With Valentine’s Day approaching, it is time to turn our focus on just what is love and marriage.

In the western world, more and more marriages end in divorce. At the same time, everyone continues to seek the “one”.

But just what exactly are we all looking for? And what is love and marriage?

Here are some timely words from Joseph Campbell:-

“One of the things I have realized — and people who have been married a long time realize — is that marriage is not a love affair. A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction.

But marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again. That’s why it’s a sacrament: you give up your personal simplicity to participate in a relationship. And when you’re giving, you’re not giving to the other person: you’re giving to the relationship. And if you realize that you are in the relationship just as the other person is, then it becomes life building, a life fostering and enriching experience, not an impoverishment because you’re giving to somebody else.

This is the challenge of a marriage.

What a beautiful thing is a life together as growing personalities, each helping the other to flower, rather than just moving into the standard archetype. It’s a wonderful thing when people can make the decision to be something quite astonishing and unexpected, rather than cookie-mould products.” – Joseph Campbell

As you celebrate Valentine’s day with the special person in your life, will you just be cookie-mould products or something quite astonishing and unexpected?

Why not commit to making every day Valentine’s Day?