Recently I wrote about the Isaacs definition of love, and it got me to thinking again about the third entity: your marriage (as in each of you and your relationship -- the three entities). In particular, the action of  ". . . loving as a practice of putting their partner’s interests on an equal footing with their own" corresponds to the notion of your marriage as a container in which you both put your best efforts for the good of both.

Do you have a trust (the financial kind)? A trust is a container in which you place your assets to protect them: for taking care of each other, for privacy, for your children or heirs, for tax purposes, and so on. I love that this is called a trust.

Another way to think about it is cultivating a garden of love. Are you planting, weeding, watering, hanging out on a double hammock, sipping cool drinks? Or are you ripping out plants, grinding down green shoots, erecting a wall?

Maybe you want to be building, but for any number of reasons, you are actually damaging your marriage. What does your marriage need? Notice your thirst, the longing for connection, the protection from loneliness that you yearn for. You have to choose (and act) every day to build your trust, to nurture your garden. And you have to do it without keeping score of what your partner is doing. S/he has to choose it every day, too.

It's a good idea to talk about what it means and consists of to be adding to your trust or garden. You likely have some ideas that are the same or similar, and some that are different. In the meanwhile, you can be putting your marriage's interests first.

If you need some help, get it!