I haven’t nailed down the seasons here in Panama, but for that beautiful tree, December should be renamed DecemBare. One week it was full and green, the next it was completely unadorned. It seems to be the one tree in this country that thinks it’s winter. It also seems to spend about half the year naked and half royally robed in green. Last year, we actually mourned a bit thinking that it had died. Now that I know it’s just dormant, I can patiently wait for its beauty to return.
If you’re marriage seems bare and lifeless …instead of leaving, wait for leaves. Relationships can go through dormancy and even hard winters, but that doesn’t mean their vitality can’t return. An extensive study conducted by The Institute for American Values followed the relationships of a large sampling of couples for five years. Special attention was given to couples who reported being “very unhappy” with their relationship. At the end of five years, the pollsters checked back and discovered that the two-thirds of couples who had stayed together reported being “very satisfied.” Interestingly, 80% of those who divorced reported being no happier after ending their relationship. The couples who had remained married attributed their success to a myriad of factors, but the only global common denominator was that they “stayed.”
