My question is. We are supposed to live life as they are never coming back. So if we stand for our marriage doesn't it mean we are hoping for the day they do? If I live that way, I am moving on. I deserve to know what it is like for someone to actually live me not just one way of me loving them. I am not wanting to choose to live alone for the rest of my life.
Personally? I dislike the phrase "live life as if they are never coming back". You should live your life as if they are not coming back
right now. I've compared it to your spouse being in the military and are deployed overseas; they will return to you at some point, but you don't know when.
There are no guarantees in life; you could choose to Stand, no matter what, and never be with someone again because your husband, for whatever reason, doesn't come back to you. You could give up your Stand and continue to bounce from unsatisfying relationship to unsatisfying relationship, looking for someone to treat you way you think you "deserve" to be treated.
It's possible that your husband will return to you and you spend the rest of your life with someone who will truly value your relationship from that point on, knowing that you have seen the worst of each other and weathered that storm. It's also possible that you leave this marriage behind you and find someone who has been through similar trials in their own life and has learned what it means to make a marriage work.
Or you could be hit by a bus crossing the street tomorrow, rendering all of these possibilities irrelevant.
You have the freedom to Stand for your marriage, and the freedom to end your Stand when it's not right for you any more. You need to decide what is right for you, and do it. Maybe what is right for you right now isn't right for you in a year, or two years, or five years; that's OK!
Me: 53, Her: 49. Married 25 years, together(-ish) 29.
Status: BD 8/25/09, she moved out 8/28/10. No talk of D.
Every day is another chance to get it right.
http://www.vachss.com/mission/behavior.html"Counting days won't buy us years" —Wings by HAERTS
"Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past." —Lily Tomlin
"When we commit to our lovers, we implicitly promise to forgive them. There is no other way we can live with someone for better or worse or until death do us part." —Dr. Frederic Luskin