Don't you just find the initial stages of meeting someone new exhilarating. It's like enjoying that amazing piece of 90% cocoa dark chocolate, eating it slowly, savoring each and every bite so that it lasts as long as possible. It's all about the initial anticipation, the hopefulness, learning all about this really interesting new person, and reasons to get dressed up and wear that great new dress. Dating someone new is like a horizon, and just like the horizon, the beginning of a new "something or other" is full of endless possibilities.
Like that fantastic piece of dark chocolate, the birth of a possible new partnership must progress slowly. I have been on the other end of the spectrum, with an alleged relationship moving faster than the speed of light, only to explode like the atomic bomb. My fatal mistake...I never took the time to really get to know someone before I jumped in. I was all about rainbows and fairy tales and finding the prince in shining armor. My rose colored glasses prevented me from seeing some major character flaws, that I would now like to think the smarter and wiser Michelle would now sniff out before a poor heart is broken. Maybe my mom had it right when she lectured to me on an almost daily that the key to a long lasting relationship is built on a strong friendship. C.S. Lewis wrote, "Friendship is born at the moment when one persons say to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
The great master Michelangelo did not paint the Sistine Chapel overnight. No, my escapades through the folly of relationships has taught me that like any great work of art, it needs to time to grow and develop over time. I'm also starting to realize that spending time with someone new, the first initial stages, are really some of the best to be had. It's like a runner's high! All of the adrenaline is just pumping through the veins, your head is swirling in a rush of delightful bliss, and everything just seems right with the world.
It's just nice to like someone, just really like someone. It was once said that "getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them." Aristotle said "wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit." So maybe that's what we all need to do. Instead of diving into a new relationship without a life preserver, maybe we need to slow down, put that unripened piece of fruit on the window sill to ripen, let it turn a lovely color, and then enjoy it's savory sweetness when good and ready.
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