What to Do When Your Partner Stops Loving You
Trish Everett offers two keys to moving on when a relationship is over.
Mem’ries,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
— -Barbara Streisand, The Way We Were
“I don’t want to point fingers, but he just stopped trying and there was nothing I could do,” Sarah tells me over a steaming cup of tea. “How could he just decide to stop loving me? He wouldn’t even work on it. He just left. Left me, the mother of his kids.” Her fingers pressed into the side of the cup, whitening with the pressure.
I hear this story a lot. Single parents who are trying to understand why their relationship ended and how the ex could just stop trying. Just stop wanting to be in it. And it hurts, hurts deep down. Sparking anger, shaking down to the pain of rejection and abandonment. They don’t want to blame their ex and they try to understand, yet most of the time they can’t help but blame them for leaving. Blame them for not wanting the relationship anymore or turn around and blame themselves. Are you on one side of this fence?
