This is the love of my life Elizabeth, maiden name Dunham, whom I met about a year and a half ago when she started riding bicycle with my sister. After their weekly rides the ladies would meet for "coffee talk" at my sister's house, where I would take my mother for the social gathering. There was no romantic involvement at first, but we gradually got to know one another and in May of '08 took a short Geo ride, then went to a casino for the birthday surprise of another friend, and a baseball game, then talked a lot at the fire in July, then the Paul Rodgers trip, and here I am writing this today. An easy camaraderie and abundant laughter was there from the start, which makes us realize that previous relationships in our lives were somehow contrived or unnecessarily difficult...and that a genuine love- with a genuine friend and 'soulmate'- is not work, rather is expressed naturally, almost effortlessly, with spontaneous joy and understanding. Perhaps all the other people in our lives were necessary lessons we needed in order to be the people we recognize in one another today, and maybe if we had met at the age of twenty we would not have emotionally connected as we do now, yet the reality could be simpler than that, where we just finally met a person with whom our true emotional selves- both child and adult- can be openly shared, and with whom our inner, original chemistry transcends analysis. We lift and buoy each other is a positive, joyous manner, and sometimes stand in the kitchen doing nothing, yet break out laughing for no reason- because that is the emotional sincerity of how we relate to one another. Serious talks, playful talks, serious walks, playful walks, laughing while working, while sitting, while eating, while driving, while making love...We simply enjoy what happens as if it has been blessed upon us from something beyond our understanding. There has been nothing 'giddy' about any of this, rather it has simply unfolded and deepened into a stronger desire to be with and give to one another. ..not bad for a pair of people independent by nature... At core is the growing trust and compatibility rooted in our basic decency, with honesty and fidelity as the foundations of our intimacy....Character traits which we individually brought to the table and which make everything as a couple that much more precious and enduring.
