Case Study #6: Co-Creative Romantic And Business Partnerships

April and Eric met in a college theater department play. They both enjoy theater and initially saw themselves as friends. While they noticed that they had a variety of similar interests they never imagined it would amount to much. When they graduated from college, they went their separate ways. Twenty-five years later they met at a de-forestation summit and found out they were both working part-time with eco-advocacy groups. April had become a spokesperson for various ecology education organizations after discovering that the film industry was hard to break into. Eric had completed his Masters and Doctorate in Environmental Science. As a university professor, he enjoyed doing both research and working with his grad students.

When they came together they found themselves both single after many years of being in long-term relationships. This made them cautious about getting involved in any co-dependent way. Fortunately, they matured and understood how projecting their issues on their partners did not work. They had a mutual desire for a partner with whom they would be able to share their Authentic Life Expression. The more they talked about their histories and what they had learned, the more recognition they had about how certain patterns, desires and goals were similar. As a way to contribute to her community, April was a Board member of a foundation feeding those who were homeless or did not have access to food. She invited Eric to join her Saturday process of sorting food contributions and then delivering them to the individuals in need. Eric found himself quickly enrolled in driving the truck and figuring out the best routes to get things done quickly. They found spending time together this way to be an easy way to relieve their stress.

April was also involved in attending psychology courses in order to learn how to best customize the messages they were developing for their eco-advocacy programs. As a writer, she started editing some of Eric’s papers to add more Context and to make the writing more accessible. He was surprised at her ability to take technical papers and make them more understandable. While they did some recreational activities together, more of their time was focused on supporting each other, which became a weekly process. Eventually, they started to ask the question, “What is the optimum expression of this relationship?” While they could easily identify being mentors for each other and co-collaborators on a number of activities, they soon realized that it was the mixture of all the activities which was creating balance in their relationship. They recognized they could have any kind of relationship they wanted and they had the confidence to explore both the romantic and creative opportunities that presented themselves.

Eric realized that April was an instigator and provocateur. Her intention and desire to serve larger outcomes was always surprising him. She saw the big picture, which complemented his ability to get things done. They both had a desire to make a difference in the world and were doing whatever they could to expand acceptance of others who were less fortunate, along with trying to mobilize those more fortunate to give. They saw themselves as facilitators for Right Action and Guardians of the Planet. Most importantly, their friends loved their partnership and all enjoyed being with each other. Their friends felt like an extended family. They soon developed an unbreakable heart connection and realized that, despite their past issues with marriage, they both wanted to get married as soon as possible. Their wedding event occurred 18 months to the day after their unforgettable reunion.

They quickly found and moved into a new home, which reflected their new sense of spaciousness and abundance. The creativity between them only increased the more they worked together. Opportunities kept showing up for them to work together, until most of the things they did were done as a team. Even the advocacy groups acknowledged that having these partners as part of the process was extremely productive. They took over and ran the Food Bank as a way to give back to the community. This allowed them to enroll all their friends in activities that made everybody feel better about their contributions to the community. The Mayor of the City soon acknowledged them for their contributions and strength of purpose. What they represented was a team that was many times more powerful together than alone. This is because they were immensely productive learning what was needed and how to best provide it. Knowing what we know in Higher Alignment, we recognize they had the same Primary, Secondary and Mental Body Expressions: Visionary/ Investigator/ Compassionate with the same Defense Styles (Dynamic Pioneering), same fast Pacing (65), and Communication Process (Think Feel Act). While they had some differences with their Decision-Making Style (she convergent, he divergent), they were able to neutralize these issues because of the preponderance of aligned factors.