Sometimes relationships enter a frustrating phase where both partners' needs aren't being met and they engage in a tug-of-war to try to pull the relationship in their favor. It's a lose-lose situation. If one partner gets their way, then the other is worse off and if they keep pulling equally, then the relationship goes nowhere though each partner is putting a lot of energy to try to make it move.

I've always wrestled with the notion "If you love something, let it go," but what I've found is that sometimes the easiest thing to do is for both partners or one partner to just let go of the rope that binds them. If both partners agree to let go and stop trying to control the relationship, the tugging ends. Hopefully this is a mutual agreement because if one partner is ready to let go while the other is still pulling, then the one still pulling falls on their butt pretty hard.

Now that the rope no longer becomes a tool of influence or persuasion, it can be transformed into a tool that binds and ties two people together as they meet half-way at the line of compromise where no one person has their way, but they both have each other. That's what I call tying the knot. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters.