專四晨讀美文：What Does It Mean to Be a Lover

What Does It Mean to Be a Lover?
What does it mean to be a lover?
It's 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 alone from the universe.
You are a lover when you realize
that nothing that happens between you will be insignificant,
that everything you say in the 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 of 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 been given the gift of another person
who has chosen to walk beside you.
He or she will share your days, nights, your bed, your burdens.
Your lover will see secret parts of your body
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 heaven 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.
He has the power to banish your loneliness.
He has the power to turn the ordinary into the sublime.
He is your doorway to heaven here on earth!