So they came together to try a different way.

They were tired of fighting, both of them frustrated by the endless misunderstandings and unwillingness in each to listen to the other. Both of them exhausted by the spoken and unspoken judgments, the righteous determination to make the other wrong. They found themselves hopeless in a relationship that had once danced with hope, had dazzled with life. Neither wanted to continue on like that. Neither could for much longer. So they came together one night to try a different way. They pushed the past from the room and put aside everything they thought they knew about each other. They talked freely and shared hard truths, and rather than judging and interrupting, they listened to each other. Each opened to the honesty of the moment. Each invited their own vulnerability. They laughed some and cried a lot, not sure how they'd grown so far apart when they’d both wanted nothing more than to grow together. Then they sat quietly, hands held, still uncertain of their future but clear they’d done something important, something brave, for their present.