Is it possible for two people who were at one time very much in love to ever reach a point of just being friends? I pose this question and put it out into the void to find out what comes back. It's hard to believe that someone who meant so much to someone else can be cast out of their life completely. Though just because someone severs the connections between him- or herself and the other does not mean that the other never crosses his or her mind or is the source of the what if? thoughts that we often have. Relationships change but can they ever fully end? In some cases where the interaction has been short and shallow then maybe things can come to a complete end. But I would be very hard pressed to believe that when someone has made an impact on another. There are people who have been a part of my life that have changed and shaped me. They may have been a crucial person to me for a long period of time or I may have only known them for a moment, but either way they left footprints behind and I am not the same because of it. These are relationships that I can't say necessarily exist now, though some of them do in varying forms, but these are relationships that I can't say have completely ended either, even if I haven't had any contact with the individual since. Though I think that the situation may be different still when it involves two people who were and maybe still are very much in love. When you've given so much of yourself to another so fully and had it fall apart is there any hope of letting go of enough of what happened to start anew? To rebuild a lost friendship? I don't know. This is what I'm trying to figure out. I think that if one wants to build a friendship with someone that once meant so much more they must first forgive past hurts and let emotions, be as they are, just lie. I don't expect that it would be easy to let go of emotions that are there, which is why I don't suggest that. Though, one must come to some kind of coping and understanding of them to be able to separate the new relationship from the old. One must let go of the person as they had known them and for all practicality, view them as a stranger, giving the opportunity to start again. I don't suspect that this would be an easy thing to do, and I would guess that in some cases that it would be impossible. There are some situations where I am sure that people are just not able to let go of the emotions related to another enough to be able to start over with them. It's very hard to be sitting right beside someone and yet miss them so much that your heart aches. When this is how one feels I would think it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for one to be able to even attempt a friendship with that person, let alone have it actually work. From my own experience, some of those who have had the greatest impact on my life are no longer physically a part of it, they occupy my thoughts from time to time but I no longer have any idea where they are or what they are doing. There are those who have had an impact and continue to have an impact and play a role, and for them I am always thankful. It is still yet to be determined if one of the people who have meant the most to me will remain a part of my life or not. Only time will really tell if we are able to move forward from what has happened to a point in which we can relate to each other in a different way. In many ways we are still very connected and I haven't yet figured if that will help or hinder the possibility of maintaining something. I'll find out sooner or later I suppose. I will never forget the way that those who left footprints behind have made me feel and the experiences which we shared. Life happens and time keeps us moving forward. I have those that I can turn to for comfort and those who make me feel loved. I won't forget the past, though, I hope that I have learned something and have become a better person for it. I cherish old friendships and will do my best to help the new ones last to become old. I can't help but think about what was, though now they are fond memories of past happiness. I'm doing my best to not let any of the random ramblings of my mind cause trouble for the pursuit of current happiness. He checked to see that the way I looked at him was still there and there is hope of never losing that or the way that he looks at me. Sometimes I wonder if he's getting all that he deserves of me but in some ways I think that he knows it will take time and I appreciate the patience. I'm still figuring out how to cope with the past and the current confusions that are the results. I do my best to be open and honest so that I don't appear to be randomly freaking out when my thoughts go all over the place. I try to maintain context, though this often doesn't work, at least not in a way that the context makes sense. Dealing with the after effects of a past love in combination with fostering the beginnings of a new love. The process which is the opposite of my initially posed question: the changes in a relationship going from just friends to lovers.