Life with Ladybug: Passionate kisses

By Shannon Magsam

I know my husband and I might sometimes make people a little sick. Or skeptical. Or maybe both, I don’t know.

They wonder if we’re holding hands or ducking behind the building for a little unexpected kiss is really just for show. Or contrived.

I assure you it’s not a cover-up for a bad relationship behind closed doors or to highlight all the ways somebody else’s relationship is passionless.

It’s not a way to “brag” that we still really like each other. It’s just that we DO still really like each other and when we get to spend time out together we’re generally happy about it.

We don’t go overboard (I think we probably did when we first started dating. Sorry about that, friends), we don’t make out in public, we don’t stare longingly into each others’ eyes at a restaurant. But we are affectionate.

I realize not everyone is “touchy-feely”. I’d like to suggest you try it.

Touch, especially by someone we love, has amazing powers to make a bad day better, help people heal faster and even lessen the pain of a medical procedure (seriously).

I certainly don’t think the world would be worse off if more husbands and wives showed more affection, shared more public (appropriate) kisses and admitted that married adults can still have a little fun.

Yes, your kids might complain about it, but they’ll secretly be glad their parents still like each other.

I’ve only been married for going on 13 years, so I realize I’m no expert on the subject. But that’s a good amount of time, enough to know.

Are we always passionate? In a word, NO. Of course we argue. We occasionally get furious at each other. Less often we yell, but we do.

We definitely have those times when we go to bed, practically clinging to the edges on our own separate sides, those few inches between us feeling like a huge iceberg.

But then I remember all the times he didn’t make me mad, all the times he did quite the opposite. And I think of the child we have together and the fact that people don’t know how much time they have to live a life together.

So one of us makes a gesture. A warm hand on an icy shoulder. Tensions melt away.

Passions reignite.

(Not to make you gag or anything.)

Shannon Magsam is mom to 10-year-old Ladybug, married to Ladybug’s dad, John, and co-founder of nwaMotherlode.com. To read previously published installments of Life With Ladybug, click here.

*Lips photo by TaniaSaiz via Flickr