Exceptionally normal. Normally exceptional.

I’m sure this is not the first time you’re hearing about the fact that relationships, although marked by grand moments and gestures, are sustained by the small everyday moments.

Not a fan of grand gestures, my relationship with my husband is marked only by a few grandiose moments yet is persistent in its everyday normalcy. In social media standards, we are quite a boring pair actually but we don't really hold ourselves up to social media standards anyway.

For one, We don’t go out a lot to try different restaurants but we love it most when he’s in the kitchen cooking up something. We have such fun picking out ingredients at the grocery store for dishes he is going to make with his own hands later in the kitchen.

Two, we have not traveled to a lot of countries and tourist spots together. I live, however, for drives in his motorcycle around the village, looking at pretty houses, and sometimes pretending we’re in our hometown while pointing out homes that look like those of people we know back home. Going to places we’ve only ever seen on jeepney plackards are enough to give us a thrill, so long as we are driving together. Not much something to post online about, yes, but those motorcycles rides are like a "thing" between just the two of us.

Even a trip to Wawa Dam can feel like a trip abroad with this man

Three, our conversations aren’t always about how much we love each other or about some deep Philosophical shiz. Most of the time we talk about reaaally ordinary things such as the crazy dream I had, or his day at the office, or an episode of Black Mirror that rendered me speechless, or the big-mouthed President. Hihi. 

Same thing when we fight, they're not the pack-my-bags-and-leave or oh-I’m-going-to-die-with-hearteache kinds of fight. I can get nasty, yes, and it annoys me but he manages to laugh at me in the middle of an argument! Needless to say, our fights don’t last very long.

Not much to see here, I tell you, and to be honest, I feel really grateful about that. I know it is only by the grace of a Higher Being that our marriage is as uneventful as it is, and yes some may say that it's too early to tell. I also know, however, that both of us are willing to work on our relationship so that it stays as ordinary as it is. The way I see it, its dullness is what makes our marriage exceptional and I wouldn't have it any other way.