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Phil and Maude

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Author: Phil

Compatibility

By Phil Posted on September 15, 2012 Posted in Relationships Tagged with Compatibility

The idea that shared interests make a couple compatible is very common: What Mr. Godla shared with Ms. Vignon, which he hadn’t with his first three wives, was “a passion for the field of 18th-century craftsmanship in French decorative arts,” …

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Two sides of Criticism

By Phil Posted on August 30, 2012 Posted in Relationships

Criticism is like an arrow: the sender only sees feathers, but the recipient sees a sharp point.

Is Conflict Inevitable in Relationships?

By Phil Posted on August 5, 2012 Posted in Relationships Tagged with Peace within relationship, Successful relationships
Is Conflict Inevitable in Relationships?

We’ve been reading “Why Marriages Succeed or Fail” by John Gottman. After studying hundreds of couples, he concluded that all of them contained conflict, and successfully resolving it was the key to a lasting marriage. We disagree. In the seven-plus …

Is Conflict Inevitable in Relationships? Read more »

Chance or Choice?

By Phil Posted on June 26, 2012 Posted in Relationships Tagged with Chance, Choice, Luck

Sometimes I think that we put out such a strong message of how well we relate that people are discouraged and think that we are lucky to be so specially matched. But it’s not what we are, what lottery tickets …

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Learning to Be Together

By Phil Posted on June 12, 2012 Posted in Relationships Tagged with Peace within relationship
Learning to Be Together

We were talking last night, as we often do, about the ease between us. Whether going out, planning the day, working together or relaxing, there is a fluidity, a way of effortlessly choosing a path that works for both of …

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Union Mystifies Me

By Phil Posted on May 23, 2012 Posted in Relationships
Union Mystifies Me

After all this time I am still mystified about union. There are many clues that our experience is not unique, e.g. “shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh“, but the modern world-view has no …

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A Prerequisite of Our Process

By Phil Posted on May 9, 2012 Posted in Relationships

We wrote about our process without explaining the basis on which it rests. That basis is a shared view of the world – how to treat it and how to deal with it. Morality or ethics, if you will. This …

A Prerequisite of Our Process Read more »

New Video Out

By Phil Posted on March 14, 2012 Posted in Announcement

We made another video about the book, but it didn’t feel quite right, so I left it for a couple of weeks. After noticing the other videos had music, but this one didn’t, I added some in the background, and …

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Not everyone who is married is a difficult spouse

By Phil Posted on February 16, 2012 Posted in Relationships
Not everyone who is married is a difficult spouse

Psychology Today ran an article “Are You with the Right Mate?” which has much sage advice on relationships, but like nearly every relationship article, it talks in terms of conflict and negotiation: “Everyone who is married is a difficult spouse.” …

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The Freedom to Say Anything

By Phil Posted on January 16, 2012 Posted in Relationships

I love what you say about our ease in talking because I have had the “we need to talk” speech from so many other people. So what’s the difference? Was I mutated by a bombardment of cosmic rays? No, I …

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