An Interesting Article About Marriage....

I read this a few weeks ago and thought it gave some good insight into marriage and what it's all about:

In This Together: On hearts and Valentines and differences

Feb 04, 2016 | 277 views | 0  | 11  |  | 

The good thing about having a significant other is that he or she very likely thinks differently than you do.

If, say, you’ve tossed and turned through the night worrying about what you said in that one discussion with friends and how they took it and what it will do to your relationship, you can know that when you can’t handle it any longer and you’d really just like to get over it, you can just tell him what’s eating you and he’ll tell you it’s no big deal and you’re seeing too much into it and you should just move on.

And then somehow you do.

On the other hand, the bad thing about having a significant other is that he or she very likely thinks differently than you do.

So when you feel like a light dinner and a comedy on a Friday night, it’s no surprise that he’s thinking about a steak and some drama.

This is the month of hearts and Valentines, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my decades with a significant other, it’s that we each have the ability to decide whether our differences are making life good or bad.

And if there are two things I’ve learned, the second one is that it’s much, much better to come down with the attitude that different is good – even if it sometimes makes you grumble … or compromise … or stretch.

It’s good that you learn to like music that you otherwise might have missed. It’s good that you learned to ski and snorkel even if they were a little bit scary, and that you’ve watched movies that you weren’t exactly excited about and that you’ve eaten food that you weren’t sure you’d care for.

It’s good if your significant other starts to see what it is that makes you worried and what it is that makes you smile and what it is that you want to change in the world, even if it wasn’t where he was coming from and probably wouldn’t ever get there. At least he gets a closer look at it and a chance to understand a new perspective.

I can honestly say I would never have gone to hear a few rock concerts I ended up enjoying without my husband’s interest in his music.

And he could very likely note that he wouldn’t have sat so often waiting for sunsets if not for my interest in photography.

Which is what makes marriage so challenging, so beautiful and so risky.

We both share something that we love and hope that the other will accept it – and by accepting it accept us in some way too.

But being supportive doesn’t mean being the same. And being together doesn’t require every single minute.

I will never like certain TV shows as much as he does. He will never understand getting up at 5 a.m. when on vacation for a sunrise.

And when it comes to being different, you could write books about emotions. Others have.

But being different allows us to open each other’s eyes – to what it means to be sensitive, to what it means to be tough.

Marriage is high adventure.

Love is too.

Make it good.

by Louise R. Shaw

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Read more: The Davis Clipper - In This Together On hearts and Valentines and differences