Friends AND Lovers

. . . are playmates, companions, and equal partners, as well as intimate and sharing lovers and confidants. They allow each other to be themselves within their own persona and uniqueness, and happily accept the other's good qualities and attributes. They display patience and understanding in the not-so-good qualities and innate character flaws, and allow the other to be less than "perfect."
                                                      
As friends and lovers, they encourage each other's individual growth, and are available for help and advice when needed. At the same time, they each sustain their own individual growth and feel free to ask for help and advice when needed from the other. If two people together can work on their individual growth, the growth between them can only become deeper. They desire a mutual growth in the entity of "two becoming one" to nourish and maintain a unified and intimate bonding.

Sensitivity, compassion, and a supportive nature are valuable assets to a lasting love. Special lovers offer support when needed, but also allow the other to experience the lessons they need to learn on their individual travels through life. Only through these lessons can they each become healthy and whole. They realize they cannot change at the will of another, but they can change for the improvement of themselves. This self-improvement can only lead to a deeper realization of a compatible and parallel relationship between them.

Fidelity and faithfulness are a "given" between friends and lovers. The sharing of two souls and two bodies are essential elements in the mystery of "love." To reach the ultimate highs and peaks of a very special love, this type of sharing can only be with each other.

Loving oneself has to come first before love for another can begin. It is only through self-love that a healthy relationship can survive. Two people cannot love each other at the expense of themselves, nor can they sacrifice or lose their identity and individualism for the other. If they did, their love would not prevail. They can, however, compromise and rearrange their lives to allow the other to become an intricate part of their life.

A satisfying love needs to be fed and nurtured. Like a beautiful garden, love needs healthy nourishment, for without it, it will surely fade and die. The love they share will be an unconditional love. They will love the other for the person they are, and not the person they want them to be. And they will always remember each other as the person with whom they fell in love. Money and things will never be objects of their love, for these material things have no substance. Material things come and go, but the love between two souls will last an eternity.

As lovers, they will carry the other within their hearts each day. A smile, a word, or a soft touch will be gentle memories that can be recalled whenever they are apart. Thoughts of their last moment together, whether it is a kiss, or the sweet melting of their bodies together, can nourish their time apart and hasten the need to return to each other's arms.

We all came into this world to discover who we are, and to pursue our created purpose. The one with whom we choose to share an intimate and sharing love is a very important element in gaining that knowledge. There is a special someone out there who is waiting for each of us and wanting the same. If we have prepared ourselves for the desires of our heart, and are patient in our endeavors, one day our paths will cross, and when this happens, we will recognize and know each other, for it is then that our souls will touch . . .