There’s a difference between treating someone like a treasured and precious gift, and treating them as though they are a fragile egg to be protected at all costs. Love them enough to allow them the consequences of their choices. Love them enough to let them struggle, because that’s the only way they’ll strengthen the muscles that let them stand in their own power. The egg is never as fragile as it seems. There’s always a whole lot going on beneath the surface. From the outside, not much appears to be happening. But inside: a riot of change and reorganization, feeding, growth, evolution. My lesson is to stand back and give a space to unfold. Trust that someone other than I can make it happen. Don’t deny anyone the opportunity to exercise their own muscles. Plus, there’s far less karmic backlash than doing it for them and allowing them to become dependent upon me. That is the cruelest disservice I could do for a loved one: to allow them to look to me, rather than within themselves, to find everything they need to survive and thrive. Plus, what they come to by themselves makes them far sexier.