It takes time

A couple of themes have converged in my life fairly recently.

Charlene and I have been married over 18 years now. I’m not surprised when I talk to other couples who are going through marriage difficulties, because we’ve been through our share. Maybe more than our share. But I also have a lot of hope because we now have a great marriage. I can’t take any credit for it, but I never imagined that marriage would be so enjoyable at this stage. But it’s taken time.

I’ve been at Richview over ten years now, but it’s only really felt like home for the past two or so years. For the first eight years, it wasn’t all bad, but it was a struggle. Don’t get me wrong: we have a long way to go, and there’s lots of work to do. But it’s taken time to get to the point at which it feels we have some traction and that we’re moving (slowly) in the right direction.

I sometimes thought about how easy it would have been to give up during the hard times. I’m glad I didn’t. It just takes time.