It will be 20 years this July for my DH and I. We've had plenty of terrible times, and just bored with each other times, but we just keep going. Not all marriages are always full of every day crazy about each other happiness. True love is work!
If there's one thing my parents taught me (married for 54 years now), it's that you can fight like cats and dogs at times, and even go through spells where you hate each other, and still come out okay. I just told my DH's newly married niece that there are times I can't stand her uncle, but I just stay anyway. : )
The reward is a feeling of deep, strong love when things are good again. It does not feel like a beautiful bubble that could burst. It's a bumpy, uneven, unshiny ROCK. It's always there, through everything. I can hang on when the tide comes and stand up tall on it and I've built all my houses on it.
E.