This is a re-post from 2009 as a Therapist at Imagine Hope Counseling Group.
We have an area in our yard that we don’t see very frequently. Last year one of our little boys played in it constantly so we kept it up very well. This year he is playing in a different area of our yard. The other day we went back to the old area and realized it was being overtaken by weeds- massive ones! So my husband and I decided to make this a part of our “stay-cation”- pulling weeds! I couldn’t believe all the weeds we had! We had to pull each one at the root to assure they wouldn’t come back. There was one weed that was so huge I literally asked my husband if he thought it might be a plant growing! The base was as big as a shrub! Neither of us could get it by pulling- we had to DIG it out!
As I was pulling the weeds I was thinking about how easy it is to let “weeds” get into our relationships. How often in our relationships do we just get busy living life and start taking for granted our partners. We will work on the relationship when the kids are a little bigger, when we have a less stressful job, when our finances are in order… We sweep little things under the rug until they are massive and can no longer be ignored. By this time we are so disconnected from our partners that we can’t even communicate this to them. We suddenly have what looks like a shrub instead of a small weed!
It is so easy to let this happen. It is so important to keep connected with our partners and communicate to them how we feeling in the relationship. If things get too out of control, marriage counseling can help you reconnect again and pull your weeds, one by one, until you are communicating again at a NEW and better level. Don’t let the weeds take over your relationship. As soon as you start seeing the weeds, get help, one by one.