An Extra Ordinary Life

Many years ago, after Bill and I returned from conducting a teacher training session, we were having lunch in our Florida room, rehashing the experience and laughing at our mishaps. A young man, Bruce, was busy building a new wet bar for us when he interrupted his work to inquire. "Excuse me, but I am in the middle of a nasty divorce, and you two seem to have such a happy relationship. What does it take?"

Taken off guard, we improvised. "A good sense of humor, a common interest, mutual respect . . ." When Bruce started to leave, I stopped him. "Bruce, it is none of the above. It is loving each other."

Since then, I have been mulling it over. What exactly does marital love consist of? Maybe it actually is all of the above, but I sense that manifestations of a real caring for each other vary with idiosyncrasies, personalities, moods, and circumstances. As romantic love settles into daily routines with memories and histories to bind us tighter and tighter together, we become one. Almost literally, we are one body and one being, feeling the good and the bad in each other like Siamese twins in one body, one mind, one heart!