Eating raw changed my life so I’ll never go back to cook food, meat and dairy. However, I love being flexible and I never dated a man based on how he was eating. Also, I never drink alcohol yet all the men I loved did.
Today I have a question for you my friend my sister, because I don’t have enough experience: could your eating habits hinder your relationship? If you eat a separate dish at each meal, is it still being a romantic couple? Can it be disgusting to have a partner eating meat if you stopped it because you have compassion for animals? At the same time, isn’t the foundation of love respect for one another, including the differences we inevitably have?
Who else has a man who loves you but you only see him as a friend?
This man loves you with love but you feel bad because you only love him with friendship?
Today I reply to Annick, a woman member of our beautiful community my friend my sister: “Hi Claire. I just watched again one of your old videos which really speaks to my 15-year-old daughter, who lost her best friend because he was in love with her but it was not reciprocal. She tried and even believed at some point she was attracted to him. However, she had to admit, to herself and to him, that she loved him only as a friend. How can she feel better. Thank you so much Claire for your help. She is terrible sad. I am sad to see her like that. I am sure you’ll find the words that I cannot find.”
Annick, what an important question because it is linked to authenticity. The question is: is it better to avoid hurting someone’s feelings with the truth or is it better to tell things as they are but with the utmost kindness? In my humble opinion, I do try my best to nut hurt the feelings of people I love, but truth comes first. Nothing is worse than ambiguous language, false hopes and disappointments which can ruin people’s life.
Let me share about three very important men in my life.
The first one is S. I am very aware that S. has been in love with me forever. We know each other by heart and grew up very close to each other for a period of time. I know he loves me but I never gave him false hope because it was not reciprocal. He is my friend, my brother, the one who knows me more than anybody else, the one to which I can tell everything. To be very clear with him is what helped him move on in his love life and enjoy healthy romantic relationships. Yes he was sad, but my authenticity enabled him to keep a healthy friendship with me while having girlfriends. I know he loves me, he knows I know, but he is aware too that I take care of his heart with tender loving care. So he can move forward, get things done in his life and doesn’t feel sadness when we see each other.
The second man is N. For me, N. was first a true friend. His friendship was like the most obvious thing. We had so many shared interests that everything was so flowlike, easy and natural. Yes he was only a friend, but I couldn’t see my life without him in the picture. I also believe we had a lot of mutual admiration. Then, slowly, I saw him with different eyes after he mentioned he would love to be my man. Alright, you know me my friend my sister, I don’t do stuff half-assed. So I went full on in that, falling totally in love with him. I thought it was a long-term relationship. Honestly, I didn’t understand why, but he left me all of a sudden. I guess he had external obligations which took the priority over loving me. Honestly, it hurt so much when you love someone and he says “I love you like a friend”. This is the worst, isn’t it? Sincerely, it took a long time to get over that shock. If if calls me tomorrow, I am not sure I’ll answer the phone because it would hurt too much to see him turn the page, get married and so on. Of course, I don’t dwell and even realized we were not so compatible anyway, there is a gap between feeling happy for him from a distance and looking at his wedding photos. The lesson? Being crystal clear from the beginning. Love? Friendship? Quick short-term love? True deep long-term relationship? Life is hard enough, so if we can avoid causing pain on someone, that’s great. Let’s have this bravery.
The third man is Y. I know Y. and for a long time. We are close friends. However, I feel he is attracted to me. Moreover, he doesn’t really have any romantic relationships. The more we see each other, the more I feel it hinders his love life. Even worse, I feel I am directly causing him pain. Consequently, I decided to put some distance between us. I cannot be the one who prevents him from moving forward in his life. I have no magical solution. I am very sad. Of course, if he calls me tomorrow, I’ll answer it. But everything has changed. In his case, the pain of not being able to have me as his girlfriend was too much to continue the friendship.
To summarize, I would say to your daughter to think of N. It is not that she made a mistake by saying the truth. the thing is, her authenticity made it impossible to pretend that nothing had changed. Lastly, please tell your daughter to keep hope. One day, he may find a girlfriend and get in touch with her again but as a friend.
I am obsessed with telling things as they are. Of course a little bit of diplomacy can round some corners. Still, this thirst for authenticity pushes me towards people who simply tell the truth. It may be a bit harsh to hear sometimes, but at least these people had the immense bravery to speak when it was not easy. For that, I am grateful.
The end of the story goes like that: two of these dear men have read my book The Knot in the Spiral. Therefore, they know a lot about me and this is also why I love them so much. Because there is nothing to hide. Truth sets you free. Simplicity makes life easier.
The souvenir of the relationship that abruptly ended and left me so very sad is now positive.
I kept in my heart a souvenir of love, like a new strength I have.
Honestly my friend my sister, I never thought I could say such a thing in a relaxed way one day!
I guess I have now overcome the post-breakup sadness and the anger.
When his image pops into my mind, or rather the feeling of him, all I want to do now is to take exquisite care of myself as a way of honoring him and the good times we shared.
What remains is my love for him, my love for me and the possibility of a new love story with a great man.
More about relationships, the toxic ones and the magnificent ones in my book The Knot in the Spiral my friend my sister.
Reality is not perceived the same way by all of us of course.In the 14th century, philosophers even thought than reality was only the idea that I create in my mind about something, but not the thing itself.
Therefore, as Jean Duns Scot explained, there is reality on one side and the thing on the other side.
All of this leads me to romantic relationships. I want to stop feeling hurt by the fact that this man did not see reality the same way I did. I do not even require him to view things the way I do because we are two persons anyway. It frees me. I don’t want to have any expectations in love, although I have standards. Consequently, if we do not see things the same way and cannot live happily within our respective realities together, it is better to part ways.
I am very happy to share thoughts about love with you my friend my sister. However it has not always been the case. I spent years in abusive relationships which lead nowhere. I share my story in the book The Knot in the Spiral so you can avoid the mistakes I made. Lots of love, Claire
We feel like we know ourselves so well because we have been friends for what seems like an eternity and it is so simple and natural when we are together.
I know people like that. Some people who are my friends since we are fourteen years old.
However, if I enter a romantic relationship with one of my friends, everything will be different and in a way, we need to start over, getting to know ourselves as if we were meeting for the first time.
Why am I telling you this my friend my sister? Because I feel I went too fast with some men I loved, assuming I already knew themselves anyway. I do regret it because it kind of accelerated the end of the relationship.
My friend my sister, I have no judgement toward this, but a ton of compassion to send to you if like me you experienced the lost of two persons at the same time at the end of a beautiful love story.
It is so beautiful to fall in love to our best friend. Nevertheless, it is difficult to act as if nothing happened and go back to the neutral land of friendship after you have truly loved the man.
You are not alone. I feel you and it also happened to me my friend my sister.
