It’s official, last week it was 14 years. It feels like a long time and yet barely scratching the surface.
In the beginning, the early years, it was like striking oil; new and exciting things to share. Now it's more like digging and pumping through layers of rock. Click To TweetThere is more, I believe even more than we can imagine, but it will be harder work to get to it than in the past.
It feels funny that we have to schedule visits just to be together. But without it, we are so easily distracted and pulled into all the things that busy us. We both have minds that are constantly spinning both with the day to day requirements (at least for me), existential wonderings (that’s mostly hubby) and then our creative sides.
Because we both have very creative sides that often have to be deferred if not suppressed during this consuming season of raising little ones. Without the luxury of the budget to pay regular sitters we try to decide carefully how to devote our few kid free hours every couple of months. Is a movie worth it? For me, only if it’s followed by dinner so we can discuss and connect.
It is work that I believe is worth doing, but so often it seems like the universe conspires against us having an uninterrupted sentence let alone finish a complete thought or have an intelligent discussion. (I can remind my five year old every day, multiple times a day not to interrupt when Daddy and I are trying to talk, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen. Every single day, every single conversation, every single sentence. Basically every time I take an inhale that communicates I might be planning to use more than three words at a time.)
But we keep trying. Because for us, sharing what makes us unique, and the crazy way our minds work is an important part of emotional intimacy. Click To TweetA friend, whose children are older than mine, refers to the time after the littlest years are over as the Renaissance. After the dark ages of night time feedings and ten diaper changes a day, there is time and energy, sometimes even money for art, cultural, creativity and enlightenment. Sad as I am to see the end of the baby years, I look forward with hopeful anticipation.
We’ve spent all these years trying to stay connected, even if by a thread at times, believing that there will be time to learn and grow together again. Hoping the next 14-50 years is full of lots of it.
Your post is beautiful, My children are still in the little years, where I can hardly get a whole sentence out to my husband without being interrupted, so I can totally relate. I am one of your neighbors at Five Minute Friday.
Thanks so much for stopping by! These little years can be rough but wonderful. I’m hoping I’ll find things to enjoy in future phases as well.
Bethany, you hit on a vital point, that we have to intentionally visit our marriages. Great stuff, and I wish I had read this years ago.
#1 at FMF this week.
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2017/05/your-dying-spouse-315-victory-fmf.html
Thank you so much for your comment, Andrew. This topic is definitely one I feel is very important, but also not always easy to do.