another; not because it's nice to do, but because we each have the potential for intimacy:with our trust, truthfulness, and honesty beneath the veneer. It requires an artist and a lover of humanity to discover this in each of us.

Comparisons

Comparisons, like criticisms, are generally destructive in relationships: too many feeling of superior or inferiority.--Syeki Rubin

Practice makes Perfect (for better or worse)

What are you practicing? What are you doing right now? That is what you are practicing. What did you do yesterday? That is what you were practicing. When you add up all these separate activities you will see how you use your time to practice. The time you spend thinking about whatever you think about is time you spend practicing. The more we practice the better we get at it. 
Even if we do it poorly, we will get very good at doing it poorly.

Change

We are constantly being changed by our changing environment, which includes other changing people and our actively changing brains. We are in a soup that never stops simmering.

Practical Philosopher

Practical Philosopher: how relationships work; how to bring a little happiness into a life; where love comes from, and where it goes; why do people persist in acquiring babies; why there is so much anger in love relationships?Who invented love? Does love have to be inexplicable?

Relationship Starter

I hope this will be the start of a beautiful friendship.  - Syeki Rubin