Just take a few steps back and look at yourself, see how far you've come.

Now here's an exercise. Write down all the people you have spent time with. People you considered to be friends or acquaintances for a while. Don't count the one time encounters. Don't count the friends of friends you have met. ‘Just' the people you directly dealt with. The boy and girlfriends from your youth, people you have dated, the people you kept the names and addresses of, whom you might call to invite over for a drink. Basically, write down all the people with whom you have (had) some sort of relationship.

I may be mistaken, but I assume that you will have quite a list. Over the years you will have met lots of people. Now from this list, you mark the people you still have contact with. And finally write down the year you first met those people (the marked ones).

If you're really curious you could also write down the year you met and the year that contact was lost (for whatever reason) behind every name in the list.

At this point you may want to produce all kinds of nice graphs and charts, but what's important is that you will probably find that the long term relationships are in the minority. The average duration of a relationship will not be that long.

See how many long lasting relationships the people around you have. What you will probably discover, is that in the first half of people's lives the relationships will be dynamic. The average lifetime of relationships increases as people get older. Things (including relationships) settle down with the coming of age.

Look at (or even better talk with) the older couples you know. How many of them look happy together? How long have they been together? My guess is that the number of couples who meet at the end of their teens, beginning of their twenties and stay together until one of them dies is decreasing. Widows and widowers re-marry. Happily ever after, till death do us part is not all that common, if you ask me. It's a nice fairy tale ideal, but common practice? Maybe within certain communities, yes. For religious people divorce still is a taboo. They rather stay together not being happy than break the sacred bond.

It's time to put the title of this hub into perspective. Of course divorce is not destined. I don't assume that every relationship is bound to end. Reality is however that the opposite is also untrue. Not each and every relationship is going to be everlasting. In spite of how much we want our relationships to succeed and sustain, there is a fair chance that they won't.

Life is dynamic, relationships are dynamic. Everything that has a beginning must also always have an ending. We should not only accept that. We should also stop considering relationships that have ended as being a failure. By looking at a relationship that has ended as an enriching and helpful experience rather than as a failure we can deal with it much better. By teaching our children that relationships do end (either intended or unintended by death, relocation, etc.) we provide them with the mindset to deal with divorce constructively.

Be aware that at least one of the parties involved in a relationship will have to deal with the fact that this relationship is going to end. Whether it is intentionally or not, it will end. And there is a good chance that you will be the one who will have to deal with that. And when you do, isn't it easier and better to look back on it as a valuable experience, rather than in anger and pain?