Happiness Lies in One's Own Thinking
Excerpt from Thoughts are Things, Alfred J. Parker
How strange it is that two people will rush into the state of marriage for the happiness that they never find, only because they expect the other person to provide it. Happiness lies in one's own thinking. We see our sweetheart as an angel or the acme of perfection, and then after a year or so of self-satisfaction and there are no longer any new thoughts or desires and life becomes routine, innumerable obstacles arise from nowhere and the worst in each person comes to the surface.
It is the same old problem that in paramount in all of mankind's affairs. Lack of proper objective and no ideals. Marriage cannot be based upon physical and mental satisfaction where mind has been centred only upon self. Anything physical or emotional is only temporal and subject to each person's capacity to enjoy; for instance, one can eat only until satisfied and then food loses its flavour and appeal.
All things, marriage definitely included, must have a specific objective in the same degree that a child studies and works for a final graduation, which is a plane of thinking and completion. Personal effort and constructive thinking alone will guarantee happiness, provided the objective is happiness and service.