Blog Post: The Love Jar
Earlier this month, my fiancé and I took our anniversary trip to Oregon. We decided to have a bit of a low-key anniversary trip this year, so Oregon was top on our list. Not only did we eat good food, but we encountered some interesting people along the way. One of these encounters was at Cheryl's on 12th, an extremely delicious breakfast restaurant located in downtown Portland.
As soon as we sat at our table, this quirky, bubbly, waitress approaches us and immediately grabs my hand and gazes at my engagement ring. "Wow! You did an amazing job" she says, as she glances over at my fiancé. She then goes on asking us a million questions about how long we've been together, where we're getting married, and so on. "When I come back to take your order, I'm going to tell you the #1 key on how your marriage can last a lifetime". Our eyebrows raised with curiosity.
She came back and took our orders quickly. As soon as we finished, she crouched down next to us and whispered her little secret on how her and her husband's marriage is still staying strong. "The secret.....is the love jar", she said. A love jar? What the heck is a love jar? It sounded a little silly, but we waited for her to further explain. According to our waitress, the love jar is basically a glass vase or jar that you literally put everything in. And I mean EVERYTHING! Concert tickets, receipts, photos, letters, pieces of clothing, ketchup packets; pretty much anything and everything that is special and personal between you and your partner, even the bad stuff. She even said to write letters to ourselves whenever we get into arguments and just throw them into the jar, and don't revisit it until it's time. Once the first year wedding anniversary arrives, she advised us to open the love jar and go through everything together, as a couple. The purpose of this is to remind each other how much love is shared between both individuals and how good memories outweigh the bad ones. She further clarifies that we cannot start this process until the day of our wedding.
We both loved the idea and promised our waitress that we would try it out. The first thing that we're doing on day 1 of being married, is buying a love jar. Will this help our marriage to be strong? We sure hope so! Lot's of factors contribute to healthy marriages, let's see if this is one of them. Stay tuned.
-Autumn C.