The Four Stages of Marriage
Are you lovers, friends, roommates or adversaries?
By Sharon Pope
Our marriages and most intimate relationships are incredibly complex and constantly changing; as we evolve and change, so do our closest relationships.
There are certainly times when we’re feeling incredibly connected to our partners, knowing their thoughts, finishing their sentences and even feeling their pain or insecurities. And there are those other times when we’re wondering who this person is that’s sitting across from us and how we got here. Those are the extremes, but certainly, we live a good portion of our time together in the in-betweens, where we’re neither blissfully happy and connected nor irritated and angry with our partners.
It’s helpful to take inventory of where our relationships are compared to where it is we would like them to be. Here’s how to tell where we are at any given time:
Are We Lovers?
Most people think that only newlyweds get to be lovers, but that’s not true. We move in and out of being lovers and we are in the lover stage with our spouses when we feel connected to them intimately, regardless of how long we’ve been together. We miss them when they’re gone, the thought of them makes us smile, we often touch, demonstrating our…
