Happy Wife Happy Life

- Impromptu | Intermezzo -

Life seems to get better when we're away from each other.

As I am writing this, my wife is in Taiwan. She’s with her family, whom she doesn’t get to see enough of.

By the time she gets back, she’ll have been gone for just around two and a half weeks.

While she's been with her family, I’ve been on my own. Not entirely alone–Winston and Kingston are lying down besides me on the carpet while I write this at my desk.

I’ve been getting a lot more reading done. I’ve been eating simple, healthy meals. I’ve barely had a drink and I’m as slim as I’ve ever been.

The house has been quiet. Things are peaceful. Life has slowed to a crawl.

I have a lot more time to think, to sit around and do nothing.

I could do this all day.

Every day.

When she gets back we’ll probably fall into our old routine. The pace will quicken. It will get busy again.

I don’t want to go back to that; I don’t think it’s a life either of us want.

I don’t like seeing her work so much, but I can’t expect her to be content with the little that is more than enough to make me happy.

She works hard for she wants. I try to shake the feeling I’m holding her back.

She's worried about the future. I don’t show it, but I am too.

To me, it’s not as simple as making more.

To do that I’d have to give up more of my free time, and I don’t want to spare even a minute.

For what?

To be unhappy again? To continually postpone myself from doing all the things that give me joy? All the things I’m doing right now?

Why would I do that again?

I hate it. I hate that feeling that I'm not enough, that I'll never have enough.

She’ll tell me from time to time how much better we’d have it in Taiwan.

I’m not quite convinced.

It feels like trading one box for another.

But there’s free healthcare!

Yes, you'll need that much when you’re killing yourself to make a living.

Although, something tells me she’s starting to see it the way I do. For example, a day or two after she got there she texted me, 'people are already annoying me.'

There’s no escape. But what are we even escaping from?

You know, the more time I have for myself, the more I realize I’m completely satisfied with what I’m doing.

For the first time I feel like I’m living.

That might have been the issue all along.

I was tempted to say I should have known all this before I got married. But I know now that I couldn’t have.

I know now I ended up with the right person.

All I really want is for her to be happy, to be as happy as I am.

I miss her.