By Sylvia Mwesigye
About two years ago, a friend’s husband had to be accommodated in a ‘gated community’ for reasons I cannot disclose. Oh how fervently my friend and I prayed for his release. And about a month ago, our prayers were answered. Of course the fatted calf was slaughtered but before the dust from the party could settle down, my friend was on the phone saying she could not stand his presence anymore.
See, before the special accommodation happened, the two had never lived together for a prolonged period because they both worked in different places. She had no way of knowing whether they would be compatible partners or not. Dating is one thing but actually having to spend day and night with this person has a way of wearing off the tint from those tinted glasses through which we view romantic partners at the beginning.
As my friend discovered, there were so many things she discovered she could not stand about the man she had prayed and fasted day and night for. But I knew she was not the only one. A little research reveals that this inability to stand each other happens in the second stage of a marriage when poetry has ended and you are now communicating in prose. This stage is riddled with incessant conflicts, fights and regrets. There is also a feeling that the relationship was a mistake and some will hasten to end it. Many people enter relationships believing that they will always agree with their beloved without realising that nature decrees that opposites will attract. So, expecting a relationship without any ups and downs is like expecting a bird without feathers. Click to read more…
