Structure v. Love

"People have to make a choice over what comes first. The problem is when one person has one set of priorities different from the other."-Flagg

I have started listening to archives of the Erotic Awakenings Podcast on the drive in to work since so little of the talk radio in the morning appeals anymore. I am still listening to the very early episodes, and in Episode 10 they are talking with Flagg about many different things, but one part is contracts and power exchange and he said the above quote in the discussion. What is the priority for both parties? When push comes to shove and there is a conflict, will love be chosen over structure or will structure be chosen? His argument and one that I agree with, mostly, is that if one partner values structure over love they will see the actions of the other party as conflicting with what they desire. And vice versa.

I agree with this, but what happens when it begins one way, and it shifts? This is what happened to me over the last year as I began having greater and stronger feelings of love for my girl. She still desired structure and I wanted to give it, but there were so many things outside of our relationship that were taking vast amounts of time and energy to deal with I was uanble to give it the focus that was required. So after a few discussion and finally admitting to myself I was not able to give the power exchange aspects of our relationship the time and attention it needed, I chose to give the focus to our romantic relationship. It was incredibly painful for both of us, and it is something we are still recovering from and may not recover fully. But, I still think it was the best decision at the time and would have resulted in more hurt, anger and disappointment had we not taken a step back.

Things have started to come back in bits and pieces. We have had several successful evenings of power exchange that I am confident we have both enjoyed, appreciated and needed. We are not to the point of going into 24/7 and won't be for a very long time yet, but the interactions don't feel forced and feel like we are slipping back into our "natural" roles. Time will tell if it continues, but there is hope and it is more than fleeting for the first time in a very long while.