Dear Christine,
I am a 37 year old lesbian who has only been deeply in love one time when I was 23. She loved me too and it was so intense. She had a lot of pressure from her family and religion and eventually broke my heart and hers and she left me and married a man. I have tried to move on and I just haven’t been able to feel that strongly about anyone else. Recently I met someone who I could see myself growing old with. There is love and comfort although not the same deep passion I once felt. I am on the verge of having a good life with a good person and then, “the one” finds me out of the blue. She is married, has 3 kids, super active in her Baptist church, and apparently has never stopped thinking about me either. She will not leave her husband, tell her family or let on to anyone at all that she still loves me but wants to see me “privately” We did spend one amazing afternoon together and the passion is still there. Unlike her, I can’t keep the wife and have a mistress. I know this sounds nuts and in my mind I know the right answer is to not be tempted by empty promises. Do I choose a life sneaking around to have the love of my life in bits and pieces, or do I choose safe and comfort even if I may never feel the intense kind of love again. I seriously think I may make the wrong choice. Thanks for listening and if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear from you.
Signed, Sneaking Around in Southfield
Dear Sneaking Around,
Wow! Look what you have created! Yes, you are in charge of your life and you can make your life work for you the way you want, or you can drift from one happening to another, being victim to other people’s actions. You didn’t expect your ex to reappear, but here she is, creating earthquakes in your otherwise calm life.
How wonderful that you have had that incredible passionate love experience at least once in your life. That’s an amazing feeling, but you know by this point in your life, it never lasts. It is hormones, chemistry, timing and is fleeting. It’s also a lot of projection: putting your hopes and dreams of the perfect relationship on a human being you don’t know well who is frail, contradictory and has faults that you are not seeing or acknowledging yet. The Japanese call it “love psychosis” and if it lasts 3 years, that’s unusual. During that passion, you have an opportunity to form a deeper emotional connection with that person from shared values, trust, honesty, openness and vulnerability and mutual goals. Or the passion fades and the relationship cannot be sustained.
So, your choices at this point are: What sort of relationship do you want? Passion that is hidden? Being someone else’s mistress? Cheat on your partner you are growing old with? Trust your ex who broke your heart and promises nothing of substance now? Honesty with friends and family who care about your happiness? Or sneaking around, taking whatever crumbs of passion your ex has for you, all the while keeping a huge secret from your partner, and everyone else you interact with? And if you choose your ex, what happens when her husband or your partner learns the truth?
It’s all in your hands. Who you choose reflects your values and your character. Be fully yourself and be confident in your choices. Write me again and let me know what you decide.
Christine Cantrell, PhD
Psychologist
[email protected]