Stacy....everything I have seen says that happy marriages are created when two people want it and are committed to it, at the same time.
I also, believe that we were created to find joy and happiness in living.....we were meant to thrive...not to just exist....
I have been able to have a marriage that was choking the very soul out of me....and a marriage that was the most wonderful and loving....
He was taken away unexpectedly and rapidly by cancer. (I love oncology nurses).....
I thank the Universe that I had him in my life and that I can say that I have been truly l oved, in my life.
That could never have happened if I stayed in my first marriage...and my kids would not have had as good of a childhood.....as he has, still, never changed, one molecule.....(I hear this from the grapevine and reports from my children)....
He remarried in less than 2 years after I divorced him...and,apparently his second wife does n ot mind his soul-sucking ways. I say, good for them. lol...my grandmother always told me that every pot has a lid....
Hope is not bad, in itself, but it is not a plan. And, it is no substitute for reality.....