Breakups do occur. Every relationship will eventually come to an end, except one connection lasts forever. When a relationship ends, it can happen suddenly and out of the blue, but other times it’s more like seeing an approaching train and knowing you’ll never be able to dodge it. However, not every marriage comes to a loud and dramatic conclusion. Occasionally, the end has already occurred, but no one has noticed. As your goals and dreams slowly fade into despair, your partnership is stumbling about like a zombie, putting on the hollow performance of being a couple. After all, even when you know the separation is necessary, it can be difficult to really go through with it. For a relationship to succeed, communication is essential. Nobody can read minds, so expecting your partner to just know what you want and need will only lead to frustration and disappointment. The two activities—communicating and “filling the air with noise”—are not the same. We frequently mistake “talking” for communication and try to fill in those awkward silences with verbal jabs as if doing so would solve the problem of our strained relationships. However, as long as you can communicate your wants to one another clearly, it doesn’t matter whether you can coexist in amicable silence or if you talk away like a couple of extroverted cockatoos.
