Your north star for reconciliation — or clarity.
In Ex's & No's, Chapter 4 asks you to write three things that would need to change — in you and in them — for this relationship to work. "Better communication" is not an answer. "A weekly check-in every Sunday" is.
This tool goes one step further: for each of the three, it separates what they need to bring and what you need to bring. That distinction matters. It's the difference between a vague hope and an actual standard you can measure against.
This list becomes your north star. If a chance to reconnect appears, this is what you measure against — not nostalgia, not loneliness, not how good it felt at the start.