Aunt Agony 110211

Originally posted by Simple Annie:

My marriage has been a sad one.Hubby and I dun talk much. Was kind of an arranged marriage.We cannot divorce. We stayed married on as we have 2 small kids. Lately, I met my ex and we had a walk & talk. He is getting married .I felt happy for him and at the same time, I could not help thinking of those times we had loved each other deeply.I feel so envious and at the same time, I kind of miss his love for me. We did not marry then as he was 3 years younger and was not well-off enough.My family wanted me to be with my hubby then.

It is so sad to be in a loveless marriage. I wish I can die.



There will come a time where we cannot abnegate our power to make our own decision to external forces just because ‘it has always been this way.’ You are an adult – biologically old enough to have your own children. It would have been different if you were a child, but even a child suffers the consequences of his/her ignorant acts. Regardless of reasoning, the outcome of today's circumstance is but an effect of choice/s made.

You have your own rights to decide the life you want to live. As much as this is an arranged marriage, things manifest the way it did because part of your agreement to whatever decision that was made just unfold itself, like logical scenes in your ‘love story’ thus far (albeit not a happy one). For relationship is a voluntary arrangement between two people to come together in a union; a marriage merely legalize this deal.

There is a central perspective in your post, coupled with a number of what I call 'absolute thinking values'. I will address them individually below:

Central to your thoughts is likely to be as such: you seemed to believe that things are probably fixed. You are married. You have two children and probably seemed like a 'happy family' outside. Making any decision to possibly ruin this will immediate equate to an act of blasphemy or treason.

The absolute thinking values are:

i) We cannot divorce.

You are employing the same flow of logics once again and then I would causally ask why 'cannot?' Of course I know there are good reasons to remain status quo and I would have easily share the same thoughts - however in reality, regardless of what those reasons are, basically, what happens is that you have made an active commitment by opting for 'the choice to remain in the relationship' as compared to 'we cannot divorce'.

You might think that I am talking about the same thing, but it is actually not. I will explain in my next point:

ii) It is so sad to be in a loveless marriage.

It probably degenerated into a loveless marriage. Like a house, if we don't regularly clean it, dust will start accumulating and we all know too well what will happen shortly. You probably thought that this relationship first begins 'without romantic love' and hence it will surely lead to a loveless marriage. But I must say that it is part of your belief association that self prophesize into reality.

If you combine 'cannot divorce' with 'loveless marriage' - basically, it is sure ingredient for a miserable perspective. But eventually from (i), if you deemed that it is a choice that you choose to stay, then naturally you also have a choice to do something about your loveless marriage.

I am not advocating for a stay/bye bye position in your marriage - what I want to point out is that there is this shade of grey that you could look into - if you wished for a more fulfilling relationship. Certainly, you have already made your choice; turning your shoulders to see how far your past has been is definitely not helpful to you in a forward looking perspective.

P.S: I have contact for an upcoming marital workshop for couples 5 years or less into their matrimony. It is not conducted by me, but if you are interested, you can PM me for more information.

Cheers