What does it mean to be a lover?

What does it mean to be a lover? it is more than just being married to or making love to someone. millions of people are married, millions of people have sex - but few are real lovers. To be a real lover, you must commit to and participate in a perpetual dance of intimacy with your partner.
You are a lover when you appreciate the gift that your partner is, and celebrate that gift every day.
You are a lover when you remember that your partner does not belong to you - he or she is on loan from the universe.
You are a lover when you realize that nothing that happens between you will be insignificant, that everything you say in relationship has the potential to cause your beloved joy or sorrow, and everything you do will either strengthen your connection or weaken it.
You are a lover when you understand all this, and thus wake up each morning filled with gratitude that you have another day in which to love and enjoy your partner.
When you have a lover in your life, you are richly blessed. you have given the gift of another person who has chosen to walk beside you. He or she will share your days and nights, your bed and your burdens. Your lover will see secret parts of you that no one else sees. He or she will touch places on your body that no one else touches. Your lover will seek you out where you have been hiding, and create a haven for you within safe, loving arms.
Your lover offers you an abundance of miracles every day. He has the power to delight you with his smile, his voice, the scent of his neck, the way he moves. She has the power to banish your loneliness. He has the power to turn the ordinary into the sublime. She is your doorway to heaven here on earth. - Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D.

Adapted from Chicken Soup for the Couple's soul....