Long Distance Valentines

Personal experience aside, I have watched many friends encounter and deal with the trials and tribulations of a long distance relationship. For some, their significant other has signed on to military service and is anywhere from halfway across the country to halfway across the world. For others, they've met online, and visits are infrequent at best, until time and money start to lean their way. And for some, colleges take them to educational opportunities and leave them stranded in a strange town, surrounded by happy couples, while their significant other rests at home or at an equally strange place, full of happy people.

Yet, intimacy on a special day like this is not always about the physical, or the chocolates - although those are good - or even the love making. There are several ways in which you and your partner can grow closer without being physically together. After all - what has kept you together for however long its been? My guess is that its not the sex - its the conversations, the secret jokes you share, and the way you love and respect that person for who they are, not what they look like.

The easiest way to be intimate on Valentine's Day is simple: talk. Each of you set aside twenty minutes or so to devote to each other, over the phone. If it's long distance, pony up and get some AT&T phone cards. If you have cell phones, often Nextel, Cingular, Sprint, Verizon - all of the major companies have "Free time" after seven or nine at night.

The best part about speaking to someone over the phone is that oftentimes, without the physical connection, you find yourself able to say things you wouldn't be able to normally - stuff that you would feel embarrassed about saying face to face. "I love the way you smile" can often be an embarrassing statement, simple though it is, for either side of a couple to make. Telling each other exactly what you like about each other, be it a mental or physical characteristic - from what they say or how they feel about a subject to a behavior you love or how soft their hair is - can make a conversation very enjoyable.