We're Exes For a Reason....Let me Count the Ways

At one point, I thought to myself, "Could he be 'the one'?" I'd ponder our life together, somehow molding you and me into this beautiful portrait of what our life would entail, focusing of course on only your most virtuous qualities, always overlooking the less noble ones, and at times I was content with our life together, until the reality of what we really were became evident, and nothing could change the path we had created for our future.....and we simply knew that something was missing.

At least that's what we said, "Something was just missing!" Well I'm afraid I have a better phrase for what we didn't have, the unconditional, passionate, never ending love was missing. The kind of love it takes to truly make it in this world. Hence the title We're Exes For a Reason.

So here's the dilemma: somehow, each year, like clockwork, these exes seem to creep back into my life, motives still yet to be determined, but I'm sure it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. I've pin pointed a few: the comfort, the familiarity, the support, the stability, was I the one that somehow got away, you've questioned whether we were meant to be, you're finally ready to take full responsibility, you've changed, you've grown up, the list goes on and on, yet the outcome is always the same, which is why......We're Exes for a Reason. These reasons aren't necessarily bad, but they're true, they're honest, and they write the book of our past, present, and future.

So I look back first at this comfort we crawl back into, like animals afraid to leave their familiar territory, but this comfort is conditional. It lasts for merely a moment, not a lifetime. So please stop coming back hoping to find any comfort from me, a woman that you're not in love with.

The familiarity, it's only natural when we've shared so many precious times together, but I ask you to dive into those familiar painful moments we've shared because I'm afraid that's all I can really see when I look into your eyes. Your goodness is still there, but our pain surrounds the good and seeps into the core of what we really were together.

For the support, the stability; these are things only the deserving will ever receive from me. I once gave them to you, but unfortunately, you couldn't or you wouldn't appreciate them, and old habits die hard, you'll fall again....and we'll fail again.

Did I somehow get away....some allowed me to leave, others drove me away, many never tried to stop me, but the worst refused to fight for me, for us. And I ask myself, how will this man react when someday we have to fight for our marriage when times get tough, when we have to fight for what we really believe in, what we believe each other can be, and any ex who couldn't fight for me in the past, has no place in my future.

If we were meant to be....then we'd be. Call me a hopeless romantic, and I'll take it as a supreme compliment, but I believe strongly in the beauty of two people who are madly in love, willing to fight and give each other everything they have to BE together. Therefore, they are meant to be and ironically enough these people are the ones who are together, and they deserve it.

Your responsibility-this is true, we all one day decide to take responsibility, but the bottom line is, it's too late.....for us.

The inevitable change-if we couldn't make it work, didn't make it work, refused to make it work, why now would it be any different. You're still you and I'm still me and the combination was lethal.

Grown Up-We never grow up, we're always learning, so how is it that you're all grown up now. You'll make the same mistakes and so will I, but we didn't survive those mistakes in the past and we won't in the future.

If you're reading this and you're one of my exes or my friends, please don't think that I'm attempting to mock your efforts in being a part of my life. I appreciate them and have enjoyed them for many years but I pray that this time, you'll question your own motives, and if you're genuinely here to be my friend, and NOTHING more, then I hope that someday we can achieve that, but it won't be easy transitioning from one extreme to the other.

Part of me wonders if it can even be done, but I've never been one not to try. And the thought of severing all ties with certain individuals breaks my heart, others not so much. But I only want those who are genuine and true to be a part of my life. I'm as guilty as all the rest for keeping certain individuals in my life for the reasons listed above, my motives not true, but it's slowly been taking pieces of my heart that I'll never be able to get back, and I refuse to wake up one day realizing that the best parts of me were given to the most undeserving of men.