How to Survive a Marriage 'Til Death Do You Part

My grandparents, both sets, were married for more than 60 years until both grandfathers passed away, as were my husband's grandparents. My parents have been married for over 40 years. I have been married for almost 20 years. My brother has been married for almost 10 years. My kid sister has been dating the same guy for about 5 years - by her choice, as she feels she is too young to be married. For her, monogamy is just fine, thank you.

Am I bragging? Probably a little bit, and it is because it is a rarity to find that in this day and age a marriage will last more than the few years it does. This is a sad testament to how much we in this country value marriage, and worse, how much we value one another. Here at home we find it easy to place blame, easy to refuse to claim our own responsibility, but hard to own up to certain things about ourselves that we just find too ugly to face. The hardest truths to accept are our own, especially when those truths pertain to those things about us that we know are there but refuse to acknowledge.

Marriage is not easy, but what is harder than getting through the 7- year itch thing is realizing that we are not perfect and neither are our spouses.Learning to accept these facts are probably the hardest of all. So, your first bit of advice is ...

Get over yourself.