Couples worry that conflict, especially extended conflict, heads them in an unsurvivable direction. Conflict is not the upending problem. Being positioned and resigned is. If in the midst of conflict, we are willing to breathe, to reflect, to communicate even the harder truths, we are stepping onto the luscious path of deepening our relationships. When we listen to our beloved with a keen desire to understand, to experience empathy, and to really receive the presence of our partner, then we run the chances of growing closer to one another rather than farther away. When we verbally express what part we have played in the conflict, even if it was not our intent to do so…then the relationship has the kind of fortitude that will nourish deep and abiding love.