…..I’ll never forget the day I found out that my husband not only still has his wisdom teeth… he also DIDN’T know people got them removed?!!!!???????
(And dental insurance/appointments or whatever wasn’t like an issue or anything for his fam…😭)
Healthy is not quiet. It is two mugs sweating on a table at 22:04 while both of you decide whether to defend your pride or your future. It is dishes in the sink after a stupid fight about tone that is not about tone at all. It is the radiator ticking like a metronome for your breaths as you both refuse to slam a door. You love each other. You also roll your eyes. You also get bored. You also wake up at 3:11 and wonder who you are building with. Healthy is not the absence of friction. It is what your hands do with the heat.
You argue. Good. Raise the issue, not the volume. Say the exact thing. Tuesday, the message you didn’t answer, the joke that landed like glass in my teeth. Keep it small and true. Then stop. Drink water. Put your palms on the counter until the sparks in your chest cool by half a degree. Come back and use dates. Use verbs. I did. I will. I won’t. No courtroom. No closing statements. Two apologies that fit on a receipt.
Different opinions? Of course. That is why the house breathes. One of you trusts speed, the other trusts checks. One of you needs lists, the other needs a walk. Healthy is not forcing a match. It is drawing a map that holds both routes and choosing a meeting point at 19:30 with soup that forgives your day. Compromise looks like a calendar, not a surrender.
Frustration happens in fluorescent places. The grocery line that eats twenty minutes. The parking ticket on the damp windshield. The email that treats one of you like furniture. You feel the old script climbing your spine. You want to punish with silence. You want to win. Instead you count to eight. You name the weather inside you without throwing it like a plate. I am angry. I am scared. I am tired. You do not fix each other. You find a smaller problem and fix it together. The dripping tap. The trash. The bed.
Insecurity? Invite it in and feed it facts. Your voice shakes. You still tell me where it hurts. I show you the text before I send it because I want to be clean in your eyes. You tell me you need me to ask more and assume less. I tell you I need fewer jokes when I am raw. We both listen. We both try again badly, then better.
Boredom is not a verdict. It is a maintenance light. You do the unglamorous repairs. Walk the long block holding hands without talking. Swap phones and put the next date on both calendars. Learn one stupid dance in the kitchen at 20:12. Sit on the floor with your backs touching and read. Boredom leaves when investment arrives.
Healthy does not mean perfect. Perfect means this: when a challenge shows up, you choose to move through it together. You put the problem on the table like a broken hinge and both of you bring tools. You mind the exits but you do not run. You speak in present tense. You repair in the room where it broke. You keep a short memory for ego and a long memory for kindness. You go to bed on the same side you woke up on. You fall asleep with the argument smaller than the touch of your feet.
In the morning you make eggs and say the sentence that closes the loop. Thank you for staying with me last night. The coffee is a little burnt and perfect anyway. The day opens. The house breathes. You keep moving, not around the hard thing, through it, together.
Micromanagers used to drive me crazy. But I realized pretty early that every job has at least one, and instead of wasting energy being frustrated, you need to learn how to play them.
These are my best practices.
Wait, let me get this straight. You made Likes private, so no one can see who likes a tweet… but you think people who are blocked should still be able to see the tweets of the person who blocked them?
How does that make any sense at all?
…..this man really might win just off the fact that he can speak complete sentences. Granted, the shit he’s saying makes no type of sense and has no logic or reason behind it, but he’s at least saying complete words 🤦🏾♀️😭