Michelle Obama on Fallon & Marriage Counseling

I watched Michelle Obama on Fallon recently and in the interview she discusses she and Barack going to marriage counseling.  I've always thought they seem to have an amazing relationship and she says they do, but stresses that relationships take work.  She also jokes that she took Barack and essentially expected the doctor to deal with him, fix his issues etc. and the doctor worked with Michelle on changes she needed to make.

I loved this little story for a couple reasons:

• It is a great reminder that all relationships take work, even relationships that are good.  Not only do relationships require work, but it is an ongoing process - you need to continually be working on your relationship.
• It is easy when something is wrong to blame the other person involved, when really, we too likely play a part in the issue.  This applies to all relationships - spouses, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, etc.  It is so easy when something is wrong to say they need to do x,y,z, but we should also be looking at ourselves, because we likely can/should be doing something to help resolve/fix the issue as well.

Lastly, I just want to stress that I don't think all relationships should/can be saved.  There are some people close to me that have gotten divorced for example and while I supported them in doing so at the time, I look at them now and can see how that was the right decision for them, in a variety of ways.  Anyway, I just wanted to stress that I'm not standing on soapbox saying everyone needs to just put the work in on every relationship.