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Last night, I sat in a parking lot and casually noted couples walking into the grocery store together. For the majority, one would walk ahead of the other; very rarely, did I see any walking in tandem with even the barest element of expressing their attachment.

I also watched elderly people who appeared seemingly distracted: the first was a gray-haired, slightly-bent wife tottering on, gesticulating wildly in shocking verbal abuse; while for another couple, it was the lean, balding but bearded husband, who expressed obvious irritation and anger at having to wait for his spouse.

There were several mothers carrying children - one had a child who was perched on her hip as the other was in the top of a cart; some were yelling at their young, while others looked visibly exhausted as they sorted through paper bags, food items, and clipped their little ones into car seats.

I also observed husbands of varying ages in either complete disregard of their wives, or all the more scorned for the trying; some seemed to completely ignore their part in the leadership of the family, while others were very definitely unable to do anything but "fall into line," as it were, so as not to incur their young wife's harried wrath.

Such scenarios played out within as little as twenty minutes -- and it gave me pause to evaluate, internalize, and learn.

Do we continue to invest as we did, once upon a time? Do we walk ahead impatiently; or more sadly, reprimand a spouse only because we're in our own hurried flow of stressful energy?

Are we cognitive of the ownership of singular potential, or that of those whom we've chosen to share our lives with? Do we really understand, to the most elemental degree, that our chosen family should merit our absolute and continual highest regard?

What misplaced priorities over-shadow such relationships? When did struggle or complacency, collected over time, undermine the sacredness of marriage and/or family?

My thoughts circled back to the unequivocal truth that with any relationship, what we put into it is what will come to be; we have to take ownership of internal intent. So, I say: Be the couple who laughs and loves for always.

What I have come to learn is that there is a fallacy in youth that somehow each of us grow up with this idea that, in some way, we'll learn to do everything "right", and then make it to a plateau of peace without trial; but, that simply isn't so - in fact, it's quite directly the opposite. Yet, what's so incredibly soul-filling, and so humbling, is the knowledge that who we're blessed to share life with, is everything. And, more -- what we do with that will either make life easier, or present stumbling blocks.

Invest; for circumstances will always come and go, but the perceptions and attitudes we allow within our consciousness will either invade a union or strengthen its design.

#LiveJoy #LoveFamily #CreateLife

Living Joy - This Carman Girl