He sat on the only bench in the shade, an older man with a rancher’s leathery sun hardened face. I was doomed to forty five minutes of standing in the blazing summer sun while my tires were worked on, and after the first drops of sweat trickled down my back I decided to make friends.
Turns out he was about to celebrate year sixty of marriage. I, on the other hand, was a kid a couple of months from my own wedding date.
“What advice do you have for someone who is about to be married?” I figured that if he didn’t have a couple secrets for success, no one did.
He rubbed his grizzled chin and stared sagely at the distant mountains. Finally he turned to me, “sometimes the solution to you problems can be as simple as two tubes of toothpaste.”
Two tubes of toothpaste? I wasn’t married long before I realized he’d given me a diamond. As married couples we get frustrated with some of our partner’s habits. It’s inevitable. Rather than try to make them like you, just love them the way they are and create a his and hers. Separate does not mean you will separate. For some things you’ll match, and for others you need your own.