Appreciation

A few times lately, my wife has told me that she loves our house and loves her life and things are darn close to perfect as far as she is concerned. She says she has everything she wants, except for one new appliance.

(Note to self – get that appliance.)

I haven't responded in kind, because the truth is that although I do think things are pretty darn good, I can imagine a lot better. Thankfully, she doesn’t seem to notice that I don’t repeat her sentiments, because I don’t want to rain on her parade. Instead, she is happy with me responding to her statements with "That's great!" and "I love you. I'm so glad you're my wife."

I'm thankful she tells me how happy she is, and that she thanks me for what I do. Appreciation can be very important.

As far as what I think needs improvement – well, there's no point in complaining about things we can't do anything about. If there's something I can do on my own and won't go against something she wants, there's no need to burden her with that, either. I should only bring up stuff to her that she (or we) can and should do something about. But, like I said – I don't want to rain on her parade, so timing is important. I just have to avoid what my own father did – he sat on his concerns until things were too far gone.