If you want endless repetition (in your life), see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one.

What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories โ€” and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over.

You canโ€™t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material. With a long relationship, things die then are rekindled, and that shared process of rebirth deepens the love. Itโ€™s hard work, though, and a lot of people run at the first sign of trouble. Youโ€™re with this person, and suddenly you look like an asshole to them or they look like an asshole to you โ€” itโ€™s unpleasant, but if you can get through it you get closer and you learn a way of loving thatโ€™s different from the neurotic love enshrined in movies. Itโ€™s warmer and has more padding to it.

๐Ÿ’ฌ Joni Mitchell