'Tis the season to be thankful, in another month to be jolly, and, if you're still not convinced, a whole new year right around the corner to try again if things don't work out for you through this year's holiday season! Holiday times for children of newly divorced parents are often the toughest time of year. They often have strong emotional attachments to days gone by when Mom, Dad, their brothers and sisters and they all cheerfully ate too much turkey and sang off-key holiday carols together. Remember that your joy in being away from what became an unbearable situation for you leading to a divorce may not have registered with your children, who are still in denial and are hurt, angry, and depressed.

Have you ever been minding your own business when suddenly, out of nowhere someone contacts you and unexpectedly bursts into a fit, demanding that you do something you have no idea what is and then, because you can't give them this one thing, this person starts calling you names among doing other nasty things?

Recognizing that your relationship has dulled is heart breaking. Luckily there are many fun and exciting ways to spice things up again.

Showing love to each other increases the love. If you love your spouse show it with care and affection. If somebody cares for you and considers your likes and dislikes then there is an element of love in that relationship but if that care and consideration is shown in a love relationship then it is the exact way to express love with a difference.

Many times we do things in life for no particular reason or occasion, we do those things because something from inside tells us to do it, as such in a relationship too love should be showed for no reason but simply the fact that you love your partner and it is the heart within us that tells to do it. Doesn’t your heart tell you to simply buy a gift for your lover when you come across something that reminds you of him or her? You gift should not necessarily be an expensive one as it is just a way to express your love and love is not big or small.

Is your spouse too controlling? Are you too passive? Or are the roles reversed? Control issues refer to who’s in control, who’s in charge, or who’s getting their way. Significant control issues are always harmful to a relationship. Here are ten reasons you need to be concerned if you have unresolved control problems in your marriage.

I am not talking about the abusive bully or the man with a character flaw, who possesses no compassion, is beyond feeling and has no conscience. I am talking about the frustrated man who yells at this family, makes great demands on them, seems always angry and frustrated.

Every relationship undergoes its own phases of good and bad times. During good times you take things for granted and forget to make efforts to keep the relationship intact. A relationship demands hard work. You have to work towards your relationship to make it happy and long lasting.

What would marriage be if not for the annual celebratory ritual we have all come to know as the anniversary? Today, an anniversary is right up there with the biggest money-making gift-giving holidays, but it wasn’t always this way.

It is about time we stopped blaming out our spouses for everything that goes wrong in our lives. What a tendency we have to assign guilt to other people! Everyone makes mistakes, including us, or should I say, especially us.

While many people date for the purpose of looking for a partner purely for sexual reasons, the ultimate long term goal for many is to find their soul mate.

Many women do not recognize that they have the power within themselves to live the life they truly desire. Too often, women find themselves forfeiting that inner strength for the counterfeit of an externally driven motivator - the expectations and demands of relationships in their lives.

Presents will never make up for the lack of presence.

You are going to have to get on that big bird and head to Russia. You cannot bring a woman to the U.S. under a fianc? visa without meeting her first, and providing substantial proof of that meeting.

When you were dating you carved out time for each other, no matter the pressures of everyday life. You could not fall in love without that time together. This begs the question; don’t you think to sustain that love that you must also make time for one another even now?

It is a human need and want to love and be loved back. We are imperfect and incomplete beings. We are searching for something that will make ourselves whole, something we may find in the opposite gender. This makes opposites attract. Men need women on their side?a mother and then someone for a girlfriend or a wife. And so do women. They need a masculine figure?a father, and a boyfriend or a husband to be with.

Most everyone is familiar with the saying, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” It’s like a mantra that bride’s say as they check off the list.

Guys serenade her by getting up in the middle of a fully crowded restaurant (not a cheap “all you can eat” type) and declaring your undying love for her in front of a bunch of “I don’t need a man to make me happy” man-hating women. Blaring “our song” outside her window in the middle of the night after you’ve had a nasty fight will get you back in the house quicker than you can say “Halle Berry”.

After providing the list for CDs to rent and provide entertainment while you drown yourself in tears, blankets, and chocolates, here is the list of movies (no doubt a lengthier one) that you shouldn’t be getting near at.

While I don't want to be seen as condoning the above actions, let's face it, such relationships have occurred for years and in this day and age the very idea and inspirations for such actions are highlighted through films and television programs.

Are you looking for what you really want in a relationship? Or are you actually trying to compensate for what you lack? Find out how you can create a relationship that sustains and nurtures you.

Why are our relationships such a challenge? By their very nature, relationships always push us toward duality, toward the opposites. They take us into both the light of our souls and the darkness of our subconscious. They force us to look at the light and experience the shadows.

Do we unintentionally rush our young couples into marriage/parenthood ?

This short story is about the struggles a widower, like myself, encounters when a new relationship begins.

If you find yourself doing the same routine day after day, never remembering what you did the day before, having nothing to look forward to, living your life - but never enjoying it or anything in it...you are probably living your life and the relationships in it on autopilot...