I had a very eye-opening conversation with my neighbor. She and I like to take our kids for walks after dinner, and the other day we were walking along and I noticed something: she kept making little comments about her husband like I used to make before I gave up trying to reach out to anyone. She wasn't saying anything horrible about him, but it was obvious that something was bothering her.

As we walked I told her, "I'm going to ask you something, and please don't get offended, but I'm only going to ask you because I wish someone would have asked me this a year ago." I took a deep breath and asked her, "Do you and your husband have some issues?"

I braced myself in case I had just offended her, but she stopped walking and looked at me. "We're beyond issues," she blurted out. "We're at the kill-each-other stage." 

She then proceeded to spend the rest of the walk telling me all about how she hasn't slept in the same bed with her husband for two years and how she's miserable in her marriage.

What a huge eye opener for me! We had just been over to their house for dinner a few nights ago and they seemed fine. Here I was thinking that I was alone among my friends in having serious marital issues, and the fact of the matter is that I'm not.

After she walked home I stood on the sidewalk looking at the houses on my block.  How many other people are sad? How many other people dream of someday leaving a relationship, or maybe dream about the relationship someday getting better? How many of these houses have couples who can't stand each other?

How did we all get so good at pretending as if everything is peachy?