Relationships...sinking ships?

Relationships are messy. A well-stated comment made by a friend about a year ago. If I had known then that she would turn out to be right in every way I would have advised her to charge good money for advice like that! I wish she could have told me that I would be on a giant adventure of self-discovery, too.

If I had known that I would have packed differently. Ha!

On that note, any relationship at some point will turn out to be both fun and uncomfortable. Horrifying and exciting. And any really "good" one will have some sort of extreme dip in the road. Which leads me to my point, I took stock this morning on how many relationships I've had–carefully sorting through all of them–and I started to wonder if the old adage of relationships being sinking ships was in fact true. I've had serious relationships and fun relationships, none of which I am currently involved in. (Well, almost none.) And I got to thinking...when did those relationships, fun in the beginning, become work and then the work became a reason for one or both of us to cut and run? When did that ship begin to sink?

Moment of honesty (drum roll please): I sort of unleashed my wild fun side yet again in the last few months and found myself not having fun so much as I was out for revenge. All those ships that sailed or sank have no idea of the fun I've been having and yet I felt that I was somehow throwing it in their faces, showing them just how much better my life has been without them. And then came my moment of clarity this morning: I have become a sinking ship without relation. I'm sinking all by myself. And I may not be tied to anyone right now, but I will be again someday. And while I've gotten pretty good at seeing the cracks before hopping aboard, some things just aren't discovered until after you've set sail.

So, how do you keep a relationship from becoming a sinking ship?