I agree. What's done is done. People in my life have changed over time and in a good way though so I guess in a few cases things have worked themselves into friendship. For us that has happened naturally with nothing being "forced". Outside of that, I've not once romanticized any relationship enough to want to rekindle the dead flame.

applause

ditto

HB you rock the entirety of my world

you too Scout

serious applause

In all seriousness, I have remained friends with most of my exes except for the psychopath and the one who still silently stalks me. Both have been years ago and as the years pass they will only remain bad memories. I have no desire to have a friendship with them. The former is crazy. Seriously, diagnosed, unmedicated crazy. Everyone needs to stay away. The latter I wish well to, but the incredible hurt he caused me, made everything after him, negatively defined by that breakup. Until of late, that is. Enough therapy and AA meetings will cure everything...

For all the others in my life, we share Christmas cards, emails, random visits, etc. My ex husband and I were at my daughter's wedding and we hugged and shared a table. Now that I never could have foreseen but time is an amazing thing. It helps us all get over it and grow up. Maturity seems to be the biggest problem in endings. There are many places we need to mature and even at 55, I am still working on the places I missed...

Making Peace
 

Never blame another for your actions then there will be peace.

No regrets
 

I have always had the opinion that you should live with no regrets. For each person that I have spent time with I have learned something from. That goes double for my exes. There is a reason I was with them and I don't regret any of the experiences. Granted, with a couple of them, it took time for me to come to a place of peace within myself about what went wrong. I try to always be friends with an ex. Sometimes, it just cannot happen. The way I see it is, you loved them for a reason. That doesn't just go away, it may change but is still there. I find it to be rather sad when a couple split and they are so bitter that all they do is harm each other. For what? If you live your life looking for reasons to be greatful for someone or something instead of a reason to be angry you will be much more at peace with yourself.

I so like the idea of this thread. Just the other night I had a great, hour long conversation with an ex with whom I'd gone through a brutal break up. Grotesque, really, is the word that comes to mind when I think about how things went down. Her behavior was deplorable and mind certainly wasn't above reproach either. Far from it. I apparently elected to say to hell with dignity and acted the ass. Now, now I can laugh about it. 5 years ago, I would have never imagined speaking with her again, or that even thinking about that time in my life would feel any better than a bad toothache.

Not so long ago I had an epiphany about forgiveness. I had it in a moment when I was thinking about someone, "She doesn't deserve my forgiveness!". For some reason I had a flash of insight that while the she in question might not deserve it, I did. I do. I deserve to allow myself to let go. To breathe it out and just let it fucking go. It's not easy. It can be incredibly difficult, and I can be incredibly stubborn. I'm not really one to hold a grudge, but I will definitely mull things over for a long time.

I am now trying to embrace the lightness of spirit that comes with forgiveness. It feels good.

I've come to that stage in my life where I have no regrets and can be friends with anyone I was once involved with.

I mean I loved them once - what is the purpose of hating them now......

Just my lil opinion.......

Making peace with exes is, for me, something that's sometimes easier in theory than in practice. I can hold grudges and have enough baggage that even Southwest would charge me luggage fees.


Generally, however, I've retained a level of friendships with exes. Sometimes, though, not until years after we broke up. I am now back on good, very friendly terms with my first long-term girlfriend whom I dated in my late teens although, despite for most of the intervening years living in the same city and having shared friends, we didn't talk at all for a decade or so. Making up has been very good.


I've a few other exes where we retain some interaction but there's often an underlying friction or the potential for friction which makes me uncomfortable. Generally, in these instances, esp. as I've genuinely lost any attraction I ever had for them, any contact is reactive only.


My most recent partner who lives in San Diego and some on here know. Well, we're fortunate in that, despite some two-way hurt, we have been able to recover from that and remain very close. We'll never get back together but I've "got her back" and, in my view, sometimes that's more important than romantic love. We still see each other regularly - I'm staying with her for a week or so later this month and she's coming over to Ireland at Christmas to spend time with my family (and, together with my parents, gang up and tease me relentlessly). That's a good result.


One or two exes didn't work out so well, including a lady I loved very much who committed suicide not that long after we broke up. I don't think I was to "blame" but I'm sure that I didn't help and, well, it didn't really allow for closure. However, as is life, sometimes we need to live through it and come out the other end as best we can.

at times, it is hard for me to maintain a friendship those i have been involved with.
why?
many partners/dates i had, i allowed them to ignore me, flirt with other ppl in front of me as i result i feel inadequate around them, allow them to two-time me, scold me instead of talking with me.
why did i allow this to happen?
my self-esteem, my self-worth... at times i felt desperate... and i OWN this.

the other times, when i was very aware of myself and who i am dating, i often found them either disappearing or afraid of committing.


with time i have come to be so independent, working very hard on ME, staying realistic...i know i'll find my Honest Love... i know she is out there :)

I've been thinking about this a bit since my last post.

With a couple of my exes, regardless of how things ended and the fact that I might have wanted them off the planet or at least shut away in some distant gulag so I never have to see them again, there is still that evidently irrefutable sexual attraction thing that makes me weak in the knees should we actually find ourselves face to face. I've succumbed to it a time or three, I confess. I'm no angel. It fascinates me that I can be so aroused by someone I wish would simply vanish in a puff smoke before my eyes. Maybe that's it, huh? Maybe it's about the fact that I know I absolutely will not allow them in my life in any other capacity and that I won't ever have to again deal with their bullshit. Maybe it's just the old passion is passion thing, regardless of the flavor of it. It's sort of the ultimate no-strings attached assignation, and that absolutely works for me. I certainly can't call it "making peace" but it's definitely making something.