Tamsen Butler - How to Make Your Long-Distance Relationship Work and Flourish: A Couples Guide to Being Apart and Staying Happy

How to Make Your

Long-Distance Relationship

Work and Flourish

A Couples Guide to Being Apart and Staying Happy

By Tamsen Butler

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Acknowledgments

For Rae Crusoe, who is the calmest military spouse I have ever met, and Stacy Grajkowski, who is always willing to lend a listening ear when my long-distance arrangement gets to be overwhelming.

Also, for my husband Scott, who was in Afghanistan the entire time it took me to write this book. I am proud of your military service, but I look forward to the day when I can stop being a first-hand expert on long-distance relationships.

Introduction

It is not difficult to spot a happy couple. The way they look at each other, the way they reach for each others hands when walking down the street, and the way they seem oblivious to the world around them are all clues that these two people unequivocally belong to each other.

What happens when there is no looking into each others eyes, and there are no hands to hold when walking down the street? Is it possible to maintain a solid relationship when two people are separated by miles, time zones, and in some cases, an almost complete lack of communication for long periods? Can love flourish from afar?

The answer is a resounding yes. Being in a long-distance relationship does not doom you and your partner to eventually losing your feelings for each other. Like any other successful relationship, these long-distance romances need to be given attention and cultivated to flourish. Although it is true that long-distance relationships can take quite a bit of effort, most relationships take effort. No relationship is without its difficulties, and just because miles separate you does not mean you cannot make it work.