I’m a 48 year old woman who hasn’t yet experienced true partnership. And I don’t just want true partnership; my entire being aches for it.
Like a pregnant body or a heart with nowhere to send its cargo, things like us either die or burst never having delivered our respective gifts to the rightful recipients…and everyone loses.
It is clear at this point in my hastening life that I will never know what it is like to feel the warm, strong and loving arms of my partner embrace me while I cradle our child. That opportunity has already passed. I held them each alone and did the best I could. That would be lovely beyond words and I ache for it too, but this I have let go.
What I’m really talking about is the person who is willing to lay his challenges on the table beside mine so we can sort through them together deciding which things we will address in order to build something. Sometimes all of those chosen things would be mine. Sometimes all would be his. In truth, neither of us would really care as long as it supported our life together and moved us forward in partnership and (sometimes) sacrifice.
