Chapter 1: What Marriage Means 6. Making Much of Home Life

Because of the many changes which have taken place from the time of our forefathers, when a greater part of the necessary work was done in the home, down to the present, when the home has lost some of the functions which it used to perform, there are persons who mistakenly suppose that marriage, therefore, has lost some of the meaning which it used to have.

But the truly essential things in marriage remain such as the response of heart to heart, the thrill of understanding, sharing joys and sorrows, planning together for children and for all the precious value! of the home, mutual support in difficulty, and finding the deeper meaning of life in the heart of another.

Such close relationships are more important now than ever because marriage is on a more distinctly personal basis. While the family has become less necessary as a mere means of production and of outward security its place becomes even more vital as a source of deeper satisfactions and the intangible securities.

Marriage is a process by which two people achieve a higher completeness of experience. In it the narrower "I" feeling grows into a richer and more satisfying "we" feeling. So there is at the same time a losing of the smaller self and a gaining of a more complete personality in the common purposes of the family.

For home-makers the essence of the art of living is that we make much rather than little of our life together, always giving high regard to the things we do and think and enjoy in common until the very heart of our being is a blending of personalities. Far from being a matter of declining importance, marriage for those who know what they are doing is the most vital thing we have and the quality of it can be enriched almost without limit.

VISTAS
Happy is the pair
Whose experience is wonder and beauty.
For love opens new vistas,
And pleasanter paths are found
By two who walk in comradeship,
Than by one who is alone.