I got married three weeks ago. It was fun and exciting, poignant but not overwrought. And after living with my fianc� for eight months, I found the officiating piece of our partnership to be a wee bit anticlimactical.

There was no puff of smoke, no bolt of lightning, no umbilical of steel that manifested itself to bind us together � I didn�t feel any different � and so I convinced myself that being married wasn�t any different.

We went on our honeymoon cruise and had a great time. We each considerately chose to drink too much on different nights. He got me drunk enough to dance at the ship�s disco. I cheered like mad when he sang karaoke. Not only was this marriage thing no big whoop, it was a cakewalk.

Riiiight. Cakewalk. No big deal.

So, that�s why I went from zero to harpy faster than you can say ball-and-chain when my new husband took off his ring three days after we returned from our honeymoon.

He had reasons, valid reasons � this was no big deal � but with sudden clarity, all I could see was that I cared very much about my marriage. That it was a huge deal. And that for me, the ring was the physical umbilical that tied us both to each other.

All the overwrought emotion that hid itself during the ceremony took center stage.

Even as I took great gulping sobs of air, I understood the shock on my new husband�s face. I was just as shocked, perhaps more so.

I�m unflappable. I�ve got an emotional lockbox. I despise the loud messy wetworks. And besides, this was no big deal, right? Right. Well, maybe so�

My upset really didn�t have much to do with the hunk of gold and its home on his hand. It was the metaphor that struck me, that reduced me to a hiccupping heap of flappability.

We resolved it. Mostly, after I came to grips with one immutably hard truth: My love for this man and our commitment to each other are deals of gargantuan proportions.

And there�s not enough self-denial in the world to protect me if I think there�re being slighted.

So, am I a changed woman? Will I stop lying to myself and denying my emotions?

The truth is probably not. But at least, it�s the truth.

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