7 Continents, 12 Countries & 1 Big Secret

By Fawn Weaver on Monday, June 4, 2012

Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, North America and the Antarctic Peninsula - all seven continents – that’s where I’m headed.  The Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, Mauritius, London, Croatia, Italy, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Figi and Argentina – 12 countries – that is where I will rest my head.

In just a few weeks I will embark on a journey I never imagined and before three book publishers -independent from each other- asked that I come up with an idea for a book related to happy marriages, I’d not given it even one moment’s thought.  But once the question was posed, I immediately knew what I’d be interested in writing about and discovering throughout the process.

This Club is represented by women in nearly 100 countries.  Women with different backgrounds, upbringings, religious beliefs, economic circumstances, and a list of differences longer than this singular blog post can contain.  And even with all these differences, there is a common thread, a universal similarity among us all: we have an innate desire to be happy and to experience true joy in every aspect of our lives, beginning at home with our families.

And there is another thread I have found woven in every conversation, with each of you around the world.  There are most certainly many secrets to a happy marriage.  And those of you married 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and even close to 70 years seem to know all of them.  We share these secrets with each other on our community Facebook page, through Twitter or “Quick Tips” on marriage submitted by HWC members.  But what I’ve noticed over the past two years is they all have a similar theme; they all seem to point to the same overarching secret.

In less than 3 weeks, I will leave US soil and travel around the world in search of the secret to a happy marriage.  I will interview couples happily married 20 years or more and will discover what each of them consider their greatest “secret” to a happy marriage.

Yesterday at church, our pastor mentioned a couple in the church who just celebrated their 50th anniversary.  The husband is 70 years old and has been a part of the facilities team at the church for quite some time.  When seeing the wife in the parking lot, Pastor Rick went over to her and said, “So, what is the secret to your [happy] marriage after 50 years?”  Without hesitation she responded, “I never tried to change him.”

The wife then rolled up the windows to her car and drove away.  Pastor Rick then saw her husband who was still working and posed the exact same question, “After 50 years, what’s your secret to a [happy] marriage?”  His answer was identical, “I never tried to change her.”

I smiled listening to our pastor recount this story as I knew I’d be sharing with you today this amazing journey I will begin in just a few weeks.  A journey which will hopefully result in a gift to every married couple around the world, especially those new in marriage and trying to navigate these sometimes challenging waters: The Secret to a Happy Marriage.

Until tomorrow…make it a great day!

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Fawn Weaver is the USA Today® and New York Times® bestselling author of Happy Wives Club: One Woman's Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage, adopting the same name as the Club she founded in 2010. The Happy Wives Club community has grown to include more than 900,000 women in over 110 countries around the world. When she’s not blogging or working on her next project, she's happily doting over her husband of nearly eleven years, Keith.

 

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