Two years ago I wrote a column called Why I Love My Wife.  Among other things, I had this to say:

I love my wife. She's a beautiful, intelligent, warm, and thoroughly noble woman. She's consistent in her beliefs, moral in her character, true to her ideals, thoughtful and considerate in her actions...

...The concept of Yin and Yang is one of complimentary forces that share a core of similarity. I have long thought of my marriage in that way... 

...The ways in which we help and need each other range from trivial to profound. When my wife needs a bug killed or a toilet tank mechanism adjusted, I'm there for her. When I need the clarity of seeing myself through more objective eyes, she's there for me. And the components of our personalities bolster each other, becoming an incredibly strong whole. I couldn't imagine a better marriage, or a better friendship.

...To be married is a wonderful thing -- and to be perfectly matched is to have accomplished the greatest and most challenging thing any of us will do in a lifetime.

These things are true today, and I feel them now just as I did then.  But I write today because I find myself contemplative, pondering the nature of the friendship that is a marriage.

To be married is to be one half of a partnership.  But the foundation of that partnership -- more than compatibility, more than passion, even in some ways more than love -- is friendship.  Your spouse should be your best friend.  The two of you are there for one another when no others will be.  You share things with each other that you cannot and sometimes may not share with any other living being.  No individual is more important than your spouse.  No sacrifice, no effort, no pain, no act is too much or too great or too anything to be done for the sake of your partner.

It is easy, as we grow accustomed to our spouses, to become complacent.  Never do this.  Fellow husbands, I tell you now:  never take your wife for granted.  She deserves better than that -- and you are capable of better.  As I think about the incredible woman who I have been blessed enough to marry, I cannot even imagine the depths, the intensity, the enormity of the wrongness of not appreciating her as she should be appreciated.

There is no person with whom I would rather share my life, no matter what part of that life is considered.  There is no person whose approval I crave more.  There is no person whose opinion matters more.  There is no person whose friendship is more fulfilling.  My wife has always been the best friend I will ever have.  No one else has been the consistent source of strength, warmth, guidance, and happiness that she has been.

My wife's friendship literally saved my life.  If not for her, I would have spiraled into self-destructive apathy, anger, and madness.  Instead I face life with the most caring and special woman a man could ever desire.  Because of her, I have hope.  Because of her, I know joy.  Because of her, I have a friend for life.

If you share in similar good fortune, do not neglect it.  Nurture your friendship.  Find ways every day to show your best friend that you are thinking of her, and that you care.

You will know nothing better in your life.  Remember that.