For a relationship to work, meaning that over time love and understanding, respect and appreciation grows, you need certain tools and the willingness to make the time to nurture the relationship. After 36 years of being married we are continually learning the power of staying in contact, of turning toward each other as a practice.
We learned a simple dyad communication process over 32 years ago that saved and strengthened our marriage. It gave us a way to face each other eye to eye and heart to heart, creating a space, within which we could speak what is true in the moment.
Sometimes it has been like stepping through fire or like piercing through a wall of ice. Sometimes it is filled with warmth and laughter and the wonder of discovery. It is both humbling and invigorating. Always it is a great relief to find the other is still there, and even more there.
Seems we are always calling out to each other: “Are you there? Are you there?” We are learning to say: “I am here, and I am open to you.”