Dear Aida,

There are few questions more difficult — or more defining — than whether to stay in a relationship or to leave.

It is rarely a clean choice.
Love pulls you in one direction.
Pain pulls you in another.
Hope whispers one thing.
Fear whispers another.
Your heart leans forward.
Your mind leans back.

And so people stay too long, or leave too early, or cling to illusions, or abandon possibilities.

The truth is:
there is no formula for this choice — there is only clarity.