The Secret of Perfect Relationships

The less we learn to long for -- or depend upon -- 

Special understanding from others, 

The less we will suffer for not receiving this. 

The less we suffer over what others 

Seem incapable of giving to us, 

The less unhappy will we find ourselves 

In these unanswered moments of our lives 

Spent in the company of friends and foes alike. 

The less pain we have over what life appears to deny us, 

The more at peace we naturally become with ourselves. 

The more of this serenity we grow to know within ourselves, 

The easier it becomes for us to give to others 

This harmony founded in our New Understanding. 

Whenever we give others this new order of Understanding 

Without asking for anything in return, 

Those we greet with this Gift are silently touched; they are moved 

By this willingness to put their concerns before our own. 

And it is this one action that awakens in them . . . 

Their sleeping need to respond in kind. 

Happiness is the wholeness found in conscious kindness. 

This is the secret of perfect relationships.

Guy Finley