We know that trust and communication are essential to any relationship; I've elaborated on that in prior posts. But here's an oft-overlooked element on which relationships also depend for survival, and one I studied in depth in most of my psychology classes: proximity . Dictionary.com defines proximity as "nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, or relation." Have you noticed that the people you're often closest to at work or school are those who sit near you? Or that your closest friends are usually the ones who still live in the same city as you do? This should come as no surprise to us. Proximity is like a special glue that holds the relationship together. The closer we are to other people, the more likely it is for us to bond with them. Once someone in the relationship moves -- whether to a different cubicle at work or to a different home or city altogether -- the relationship tends to suffer. Once you create distance between yourself and someo...