A relationship is not a spectator sport, Although love can be one.
Love can be for a person's art, thoughts, craft, and way of talking without any reciprocal feeling from the other person. Love can be one-sided, with pets, inanimate objects, etc. Love is endless, boundless, and formless. It is ageless, even, for we all have received immense love from our grandparents.
A relationship needs two parties for it to thrive, a back-and-forth. It demands a lot of work and a lot of dedication. You cannot be on the sidelines in a relationship, you have to be in the deep end. It’s almost like swimming, for you cannot learn to swim until you are in the water. Sure you can learn how hands or legs should move underwater to be an efficient swimmer, but there is no way you can swim the channels with no experience whatsoever.
A relationship, therefore, is a hands-on sport, not a spectator one at the least. You cannot just sit and watch on the sidelines while your relationship grows and gets deeper. If that happens, there is something wrong and you need to check why the other person is in love with your shadow, for your shadow will not do anything for your relationship, it will just be there.
Many people these days think that they are in a relationship just because they sleep with each other, because they are getting the other person a gift, and are being nice to them by opening the door for them. That’s the bare minimum, what about those days when the other person is yelling at you, fighting with you over spilled drinks, an empty refrigerator, no food in the house, and no love words spoken for days? What happens when your partner starts questioning your existence in their life as you do nothing to help the house, like picking up after yourself, doing taxes with each other, or bringing flowers when it's not an occasion? What happens when the shit hits the fan and you both are in some serious financial trouble or something, together?
That is what life brings, drama in various forms, to test you and your partner. The ones who work at these things will have a better relationship, of course, than the ones who don’t work at it. Trust me, if you want to keep the relationship, you should work on it regardless of how much work it is.
The question remains how prepared is one to work, and how much are they willing to work?
Life is a puzzle, my love
It never ceases to amaze
It starts with rosy eyes
Ends up in a rainy daze
It brings up all the fireworks
And simmers the voices down
Joy, covered with troubles
Working the way around
Quitting is too easy
And walking away is fast
But the ones who work and work at it
Their relationships last…