They love the present version of their partner

Not the person from the early months, whose edge and mystery have since been replaced by familiarity. Not the person they're hoping will emerge next year when the difficult period is over. Not the idealized version that exists partly in imagination. The actual person, today, with the actual limitations, the actual current struggles, the things that are harder to love than they used to be. This is what love in practice looks like: choosing the real version over and over, rather than waiting for the ideal version to arrive. Loving an idea of someone is easy. Ideas don't have bad days or annoying habits or slow progress on the things you wish they'd change. Real people do. The willingness to love the present version — to resist the constant postponement of full acceptance until some improved future arrives — is one of the deepest acts of generosity available in a relationship. It's also the only kind of love that actually lasts. The idealized version never arrives. The real person is already here.