A few years into our marriage, Mark and I fell into the trap of so many married couples. We each had a lot going on, we were both stressed and we began to bicker and take out our frustrations on each other. You know how it works. One of you snaps at the other, the other person eventually snaps back and before you know it, you are rarely if ever using your "kind words" with one another. I remember that everything came to a head the day we got back from a trip to London in 2002. At that point we were fighting about pretty much anything - one argument that sticks in my mind from that trip is when Mark got angry at me for not smiling big enough in some of the pictures he was taking. Good times.
When we got home we had a talk and both of us admitted that we were not happy. Shortly afterward Mark started being really nice to me all the time. His tone just changed completely. Honestly, it took me some time to trust the new him and for that protective wall I had built to begin coming down. He cooked for me all the time and he was just wonderful. In time, I was able to accept his attitude without questioning him and, most importantly, he made me want to reciprocate.
You may wonder why I would include this in my happy memories of our time together, but I think this is truly one of my happiest memories. Mark fought for our relationship during that time and he successfully changed the entire tone of our relationship. We are still not perfect. We still have off days (even weeks sometimes) but now we know what the warning signs are and we know how hard it is to work our way back so we talk before we do too much damage. Because of Mark I have more confidence in our relationship. That is the best gift he has ever given me.
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