Today marks the anniversary of the day Ed and I married. With each year, our lives have been woven more tightly together. We’ve shared some incredible high points and held each other close through some very difficult moments. We’ve watched each other grow as individuals and ourselves grow as a couple. It is this complexity, this richness, this history that I missed when my first...
Before the wedding, we say we don’t know exactly what to expect from marriage. We lie. It’s not even a year before most utter the words, “If you loved me…” or “If he loved me…” or “Why can’t she…” We know what we expect, and it is a disappointment when it’s not what we get. Picture yourself planning a garden tour. You...
A good marriage can make tough times a lot easier. Tough times can make a marriage better or worse. I was thinking about this question yesterday, listening to John Michael Montgomery sing, “Do you remember the times of nickels and dimes…and love?” Almost all of us can remember such times, when we pulled together to get through difficult times. We felt close. We felt loved. We...
Following up on my July 29th blog post, my Enjoy Being Married teleclass on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 will be When Marriage Gets Boring. We will look at what we can learn by assuming love when we feel bored, how expecting love can bring back excitement, and tips to help us look for third alternatives to the choice between boredom together vs. pursuing our own interests separately. The teleclass...
How green is your marriage? “Divorce breeds environmental degradation,” reports tomorrow’s business section in The Australian.. [A study on household energy use released by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts in June] found that despite the advent of airconditioners and plasma-screen TVs, the average energy consumption of each Australian household is not...
I am a widow who got it right the second time. I have been sharing here since February 14, 2006 what I learned from that experience and from positive psychology, marriage research, and my training as a marriage educator.
