Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ten Minutes 9/28~~Love Hurts

Today was our day off.  It was a lovely early fall day, warm and bright as summer.  I had it in my mind to take a little buying trip out to one of the wineries south of here.  We stopped in at the café for breakfast, and almost immediately got into an argument…over something stupid and insignificant, as seems to be our habit of late. 

 

We finished our meal in silence, got into the car and drove in that same cloud of anything but amiable silence.

 

Eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I racked my brain for a lead-in line…wondering just how to start the conversation without starting a fight.  Finally, I asked him.

 

“What one word would you use to describe our relationship these days?”  More silence.  I had nearly decided he had chosen not to respond.  And then…

 

“Strained,” came the answer at last.  And I couldn’t argue.  Because the word that had been circling round my head was…similar.

 

We drove on.  But I was determined not to let that silence close in on us again.

 

So we tore it open.  We argued.   We accused.   We laid blame and we took blame.   We thrust and parried, ducked and wove, and each landed a few really good (verbal) punches.  We arrived at our destination, stayed in the car and kept dredging it up and dragging it around for another good half hour before I think we were both just too exhausted to go any further.  And nothing, I think, was resolved.  Except that we’re still married.  For now, at least.

 

It has been a long, hard two years since we strapped on our armor and sallied forth onto the danger-fraught path of business ownership.  Yes, we did arm ourselves…or we thought we had.  It turns out the dragons and demons we are facing are not what and where we imagined they would be.  We find ourselves pitifully ignorant of, and therefore perilously exposed to, the actual threats we smack into head-on.

 

We thought we at least knew how to physically run a restaurant.  (Turns out we did once, but we had forgotten a lot of what we knew and had to learn all over again.)  We thought we could work together as a team to accomplish what one person alone cannot do.   (Turns out we can’t, andI’m not sure why “we” ever thought we could.)  We thought that, with thirty years of shared history under our belts, we would know each other well enough and love each other deeply enough to be the support system we would each so desperately need.  (Turns out that we had no idea how thin our bond would be stretched by the exhaustion and the stress of our endeavor, and that in its current emaciated state it couldn’t withstand an attack by an angry gnat.)

 

And tonight I’m sad and incredibly tired and…lonely.  I’ve had one friend I could count on for more than half my life.  And right now, we just don’t seem to like each other very much.

6 comments:

  1. ((((((((((((Lisa)))))))))))))))



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  2. Oh Lisa.  {{{{HUGS}}}}

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  3. Sounds like you and hubby need a time out from the business. Hope everything bonds back together. Lots of warm fuzzies for you. Dannelle

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  4. You were signing off just as I got on last night. Sorry I missed you. You probably weren't feeling like talking right then anyway.

    Hugs, hugs, and more hugs.

    Jackie

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  5. when every nerve has been tested, when every dream has vanished, when calm is replaced with crises, ..we will always find our ourselves facing a frihghtening image.....the person and place we hoped we never see.

    Love never hurts...it's  when we abandon it, we suffer the consequence .

    Love is the author of all positive emotions. It nourishes, heals and sustains.

    Evey poke, thrust and parry between you, every verbal "touche" that is cast, is not a pssing blow to each other, but an upper cut to Love.

    I have faith in the power of Love..I trust it will get back on its feet and look for that opening in your hearts to find its way back in!

    Good Luck!
    Marc :)

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  6. ((((hugs & tears))))  

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