Marriage is hard. Even the most compatible couples will occasionally struggle, but the fact of the matter is, what my husband Ryland and I were going through a few short months ago was even worse. It’s crazy to say now looking back from the other side, but resentments grew, and our union was on its last leg. But that all changed when we introduced four more legs into our life. Here’s how this dog wearing a propeller hat singlehandedly saved our failing marriage.
Some say a relationship will be able to weather the storms of life’s unpredictability if it is built upon a strong foundation. Ryland and I got married because we kept breaking up and decided that if the next time we wanted to break up it would be a legal hassle, maybe we’d be more inclined to stick it out. It seemed like this was about to prove untrue, but then one day the doorbell rang, we stopped arguing to go answer it, and sitting there on our front steps was this dog in one of those rainbow propeller hats. We were both like, “Okay, this rules” because obviously, it does. Like, you know what it looks like.
Anyway, since then the dog in the propeller hat just chilling in our house has been the foundation of our relationship, and we’ve never been better.
It’s not as though a marriage’s issues are going to disappear overnight. Ours certainly didn’t. But now when we’re arguing because our desires for the future are completely incompatible or because Ryland thinks painting every room in our house yellow would “increase our happiness”, all we have to do is look over at this dog in a propeller hat who moved into our home and none of that other stuff matters. He makes us laugh! What are you doing in that propeller hat, doggy? You gonna fly away?! Hahaha aww.
Before, we were never on the same page about literally anything, but now we realize we agree on what’s important — like both believing that a healthy dog in a propeller hat was a stray and that we didn’t kidnap someone’s pet. This is what marriage is ultimately about.
So if you want to save your relationship, roll up your sleeves and put in the work. Or just do the propeller hat dog thing. It really works!
