Untying the Knot

As I get older there seem to be more words I’m adding to my “evil-word” list. Words such as deployment, death/dead, and cancer used to be the only words on that list, but now that list is growing. I’m adding divorce to it.

I don’t know if it’s because marriage is constantly on my mind, but the more I fall in love the more it seems people are falling out of love. Within the past year, Kenny and I can both say we know seven couples that are either currently separated or divorced. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a pretty big number to me.

I know the reasons first-hand for why two of them didn’t/aren’t working out, but what about the rest of them? Divorce, in our minds, is not an option. Yes, we know the optimistic (sarcasm) statistics out there about marrying into the military, but we try to throw those numbers out of our radar.

From the very beginning of our relationship, communication has been our top priority. He’s extremely up front with (anything non-classified) things regarding his job, how often he’ll be out of town and what goes on during those trips, and we’ve both decided that if, at some point, the military starts getting the better of us, he’s out with no questions asked. And thankfully, being in a long distance relationship has taught us a lot about trust.

But still, every time I hear of another divorce or separation my heart breaks a little. I think it’s normal to be a little timid about a relationship that ends with “till death do us part,” especially when the women in my family like to live long lives well into their late 90s!

Whew. Sorry for such a downer post, I just had to get that off my chest. But with all that said, I’m still ecstatic to marry Kenny. Do you have anything to add? Any advice to keep a marriage strong?