How does one go about planning to leave? She knows she wants out while he has no clue. He mentally packs a bag on a nightly basis, dreaming of the last time he closes the door while she closes her eyes to sleep. How often is it a mutual decision where one looks at the other and they both know what disaster lies ahead? How often is it a firm handshake, nice try, and see you later? The quiet dismantle of a mistake.
To think of my task is chilling
to know I was carefully building a mask I was wearing for two years, swearing
I’d tear it off?
If you are the one planning to leave – do you have a mental count down clock, ticking the minutes to freedom? Is your end date so final you know the weeks, days and hours ’til freedom? Do you have an escape route a la Sleeping with the Enemy; something so well thought out no one (including yourself) sees it coming? Will you leave your spouse reeling with IHadNoClue and your friends shocked (They-Were-The-Perfect-Couple. No, I never suspected a thing!).
I know your feelings are tender. Inside you the embers still glow
but I’m a shadow, only a bed of blackened coal
call myself jezebel for wanting to leave.
If you are the one left behind – do you sense the abandonment before it happens? Did he turn away from you a little too quickly to read a text message? Did you feel the distance before you noticed how untouched you have become? Are you secretly counting down the days until leaving, wanting to play the broken, left behind, but secretly rejoicing the respite from unlove? Do you grasp at what once was knowing you never had it in the first place?
Seven months, three weeks, two days and six hours is what he said to me. Why? I thought you were good at this marital thing.
I may be good at it. I’m just not happy doing it.
How I wish that we never had tried
to be man and his wife
to weave our lives into a blindfold
over both our eyes.
~Jezebel, Natalie Merchant 1992
~*LunaSea*~ 
Oh I could write a blog here about this. But I won’t. Just will say that you captured the many possibilities that run through our heads when we are or were there. The planning, the escape, the fear, the denial, the guilt, the bravery, the broken hearted.
Very thought provoking blog…
thank you. I think we all can relate to parts of leaving no matter what kind of relationship we are in (married or otherwise).
the titled startled me. call me i feel like i’m harrassing you.
not harrassing! I shut my phone off for a few days…I’ll call you tonight.
I have a few friends who are splitting up right now…relationships, marriages, whatever. it’s kind of crazy. watching things all unfold…really odd.
It’s even weirder when someone tells you, “I’ve been planning to leave for years!”