Hi, gals! Reina here.

Like most of you, I’ve been through the wringer when it comes to relationships.  I’ve been engaged before, dated a lot of unsuitable men, fell in love with someone who didn’t fall in love with me, and so forth.

Now I’m living with the perfect man.  I know he’s perfect because I don’t have any doubts about our relationship.  I have no doubts that we’ll stay together forever, grow old together, and still make each other laugh at 80.

We haven’t gotten married, but that isn’t the point.  I’m sure there are more of a few of you out there who share my doubts about marriage being a fix-all for a relationship.  It used to be that you got married to tell the world that your status had changed.  You were no longer “Miss” but one half of a “Mr. and Mrs.” family unit.  Everybody updated their address books …

…Only to get a call from you a few years later that the divorce was final and would they please refer to you by your maiden name again?

I look at golden couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and think, “They’ve got something there.”  They knew that getting married would just tempt the fates, so they just got on with the business of being together. On February 15 of last year, they slipped into their silver anniversary under the radar.

We need to stop worrying so much about the “status” of our relationships and start getting down to the business of making them work.  Who cares how you “feel” about him, or how he “feels” about you?  What matters most is: does this relationship work? Do you have fun together?  Do you have a laugh together?  Do you respect one another’s needs? Do you make each other feel good?  Can you talk about anything – including the bad stuff?  Can you argue without hurting one another? Does your love matter more to you than being right?

That’s why my partner and I aren’t too worried about what’s going to happen with us.  We’ll just focus on getting on with the business of living together, thank you very much.  Next thing we know, we’ll hit our silver anniversary like Goldie and Kurt and won’t know what happened to us. Can staying together really be that easy?  I think it can, if you have the skills to make it work.