I, for maybe the first time, am experiencing what it is for a relationship to actually develop, as opposed to up and leaving the whole route at any sharp turn and picking up again on a new road with a new person.

I am seeing and feeling what it is for a relationship to have a life of its own and grow to become even a third separate entity from her and I, like a spirit or soul with its own personality and tastes and talents—we are more than ourselves when we are together, each of us growing to accommodate and nurture not only our selves, but also each other, as well as the third newborn relationship itself.

At junctures and bumpy patches, I stay in it and watch it swell as emotion is added and carefully point all this energy in a loving and positive direction that is a circle that flows between us, from my soul, through the third, to her and back, through the third again, to me. This, as opposed to up and moving on at the sign of first swelling; rather than maturity and molding and feeding what we have, instead breaking off, myself alone, to chase after novelty and a new sensation. But this is different.