“A Course in Miracles says that we must be totally committed to all our relationships, and they will never compete.
Commitment in a relationship means commitment to the process of mutual understanding and forgiveness—no matter how many conversations it takes, and no matter how uncomfortable those conversations may be at times.
When we physically separate from someone we have been close to, it does not mean the relationship is over. Relationships are eternal. ‘Separation’ is a new chapter in a relationship. Often, giving up the old form of a relationship becomes a lesson in pure love, much deeper than anything the two would have known had they stayed together.
In the so-called end of relationships, I have sometimes felt as if I were falling in love with the person more intensely than before. I have found for myself that the Holy Spirit sometimes releases all the brakes because a person needs all the love they are capable of to let the other go. ‘I love you so much that I let you be where you want to go.’ That moment in a relationship is not the end. It is the full realization of the goal in every relationship: to understand the value of pure love.
Sometimes the lesson to be learned in a relationship is how to stay in it and labor through things. At other times, the lesson we must learn is how to leave a situation that is unwholesome. No one can determine for another person which principle fits which situation… I have pointed out in many lectures: ‘Never abandon the person you are leaving.‘ What does that mean?
It means it is important to celebrate the eternal essence of our relationships.”
— Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
If this is the answer that ‘The Lessons of Love’ brought to you, check how truly committed you feel to your current relationship. And if you don’t have one, check how committed you are to learning the lessons of love itself.
