All good things must come to an end, or so the saying goes. Everything has an expiry date, why not relationships? As they say “for every beginning there is an end”. There is a shelf life for everything. Think back on all the relationships you have had in the past. Do you notice a trend? Great beginnings, good middle that suddenly turns sour and bad end. Regardless of the length of the relationship it all goes the same way. So how do we determine the shelf life of our liaisons? By reading the signs and determining where on the relationship spectrum you’re at.
I recently posted my wedding dress online to sell it and I’ve also closed off some not so productive liaisons in my life. A lot of closure in a short amount of time, true, but it made me really think about this expiry date concept. Do things end because it’s their time to end? Do they end no matter how hard you try to keep them going? I’m leaning towards yes (for the most part). In my experience, most things that happen are beyond our control and regardless of how hard you try to keep them going, they don’t go anywhere.
The Relationship Spectrum and the Expiry Date
So let’s talk more about this relationship spectrum. All relationships, friendships or love, start out great … a “honeymoon phase” if you will. Then things go sour. Well, perhaps not always, but you have to look for the signs. You can tell when things are going downhill and that’s when the hard work comes. One caveat though, both people in the relationship need to want it, they have to work at it for it to work. Usually that’s not the case, people don’t try and the relationship ends. Was it meant to be that way? Perhaps. Ideally a relationship should stay in the great/good stage throughout.
So do all relationships have an expiry date? I will still say a big yes. I have seen too many relationships come and go … seemingly good ones as well as the bad ones. We rarely see the “till death do us part” anymore. I’m not being cynical, just honest. I want to believe in happily ever after, I really do. I wish and hope that for everyone … for all of us. So let’s look at all endings as new beginnings and believe that all expiry dates happen for a reason. I mean, who wants to drink sour milk? I didn’t think so.
Stirring the Dating Sauce,
Your Sister in Dating Bliss,
Single Dating Diva
Copyright Single Dating Diva
Coach Suzie 
Great post. As I went thru the final stages of my divorce this year, I reevaluated *every* relationship. It is so true- honeymoon phase, content phase, phase where you don’t want to see each other. But it doesn’t have to end if both parties work at it. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t feel that way towards my marriage and some of my friendships. But I know everything happens for a reason.
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I agree with what you wrote. Every relationship has a beginning and an end. Even the sour relationships have helped us move forward to a better life. It is important that we embrace every experience and look at the positive and negative it had to offer us. Even a long term marriage has an end to it as one of the two passes away. It is the circle of life and we need to look at all endings as new beginnings in our lives.
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