"The best way to insure mental health is to marry well. Life’s most complete continuing and enriching experience is a good marriage. In fact, a good marriage is the nearest thing to heaven we can experience on earth. It offers the greatest opportunity for us to realize the wholeness of our personalities. In order to develop a good marriage and an enduring relationship, we must set our hearts and minds on attitudes which keep love aglow, open lines of communication, enrich mutual respect, build toleration, consideration, and appreciation."
- May 15 reading from A Pocketful of Hope by Mary Crowley
Research shows that a good marriage is good for your health: physical health, mental health, spiritual health, emotional health. That's because we are designed for relationship. We thrive in a relationship that challenges us to adapt, that provides a safe respite from a world that doesn't have our interest in mind, and that allows us to experience (give and receive) enduring love.
A wedding, therefore, is an occasion of joy, and even more, an occasion of hope, because it provides entrance into a future that's even better than the present. That's the spirit I enjoy expressing in the wedding ceremonies where I officiate.
