photo from flikr -
duncan's
phosostream
I have been married to the Italian Stallion for more than two decades. When we first met back in the dark ages we spent some time comparing our respective realities and decided that we were a pretty good fit. The big items were all processed and ticked (checked) and the courtship culminated in a marriage proposal….eventually…..after seven years and well, it was a leap year. We were married nine month’s later, went on our honeymoon and then we started to live together.
That’s when each of us REALLY got acquainted with the other’s reality. The first decade of our marriage was about whose reality was better. Ah, young love…aint it grand? The next decade was about making our own new, bigger and better combined reality, something we have done with moderate success. The third decade is still a work in progress but involves consolidating and building on that combined reality and helping our children create their own.
Let me give you a pictorial sense of our reality on a few of the more significant marital issues:
Pets
His Reality My Reality
Our Reality
Holidays
His Reality My Reality
Our Reality
Romance
His Reality My Reality
Our Reality
Housekeeping
His Reality My Reality
Our Reality
What happens when realities collide? Apart from the smoke and ash that eventually settles, it’s not really the black hole that one would think. Life is certainly not dull and we all bring our prespectives to the household.
And now, taking my tongue right out of my cheek, I am hoping to make this the best decade yet with the Italian Stallion and to continue to carve out our new reality in middle age.
Raising the Curtain 
That is probably 99% of relationships. Lol. I love the visuals.
Thanks….hate to see what the other 1% look like 😉
lol
Amen!
34 years for Mary and me, and I think you’ve nailed it! Happy anniversary (though I think it was a while ago), and many more.
Thank you, we still have a way to go before reaching 34, so kudos to you and Mary.
Great post! Love those realities… we are in the middle of year 37 and discovering pieces of our realities we didn’t know existed. Congratulations on making your marriage the definition of true, everlasting love.
I am happy to hear of successful long term marriages. I think these days, we hear far more about marriage failures than successes. Kudos to you and your spouse too!
I’m a sucker for real marriages that are grounded and are considered a work-in-progress. I love hearing that people are actually talking to each other and sharing their lives instead of settling in, as soon as the ink dries, into the old fashioned idea of what it used to be like eons ago.
I wish you many, many more!
Thank you Tess. I think communication is one of the big (if not THE biggest) issues in a marriage or indeed, in any relationship. You get that right and the rest seems to fall in place.
awesome summation! i especially like romance & housekeeping!
Thanks… I had a lot of fun with this one.