This is pure bliss! How can this be so perfect? Swept away in a whirlwind romance, you lose your bearings to some degree but who cares? This is magic and surely, they are the one…

… but then, almost as suddenly as it happened, it has dissolved and you are left bewildered and utterly devastated. What the…? Seriously! Did my heart give me a bum steer? How could I have been so stupid? I really thought they were perfect for me! How could I have been so wrong? Whaddup Universe!?

During my twenty years (or so) of dating, I had many well-meaning people in my life say ‘be careful’ in response to sharing my latest love interest. It was intended as some form of positive advice, I’m sure. But they were saying something that was basically unintelligible to me. No matter how hard I tried, I was constitutionally unable to fathom this advice.

‘Be careful?’ I would say to myself incredulously. ‘How do I be careful? I’m not exactly going to meet a random stranger down a dark alleyway at night, am I? So what do they mean? Be Careful. Hmph!’