Relationships with people, especially close and trusting ones, are our best way to grow. In them we can see what our mind, our body, our senses, and our thoughts really are. There is no way that is superior to relationships in helping us see where we're stuck and what we're holding onto. As long as our buttons are pushed, we have a great chance to learn and grow. So a relationship is a great gift not because it makes us happy — it often doesn't — but because any intimate relationship, if we view it as practice, is the clearest mirror we can find.
— Charlotte Joko Beck, Finding a Joyful Life in the Heart of Pain by Darlene Cohen