THERE WILL BE something left, though, when the swarms of pride lift, when the crushing rain of misunderstanding is banished beyond the horizon. It will take courage to step out with honesty onto the ruins of your bridge, to look down through the cracks in the damage as you learn again to trust the wobbling beams under your feet. Sometimes such a ruin is a lost cause, a sign that you no longer have the resources or desire to maintain the connection.
Yet, through the process of rebuilding, you may make your bridge stronger than it ever was before. There are often parts of ourselves and our relationships that we must allow to fall away in order to construct a connection that allows for new growth in our lives. Storms and quakes will come and go, and often they will be opportunities for new understanding, new witnessing, new compassion. A connection that survives is the kind that lifts us in health and happiness, that shelters us in our sorrow and defeat.
IN THE END you can sit with your Other in sun and in storm atop the bridge you’ve constructed, always adding something new as you seek to understand each other again and again.