Doreen, Maggie,

Thanks for your thoughts! We are both trying to view this as a new beginning, not just of bliss, but a new beginning of lots of work we need to do to make our relationship better than ever.

I think what REALLY helped a lot was sharing and understanding each other’s childhood pain, which drives much of our adult angst. We’re both from upper middle class families that appear perfect from the outside, but had significant challenges that linger today (probably like everybody else’s families). Once we started exploring those family of origin issues, it became much easier to view the other’s angry behavior in its proper context.

And perhaps most importantly, that exploration helps us forgive ourselves, a prerequisite for asking forgiveness from each other.