Today is my sixteenth wedding anniversary. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but again it seems like the forever of brief moments, many of them spent laughing.
We got started late in marriage — I was 43 and Richard was 38. We were definitely late bloomers, as he had never been married and I had previously married the wrong person. I’m a nerd and Richard’s a geek, which might explain the late bloomer part.
We are not the perfect couple. We are the couple for whom people say “I cannot imagine you being married to anyone else” which means I’m a nerd and he’s a geek. I get it, though. I write romance novels about quirky people, and we could be one of those couples.
What are our secrets to longevity?
- Communication
- Conflict resolution strategies, including I statements
- Planning things together
- Compromise
- Honesty, but not weaponized honesty
- Laughter — this may be the key
I’m pretty sure this list looks like the lists of other successful couples except maybe for the last point. And I’m not kidding, I think that is the key to us staying together for 16 years.
Words Like Me 