WATCHING A MISTAKE

Short of losing them entirely, one of the hardest things is to watch someone you love make a mistake.
Not an "oops, I put too much peanut butter in my cookie recipe" kind of mistake, but the kind of error that ultimately may change them entirely.
It is hard to watch them walk away from love, give up on their talent, their gift or quit on themselves. You can't stop them because they have the God-given right to make their own choices and decisions. But it still hurts to watch them make that choice and know, in your heart and soul, that it is so horribly wrong for them.
Especially when, it can appear, they are, in essence, rejecting you and everything you once shared.
How can you just stand by and see someone you love decide they'd rather live with abuse, disrespect, dominance and parental-style control than with you? How can you accept that this person, whom you love without condition, would rather be with someone who treats them as less than an equal, less than a partner and more like a child, a worker, a slave, a piece of property? What can you do when you see them turn away from their God-given talent, a tremendous and powerful gift, a gift they once called "their reason for existing," just so they can be that much farther away from you? How can anyone watch the one they love give up on themselves and on love? How can you accept that they would rather feel nothing at all than continue to live a full array of emotions with you? What are you to think when you realize they would rather go the rest of their life totally numb than to spend another second experiencing a fuller life with you?
How do you deal with the stark reality that they'd rather feel nothing than to be with you?
But this is their choice and you have to make it. All you can do is hope that sometime, in some future, they will come to their senses and realize they've made a horrible mistake. And then you have to hope they can swallow their pride just enough to admit to themselves that they've made the mistake and take steps to at least take back their talent and themselves, even if they never can find it within themselves to come back to you.
But maybe, given enough time, they might realize that was a mistake too, and turn back to you anyway.
All you can do is watch, wait, hope and pray. Because the choice, ultimately, is theirs to make.