At some point you agree that, yes, whether you are sleeping between bedposts made of gold or shivering cold huddled in the nook of grocery store and it's newspaper stand- yes, you will stay together. You agree that in the peaks of fitness and the depths of addiction, you will stay true. And finally, the traditional summary, "for better or for worse" presents itself and you agree, but of course. A most definite hearty and enthusiastic confirmation that this union is the shit. You feel it powerfully, you judge those who have come before you and you know that you will not be like them. No, this is a love unlike the rest.
It takes time. It's always a disappointing and comforting lesson to be reminded that we are not different from each other. We are all the same. Our experiences are vast and immeasurably varied, and the bottom line is always that we are, at the core, all the same humans. There are plenty of ways to convince yourself that you are special and nothing like so-and-so, it's the way we behave on the outside that convinces ourselves of these dividers. It's the inside that is always, always the same.
I traveled forward into marriage on the high of the "better". Everything was freaking awesome! I relish big life changes, it excites me and motivates me. In that moment you can only imagine what "worse" represents. I didn't spend a lot of time considering it. In a vague way it meant to me being annoyed or disappointed. A feeling that may last a day or two but wouldn't permeate our bond. I could handle being annoyed and even disappointed. So that handled that. No biggie.
In a week, that heavy dress will have been stuffed in a box, dirt still having it's way with the hem, for nine years. Compared to some, we are still babies in this venture, but this year I feel like I am one hundred years in and am beat up, dirty and dragging small people through a dessert mirage- yes kids, this is real! This is wonderful! There is beautiful, clean water in abundance! This is the year our relationship was KO'd, this is the "worse".
I know it's going to be annoying that I don't spell out the details, but 1. it's not really fair to the man and, 2. I really just need to pour out my emotions on 'paper'. Y'all: the "worse" is worse than you think you knew in those wistful moments. For me it looked like days of sobbing with bits of being normal for the small ones. It looked like every blood cell in my body vibrating with rage and threatening to come out in ways that would have gotten me arrested. This is not me. But it was. I kicked the sofa. I powered it with the heel of my foot. I screamed with my whole into a pillow, over and over and over. I shook all the time. I cursed and wept in all kid-less moments. At some point I realized that this whole experience could end. Like really end.
That end had all kinds of ugly, complicated and heartbreaking new beginnings. Getting a divorce was never an option for me, yet I wasn't able to see continuing on either. I am not a patient person, I am a hypocrite in my need for others to make decisions now but insisting on time and space to make them myself. I became a person who was waiting and surviving the days. I knew it was time that we needed. This grand canyon-esque fracture needed time. Fucking time.
I can count on my family to be wise. Loving, supportive and wise. And so it was, this piece of advice that gave me the freedom to have all of the feelings and craziness I was going through, this piece of advice that made the valley (which feels more like a crevasse) that we are experiencing ok.
"Sometimes you just have to be committed to the commitment."
And WOOOSH, I was freed from all the guilt of hating him and despising him and the impossibleness of being near him. I could let go of my commitment to him- the person, for now, and be committed to that commitment. Words. A promise. I could hang onto that for dear life, squeeze it close and it could be the eye in the center of this overwhelming hurricane of breakdown. And it's working. It's only three short months later and we are not healed. We have a rough sketch of who we want to be now.
Freaking time.
