Nurture is Valuable: Marriage
When you think of your most
significant relationship, what
words come to mind? Do you have
mostly positive associations or do
you immediately think of
frustrations and ways you would
like your partner to change and
improve?
It’s key to recognize that
everyone’s marriage is different.
And when I use the word
“marriage” I’m referring to any
committed love relationship
between any two consenting
adults. No two life partnerships
are alike. We’ve all traveled
different roads to arrive at our
current relationships, but one thing
is for sure: nurture plays a big part
in marriage.
Without a sense of care and
affection, our marriages would be
cold and empty. The vows many
people choose at their weddings
carry some wording about loving
and caring for one another. We
fall in love and then make a
promise to look after one another
for the rest of our lives.
But what does this really
mean? How does it play out on a
day-to-day basis?
I believe intimacy is a sacred
entity. It’s mysterious; secretive to
anyone outside of the union.
Vulnerability works best in the
quiet moments between two souls.
It’s not meant to be public.
Unfortunately, we live in a
world consumed with oversharing. We have social media
accounts where we photograph our
lunch, artfully prepared and lit as
if it’s a magazine cover instead of
a meal we are consuming alone at
our scuffed-up kitchen table. We
poll our friends publicly on
Facebook about how our spouse
irritates us and we solicit outside
advice on handling conflict with
the person we pledged to spend
our life with.
We can only nurture another
person as well as we nurture
ourselves. If we are missing out on
self-care, we will tend to resent