In either role, the key element is trust. If we wait to trust our loved one first, before we trust ourselves, then our own self-doubt will destroy that love before it even has a chance to bloom. We cannot really trust our partner with our feelings if we are unwilling to risk giving them freely. Ideally, of course, both lovers will arrive at this destination simultaneously. It is the rare individual who has the courage to confess his love first and wait patiently for his lover to reciprocate.
Ill timing is perhaps the most common characteristic of loves that fail.
Ironically, this is a standard fixture of nearly all great romances. And when the axe falls, the lover's previous generosity is replaced by a prevailing instinct for self-preservation. The walls that had earlier given way are suddenly rebuilt overnight, reinforced with suspicion and topped with the barbed wire of cynicism. All that was precious suffers a sudden devaluation, and instead of counting the charms, the former lovers dig to unearth each other's faults and weaknesses, to sooth their own discomfort. So it is not love that is to blame, but the demands and stresses that lovers subject it to.