Love and expectations.

I find love and expectations difficult and it doesn’t seem to get easier with age. I am a romantic and think that practical or comfortable love is boring, but what are realistic expectations? Does it mean I can forget a great love, forget that person who makes it feel like bumblebees are buzzing in my chest?

Does having realistic expectations mean that I should settle for someone who is okay, and that I should be happy with a partner who isn’t great? Actually, I would generally be okay with a partner who is human, just like me, and who, like me, is imperfect.

I don’t expect myself and my partner to fulfill a romantic ideal; to always be in sync, to always know what the other person is thinking, to always do the right thing. Things are never always perfect. All I want is a love that’s real, in which me and my partner recognize each other for who we really are—as wonderful, flawed human beings.

The pictures show wonderful, flawed and withering flowers in my garden, now in November.