My(38/m) wife (45/f) is gone more than 50% of the time. The most she has been home this year is 3 weeks. It's not just for work, sometimes it's also to visit her mother that she is very close with. She's not gone for a few days, she is usually gone the whole week. My question is how do people maintain a close relationship this way? I feel like we are drifting apart more and more.
This all started about 2 years ago, 4 years into our marriage. Prior to that we were always together, never apart more than a day or two. A lot of this boils down to her career as an attorney taking priority. I support her career, always have. I have moved to many cities to keep supporting her career as I am a remote employee.
I'm trying to figure out what to do, I feel alone most of the time. Because I've had to move so much for her career I keep losing friends so I don't have much anymore. I have a full time job, a consulting business and I am working on my masters. I also have hobbies like going to the gym and riding my motorcycle, so I can try to just focus on those things more but then what is the point of marriage if you can't enjoy your partner? We don't need each other financially, we both do really well. Companionship and love is really all that is left am I looking at this wrong? How do others cope?
Also, I have communicated these feelings to her. She does not want to lose her income, albeit we don't need it, I can support us both easily while she finds another job. I understand how she feels though and I am not asking her to quit her job, I am just not sure how to bring that closeness back. I can't go on her work trips because while I am remote, my location needs to be whitelisted every time I switch.