Every marriage has its own melody…its own beat…its own rhythm. Marriages go through twists, turns, changes, and turnarounds. We are constantly learning what our rhythm is and will be. As a great DJ reads the mood of a crowd, learning when to play more of this or less of that, so do we manage the composition that is our marriage. It’s like the way a song doesn’t start as the finished product we hear on the radio. It often starts as a phrase or line that the artist finds meaning in, and it is developed through time, effort, trial, and error to become a full expression of the artist’s thoughts and emotions. Even after the song is recorded, the artist may not consider it to be finished. Whenever they perform it, they play it differently because they are different. The song evolves as they do.

While our song is not yet finished, we wrote this book to share how it has evolved from the beginning until now. The Rhythm of Love: 25 Things That 25 Years of Marriage Taught Us is a peek into our quarter-century together and a bit of the music we’ve made. In it, we reflect on how we reached this point, the successes and stumbles along the way, and the revisions that remain ongoing. So, if you’re a person who enjoys learning and growing through life’s ups and downs, dive in with us. In these chapters, you will find out how we’ve learned, grown, and composed our melody…our beat…our rhythm.