It seems to me that most of  my friends met their S.O. in a situation that they were not  free at the time or one of them were not free.  They often meet later and find they can now act on their feelings.

Did your S.O. come wrapped up in the perfect situation for  you?  Did you and your S.O. have to over come some adversity to be together?  Did you meet your S.O. before you  dated them and know them for a time before you hooked up?  Does the right person just appear ready to be with you?

This is an excellent question.

I'm always single for a good long time in between relationships. I've never met anyone & broken up with someone to be with them.

I'd probably be really suspicious if someone with a bow turned up!! lol!

He did arrived, wrapped nicely with a bow but I did not jump on it so the second time around, we had to fight like hell.

Often the story is like Elsa's I find.  VA and I were coming out of bad relationships too  but we knew each other when we were younger.  We just thought we were friends...but we were more.

Hubby would object to the idea of wearing a bow, but.... yeah, pretty much.

I'm just glad we had the sense to go with it.

Excellent, Korellyn!  Lucky you!

Great Question!! unfortunately i dont have the experience to give a concrete reply at present, whenever it happens i will let you know :)

I don't have a SO, but that's what I hear about a lot of successful couples. It's also been the basis for my complaints, when I'm feeling lonely, but that's for a different thread.

Good luck, Surd and Salali!

Did your S.O. come wrapped up in the perfect situation for you?

Absolutely not. It wasn't perfect for either of us.

Did you and your S.O. have to over come some adversity to be together?

Yes, but the feelings we had motivated us. But they took many years for either of us to recognize. We each had to grow up A LOT before we were able to even think about having a relationship. Had we tried at an earlier point in our lives we probably would have killed one another.

Did you meet your S.O. before you dated them and know them for a time before you hooked up? 

Yes, we crossed paths several times from middle school until now.

Does the right person just appear ready to be with you?

If someone would have told me that I would end up with this guy and we would be this compatible I would have laughed in their faces. Seriously.

personally, I would be highly suspicious of anything that appeared with a big bow on it....I would be turning it upside down, shaking it and listening to see if I heard ticking......

seriously, though, my SO and I found each other a very long time ago; we were very young, but we both had seen adversity.....in the beginning he was more interested than I...however, you could say he grew on me.......we will have been together 34 years this October

I've never had a relationship 'start' in the sense there was either strong attraction and powerful feelings, without one or other of us (usually him) being in another relationship. So no, it's never been ideal in any sense! Which is why I'm still alone.

In the case of FGL I was alone but in this complicated and very close relationship with the [closted] gay arab - which made things extremely difficult and possibly torpedoed us right from the start as it set up emotional barriers. Three men I could undoubtedly have been happy with were already in long marriages or partnerships at the time we met and although I know they all three loved me deeply, the two who were married weren't prepared to break that and the other, although wanting out and committing to me, didn't have the balls to face down the emotional blackmail entailed. He's the one I've never forgiven...

Even The Man was living with a girl all the first year we knew each other all the while he was 'courting' me - not that I knew at the time as he never went around with her, or even mentioned her! The relationship wasn't equal and they broke up shortly after we finally became lovers. He's just not partnership material and hasn't seriously lived with anyone since he was 31.

ETA:  I've never, ever, put pressure on a man or even suggested that he leave a woman he's living with, whatever the circumstances. I think that would be inexcusable.

PS  The one exception to all this was my husband, who'd never had a serious relationship with a woman at all. He was 40 when we met (he'd been at sea for most of the time since he was 16).  But it didn't make him any more reliable or stable than the men I'd loved who were in complex situations... 

The truth is, as life gets longer, it's almost impossible to meet someone with no baggage. And men in a bad relationship or just one which has run its course tend to throw themselves into work until something irrestible shows up, so long as it's bearable, given the financial downside to a divorce. The three partnered men with whom I had serious affairs had all had extramarital affairs before. This was back in the 70s when such situations were quite usual (in my circles anyway). 

Was coming out of a painful divorce from first husband when we met.  Had a long distance relationship for over a year (back then there was no internet, texting, etc) and then moved in together when I began my PhD.

Nope, no big bows here....had to step very slowly back into the ring..

I had just finished mourning a stupid relationship I had thrown my heart and soul into (in college :)) and my husband was still lingering in an idiotic relationship with this weird girl who made him take her friends on dates with them (??) She was out of town on Homecoming weekend being a d-bag, and he was sitting alone looking sad in the corner at my friend's birthday party in one of the guys' dorms on campus. I had dropped out of school, but still had friends up there. So we were both free. 

If I'd had a type, he was not my type :) I inititiated conversation with him cuz I felt high on life and wanted to sort of pry into this curious creature who looked so forlorn at a PARTY. 

Then when he walked me home (I so didn't need help walking home ;)) we talked until 7am. He slept over my apt for an hour or two (neither of us could sleep) and then I took him out to lunch and told him to practice on me how he would let this girlfriend go :) He said that's when he knew I was interested in him :) We just felt like soulmates from the start, which is why we married 6 months later and are still married 10 years after that! I mean, it's been a rough road, certainly no fairy tale after those first few whirlwind months, but I feel like it was meant to be. I'm glad we met when I was young enough to take those kind of risks LOL 

I feel very lucky - we met and it clicked and he might as well have had a bow on. :)

My ex SO came in leather, on a harley

enough said

The people that I've met right now and whoever meets me in the near future will not find me wrapped up in a bow...

i don't think anything is ever perfect.  no big now on this one..  both of us still getting past the last catastrophe.  just a brown paper package..  not even any string. 

but sometimes the best gifts come in the simplest of ways. 

heck no! but of course I say in with the belief that the best person for us will challenge us and make us grow and growth is never easy!@

Mr. Libra stole me from a laughably wrong guy, and it's the best thing that ever happened to me.

I thought it said, "wrapped up nicely in a bowl," at first.
Tupperware, with a tight-sealing lid and that signature 'burp' that lets you know it's fresh.

LOL, ew, satori!!! :)

now all i can think of are those Parkay commercials from years ago..  creepy imitation butter in a tub..

PAR kay  (not butter..  not margarine)     Par kay

allergy/sinus meds make me silly (delerious)

PAR kay

Hahahahahahaha

He came nicely wrapped in a bow and was being FedEx'd somewhere else! Still waiting on the boomerang effect to bring us together but I think it will work out

Now don't you wish life worked out that way for all of us?

No present wrapped in a bow so far for me, but I've had great relationships!

Wish so.  I don't think it would ever be that easy

Did your S.O. come wrapped up in the perfect situation for you?
Nope, neither one did.

Did you and your S.O. have to over come some adversity to be together?
No.

Did you meet your S.O. before you dated them and know them for a time before you hooked up? 
No, I think if I had with either I'd have two of the best male friends of my life.  Or we never would have gotten together.  It reallly would behoove me to cool my engines when I first meet someone, lol!

Does the right person just appear ready to be with you?
So far, no, but that's not stoped me from giving it my best go :)

I love analogies. He had a bow on, all right. It was made of steel, but a carabiner kind of looks like a bow tie turned sideways.

The closest I can come to explaining it (and this really happened) was that I was out in the middle of what I thought was nowhere, picking raspberries on the steep side of a creek that flowed below the base of a cliff.

Suddenly, from above, there was this whirring sound, and a guy dropped down from somewhere above me, then another.

They detached themselves from their gear and gave me a big smile and said;  "Hi, what are you doing here?" and I said, "What are YOU doing here?" 

The first thought that I had was; "Oh great, now they're dropping from the skies."

Actually, my first reponse to this question was all out laughter ;).  I don't want to hurt anyones feelings, but it just seemed silly to me, as nothing in my life has come to me wrapped nicely in a bow.  I'm still just as grateful for those things and those people :)
Angie

LOL mercingemini. :)

Angie, I was just thinking that disaster comes to me wrapped up in a bow, it seems. I didn't expect things to always be easy, but I haven't met many men, and I know people who just bumped into their SO's, or met them online (bnot on a dating site, ecept for one who is blissfully happy, and met her guy on match.com. they just got married.)

I would loooove to find "her" wearing a bow. Or a Teddy , or cute ballerina outfit , or bib-overalls , or a nurse's outfit ..... but not a Nuns.

Both of us were single and the timing seemed perfect. Even though we both did face our senior year adversities, we struggled a lot together and now here we are.

Salali, I think that's part of it, I don't expect things to be easy either.  It's just not in my make up.  Yet, I guess it is for some people ;)
Angie

I've never expected anything to be easy either, since it never was right from the start.

Looking at my chart now, with its severely afflicted Jupiter with a close conj to Juno and a looser conj with Chiron, and T-squaring most of my personal planets inc Sun/ Venus and Mars, I'm not surprised! And Moon sq Pluto just for the partnership coup de grace...

I hear ya BP :).  I always think one of the highlights to starting life with a chart that has more difficult aspects (like mine).  Is that as the planets move on and form more pleasant aspects, life gets a better perspective :).  Sorry you've got such tough aspects right now :(
Angie