Today would have been our 16th anniversary.
I looked him in the eye, a perfectly good man, and I told him that I wasn't happy, and that I had not been happy for a long time. I looked him in the eye and I did it.
For the marriage, it's just kind of a bittersweet emotional cyst. It forms my frame of reference.
My separation came with multiple trips without him, he was just too frozen in his ways to adapt to travel, and I had developed a taste for it. I had dragged him along, but had come to the end of my patience with that.
I was also realizing that the rest of the world, was healthier for me than Texas. Maryland seems to have junipers, but it also has a lovely spring. Cherries and pears bloom like pastel popcorn along the quaint walks & parks of Frederick. There are dark redbuds and red oaks in contrast.
There's a way to have Adventures from a stable base, which doesn't compromise your lifestyle.
That's what I'm working on.
The thing that really made it easy, was that we didn't have kids. I really wanted to take the cat with me, but the cat didn't do well in my apartment, the guy I thought I might get together with had a cat, and my ex really needed the company. So I took the cat back. As far as I know, old HP is still doing well. At least I hope so.
I liked my ex a LOT better, once we didn't have to share space & politics.
I think that's the best I can give the conflict-ridden, just to get some space in the relationship.
I celebrate my Unniversary because it gives me a motive to examine where I am, what I am doing, and whether it's healthy.
I put the uncomfortable memories (stirred by a friend's impending divorce), into a better life for myself and my ex.
Mine is better, and I don't bother him enough, to know if his is, or not.
It's up to him.
As it should be.
