Wake Up! Wake Up! I want to tell you something!

I know I've lulled all of you into a nice, quiet sleep with all of my boring, serious posts lately. But, WAKE UP! I want to tell you about this great book!

After last week's read of Iris Krasnow's Surrendering to Motherhood, I decided to check out her next book, Surrendering to Marriage. This book is an excellent, realistic look at marriage. Although it's decidedly pro-marriage and pro-til-death-do-us-part, Krasnow doesn't pretend it's going to be easy, or even nice, for a lot of the journey. But she does a good job of convincing us that it's worth the fight to stick with it.

I thought I would just toss out some quotes from the first section of the book (entitled The Malaise) that I thought were good, to give you all a taste of it. (I ran out of time to reread the whole book to share all of my favorite quotes!) You can probably find this book at your library, or for dirt cheap on half.com.

The 4 things she knows:
A. Marriage can be hell
B. The grass is not greener on the other side
C. Savor the highs, because one thing you can count on--the dips are just around the corner
D. Nobody is perfect, so you may as well love the one you're with

"I have found that if I wait the squalls of marriage out, they always pass, and a softer wind blows through that makes me feel as if I'm the luckiest woman alive, to be with a partner who is fiercely devoted to me and our boys."

"I'll tell you one thing that needs to be altered about expectations in relationships: that someone else can make us happy. An intrinsically unhappy person who leaves one marriage is going to be an unhappy person in a second and third marriage. Happiness is self-generated."

"We share neither blood nor genes, perhaps not even common interests. Yet we met and married and now share a home, in-laws, and children.
It can be hell."

"there's plenty of hate that comes with love..."

"Surrendering to marriage means realizing that to succeed in this most mysterious and difficult, yet essential, of partnerships we must push through waves of sadness and rage, and accept them as part of the whole marriage organism that also includes the profound joy of being in a committed union, and of giving your kids a rock to hold onto."


READ IT!