Dear Reader,
When we marry we take a snapshot in time. Yes, this is the girl or boy of our dreams based on the perception of who and what they seem to be right then, at that specific moment. We truly believe there
is no one on this planet like this person. On our wedding day, we think that we won the lottery and will live happily ever after.

But years later, we look at that person and wonder if she or he is whom we would want to live
the rest of our life with. Maybe their growth took them down a path far from your own. Or maybe there was no growth at all, and in fact it seemed like they went backward, to an earlier level of maturity.

Forty-one percent of all first marriages end in divorce. It is worse for second and third marriages: Sixty percent and seventy-three percent, respectively. Oftentimes, this need not be. Yes, it is true that divorce sometimes is necessary because of violence or lack of trust. But at other times, the rain is followed by the sun and a rainbow. Where there is beauty, there is hope.

Patrick J. Wood
Publisher
Author of “Dear Reader” and “Tapestry of Love and Loss”