Linda: When Charlie and I got married, I was young, weak, wimpy, and inexperienced in the art of of conscious relationship.

I had no idea what I was getting into and was filled with unrealistic post-adolecent fantasies. I swallowed Hollywood’s romantic myths whole. Over time, my life experience helped me gradually awaken from this trance. It wasn’t always fun or easy. Myths die hard, but eventually, I wised up. In the early seventies, I remember seeing a life-sized poster of Swami Satchidananda in a loincloth, crouched down on a surfboard. The caption read, “You can’t stop the waves from coming, but you can learn to surf.” Marriage, I learned, is like that. Even when you are a skilled surfer, you still get knocked around by the waves. The challenges just keep coming. I got tossed around plenty while I was learning. Everyone does. Eventually it got easier, especially when I realized that marriage can be a path and a practice for becoming a stronger, more whole person. Then the questions became: “What am I supposed to be learning here? How can I develop myself more fully? What are the gifts that I can give?” “What am I being challenged to become?”