The good life is built with good relationships.
Interpretation
A fulfilling life is largely dependent on the quality of our relationships with others.
This quote by Robert J. Waldinger emphasizes that the key to a satisfying and meaningful life lies in the strength and quality of our connections with other people. It suggests that nurturing these relationships can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment, highlighting the importance of community and love in personal development.
In practice
During a speech about community engagement, I shared Waldinger's quote to highlight the importance of building relationships.
Being human means there's a wall-builder in each of us. Our minds naturally divide the world into me and not-me, us and them. For thousands of years, our sages have taught that we're all one, yet we still divide wherever we look.
It's the quality of your relationships that matters.
It's not just the number of friends you have, and it's not whether or not you're in a committed relationship. It's the quality of your close relationships that matters.
It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they're physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected.
People who are more isolated than they want to be from others find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner, and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely.
Most of what we know about human life we know from asking people to remember the past, and as we know, hindsight is anything but 20/20. We forget vast amounts of what happens to us in life, and sometimes memory is downright creative.
And I said to myself that he was the first thing that I had ever missed in my life.
What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.
If I seek to fulfill my own needs at the expense of my partner, we are sure to experience unhappiness, resentment, and conflict. The secret of forming a successful relationship is for both partners to win.
For anyone who says 'Who cares if you're gay? It's 2018,' well, a lot of people care because a lot of people had the opportunity to be out, and there's been a lot of fear surrounding it. This is the first time we're seeing representation, and because of that, it is a big deal.
A lot of times, rather than helping people with horse problems, I'm helping horses with people problems.
Drowning people Sometimes die Fighting their rescuers.
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