Being part of a couple does not require you to lose your identity

Being part of a couple does not require you 

to lose your identity

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give you hearts but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hands of life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Kahil Gilbran

It is so easy to stop growing and learning once you are in the comfort of a relationship. But individuality and enthusiasm for life and learning is key to maintaining a passionate romantic relationship.

Mystery keeps passion alive just as functional routine can kill it. Admiring you partner is also key to maintaining attraction. Watching the person you love, passionate and engaged, is wholly attractive. 

Neediness is a passion killer. Take responsibility for your life and your happiness, do not look to your partner to fill your life. Design a life that is stimulating and fulfilling, and that vitality can then be transferred into your romantic relationship.

Learn to stand shoulder to shoulder rather than co-dependntly entwined. Give each other room to breathe while maintaining enough closeness to remain intimately connected.