Paradox?

“Paradoxically, the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love.” Erich Fromm, the late German, philosopher, and psychoanalyst.

I was about 25, a medical student with a good friend who gave me the same advice. He was a photographer, a good one. He specifically advised. “Don’t live with a woman until you can live with yourself.” That took time, but it happened living alone at 32. She and I have been wed for 45 years. 

The friend didn’t tell me the critical element. A marriage needs the hand of God. Notably, in God’s hands, we are never alone.