This is just a few thoughts on relationships and happiness.

I realised the other day a contradiction in my beliefs - I have always said happiness comes from within yet over the last 20 odd years I feel like I have got a lot of happiness/contentment from my relationship with my husband.

This stemmed from a discussion with a single friend who has experienced a lot of unhappiness in his previous relationships. My hunch is that he was with the wrong people for him. I feel if the other person is the right fit for us then happiness should be the natural outcome.

Not to say we will be happy every day of our lives and never have a problem, that would be unrealistic, but the relationship should be over all a source of happiness in our lives. I often feel that when things aren't going so well I am glad I have my husband on my side, and I am on his too. It's not that we never disagree, we do, but we overcome disagreements together.

I don't write this in order to make those without close happy relationships feel sad, but rather that I have hope that everyone is capable of this given the right match of person and if they want to live life with a partner (it's also equally valid to be single of course).

I was trying to encourage my friend that he will have learned from previous mismatches, and be another step closer to understanding the type of relationship/person that will give him happiness. He currently believes 'happiness' is not a realistic expectation from either life or relationships but I believe this is because he tried very hard to make unsuitable relationships work at the cost of his own happiness and then blamed himself for it not working out.

Maybe I'm just very, very lucky but I do think my husband is one of the best things to happen to me and my hope for everyone out there is that they too will experience this kind of positive relationship.