From the moment we are born, we begin a quest, a constant battle to try and make our lives the best that they can be. Each and every one of us, over the course of our lives, develop hopes, dreams, wants and goals. If we’re lucky, some of our hopes, dreams, wants and goals come true, but not without hard work, effort and unfortunately, problems. We all, in our struggle to "exist", develop problems. Problems that fill the skies over our individual lives with dark clouds. When our lives are filled with these dark clouds, we become depressed, paranoid and unable to work and concentrate. This happens to all of us at least once in our lives. The lucky ones are the ones who, in the middle of all that darkness, are bathed with a ray of sunshine so bright and warm, that all of the dark clouds seem to fade away. I am one of the lucky ones. I have a ray of sunshine in my life, my girlfriend.

She has been the best part of my life for about ten months now and although I had "existed" for twenty-five years before I met her, I have "lived" ever since. She is beautiful both inside and out, intelligent, caring, loving, affectionate, and every other positive word you can think of. She really is my ray of sunshine. I’m not saying that my skies are filled with dark clouds, but when I do have a bad day and need to "vent", she always seems to make everything go away. I don’t know how she does it, but she always does. She also has the ability to make my hopes, dreams, wants and goals come true just by doing the wonderful things she does. I only hope that I do the same for her.

Spending time with her is magic. We never seem to have enough time to spend together and when we’re not together, we spend our time apart counting the hours until we’re together again. We have been told by many different people who have observed us "being in love" that we are what love is supposed to be – they’re right.

I am telling you about her for two reasons. First, I love her so much I want to shout it to the world. And because I have a question. Do you value your partner as much as I value mine?

Relationships, over the course of time, can become a "tolerable existence" instead of the "loving partnership" they once were. In the beginning of most relationships, couples are loving, affectionate and wonderful to each other. What sometimes happens is that, after a while, that wonderfully loving affection fades away, leaving both partners thinking the other does not love them as much anymore. So what once brought happiness now brings despair. Why does this happen? Where does the love go? Those questions are usually not answered until it’s too late.

I am proud to say that over the course of time, my relationship has gotten better. Instead of fading, we have grown stronger. My advice to you is that if you are in a relationship where the love has faded, find it again. If you are in a relationship that is bliss, keep it that way, I intend to.

As far as my hopes, dreams, wants and goals, one of them was to find my soul mate. Ah, the feeling of accomplishment.