Years gone by. Married.

What is this thing that happens with age? Why does everyone want to pervert love and suck it bone dry of all its glory? Why do you bother to call it love anymore? – Don Juan De Marco

Why indeed? Why do you cheat? Why does every talk end up in an argument? Why, every time you try to say something, it comes out as critique? Why is being kind so hard all of a sudden? Why is money everything now? Why do you say “I love you” if you never mean it? Why did you allow it to become just another form of “good day”? Why did the small things you loved get marred by the passing of time? Why do you hate them now? Why can’t you let it slide anymore? Why do you have to always prove you’re right? Why do you even share the same bed? Why don’t you care anymore? Why can’t you find the person you fell in love with in the other? Why is an anniversary just another day? When did you give in to monotony? Why did you give up on yourself? Why did you give up on the other? When did love turn to friendship, friendship to acceptance, acceptance to tolerance? When did tolerance die? Why do you have to lie? Why don’t you spend time anymore? Why don’t you spend money anymore? Why don’t you spend thoughts anymore? Why do you try to stay away? Why aren’t you there even when you are? Why can’t you see the other fading? Why don’t you realise that’s all you have? Why don’t you help each other? Why don’t you dance anymore? Why do you never really talk anymore? Why do you think ignorance is the best move? Why do you think good manners are for “in public” alone? When did romance become too much of an effort? When did honey turn to poison? Why is it so hard to please the one person you know as well as yourself? Why can you sympathise with everyone else but not your other? Why can’t you see how much you’ve become alike? When did you forget your vows, vows not to God but to each other? Why do you think there’s always tomorrow to make things right? Why did you think the children won’t see behind the drawn curtains? When did you stop sharing your dreams? When did you start hoping alone?

Remember. Remember why you chose this person to come home to. Remember when “home” became the house where your spouse lived, and not the house of your parents. Remember when you said family for the first time with your other’s image in your mind. Remember what spring felt like. Remember what you did in the summer. Remember how that autumn passed. Remember the snow fight. Remember your first dance. Remember meeting the parents. Remember a moment that shines in your memory like a diamond in the dust. Remember the proposal. Remember taking the other’s hand on your wedding day. Remember that night. Remember stepping together in your fist house. Remember your first fight. Remember the day your firstborn cried. Remember your first mistake. Remember your first anniversary. Remember a promise you broke. Remember a moment you wish you never missed. Remember being jealous. Remember cleaning up together. Remember the first Christmas when you children got presents and actually opened them themselves. Remember wishing to take back something you said. Remember talking...just talking. Remember the promises you made between whispers and sobs. Remember the plans you made together. Remember the hopes you had for...everything.

Children may be what you leave behind, but your spouse is who you live with.