Communication

I had a moment yesterday when someone close to me called to speak his heart about problems in his current relationship.  Although I'd heard from his partner a few times over the years, this was the first time he had ever chosen to speak to me about it.  I was floored by all that I heard.  I was so floored that I recommended he needed to seriously consider whether ending the relationship would be the healthiest way forward for all involved.  This morning, I found myself looking at it in a different way.  So, I reached out to him and encouraged him to consider couples' therapy.  They're not communicating from a place of love and every argument gets them farther and farther away from it.  I feel, to give this relationship a fighting chance, speaking to someone who is licensed to help them re-open the lines of communication from a place of genuinely desiring to heal can only help.  While the final decision is in their hands, I'm really grateful this thought occurred to me.  If both parties genuinely want to do the work to help the relationship heal, then both parties have to stay open to options and follow through with thoroughly investigating those options.  If both parties end up going their separate ways, at least they know they really did do the best each felt s/he could do.