“Glowing with love”. That’s how one of my friends recently described me. Whoever said the physical effects of love added to one’s beauty got it right. I’m smiling all the time and my skin is luminescent. I take trouble with the way I look, I can’t wait to meet him for dinner or chat with him on the phone. When he surprises me in the middle of the day by dropping in for an impromptu “working” lunch or sends flowers or small cute little presents just to say “I love you”, my entire soul has that crazy wonderful feeling that I can't really describe except to say it's kind of like being on a very fast swing – you know, that delicious heart-stopping feeling you get when you’re really high up and your breath catches and your toes tingle.

Now that the “he loves me, he loves me not” stage is over and we have settled into the blissful state of being together, I feel such a sense of security and purpose in my life. It really completes me. He took my hand the other day when we were walking home through the park and suddenly jovially said the same words I had been thinking subconsciously: “Where have you been all my life?” I can't believe there was a time when I felt uncomfortable with him or wanted to avoid him. We both knew we were “the one” after just two dates and this relationship, though it has moved so fast, seems just so right.

That’s why I’m looking forward to this Valentine’s Day so much. It’ll be the first time in more than a decade that I have someone special to celebrate it with. He’s already asked me to take the 14th and 15th off so that we can have a long romantic four day weekend at his mountain retreat house. As I write this, a beautiful winged-angel crystal ornament is on pride of place on my desk – a New Year’s gift from him. A lovely engraving on the angel’s pedestal says “Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. ~Kahlil Gibran”. And that says it all.