Quote: In the context you wrote, you mean "without" the relationship being the foundation, correct? Which is the way it should be, as relationships are better as an addendum to one's life, rather then its foundation. Lots of folks seek relationships first in their life plans (I'll meet mr./ms. right, from which then we'll...), but of course the problem is when it turns out that the feet you're standing on belong to someone else.
I think what I meant to say is that our relationship serves as a solid place where we go to "be" but not necessarily the end all of our lives. I understand the word foundation is maybe the wrong one to have used because it implies that without it, there would be no structure. While that is true of certain things in life, as far as personal happiness, I see your point that people don't develop a true foundation within themselves that allows independent satisfaction from things. I firmly believe that spouses play a huge role in meeting important needs, but those needs have to be met out of love, not expectation and we as individuals need to learn to meet our own needs. Faith, love, compassion, selflessness are all things that play a part in a good R but they are also the things that lead to co-dependency and other psyche terms used to describe when we put all our emotional eggs in one basket. Again, it's hard to deal with that a lot of the things that are important are also dangerous.
I suppose this is one of the perils of people in a given situation giving advice to others in the same sitch. We tend to consolidate what we hear and read into personal philosophies that may or may not be healthy. I am truly just spouting off here. Take it with a HUGE grain of salt. See what too much reading does to you...
