Love and Marriage: Physical separation
When you first start dating your spouse and you move into the next stages of living together and marriage, you can’t get enough of each other. Â You don’t sit on separate couches, you don’t watch separate television shows, everything is done together. Â You have a whole living room filled with furniture that you rarely use as the two of you sit snuggled tightly together on your over sized chaise lounge. Â You compromise the things you want to watch in order to not leave the same room as the other.
Then one day you’re hot. Â You don’t want to cuddle under the blankets anymore. Â You realize that suddenly you sleep better on your stomach and not in the spoon position. Â She hates watching football; he doesn’t like reality television. Â That’s when you find yourself becoming physically separated from your spouse. Â Something you thought was impossible. Â “I will never ever want to be anywhere but hand in hand with my love,” you thought.
Hearing tales of wives in bed with a book and husbands in the garage with a beer every night terrified me. Â I did not want to be like that. Â I wanted to stay connected with my husband in every way and was fearful of growing apart. Â We began watching movies on separate couches very quickly and it made me nervous. Â Why don’t we want to sit together anymore? Â Are we growing apart?
No. Â We were just uncomfortable. Â That was all there was to it. Â There was no deeper meaning, in my opinion. Â It was only comfortability.
I’ve found over the years that being physically separated is much different than emotionally separated. Â We can stay connected in life without standing side by side every moment. Â That is probably what makes marriage so unique and so different than other relationships; the love is so deep that it withstands the details in life.
