I'm sitting alone in my apartment on a rainy night. I'm restless, mildly bored, and, yes, I'll admit it, but please don't tell anyone … lonely. It's days like this that I'm sure that there's no more love in store for me—all of the epically momentous possibilities must have already passed me by. Somehow I blinked and missed them. It's in moments like this that I allow myself the small indulgence of thinking about Sebastian. The Frisky: Is Soul Mate-ism Preventing Us From Finding True Love?

Our story had all of the makings of a great love story. … Read More

I remember being a little girl and hearing my mother use the term "soul mates." Watch: Seeking Your Soulmate? Use The Secret

"What is 'soul mates'?" I asked.

"It's beshert," she said.

"Be-what?"

"It's meant to be," she explained.

Beshert is a Yiddish term that expresses how soul mates are "meant to be together." Building on my family's unwavering faith in this beshert thingy—my parents met when they were 17 and my grandparents when they were 16—I assumed that I, too, would be welcomed into the warm, loving arms of this soul mate phenomenon. I vowed to keep my eyes peeled for … Read More

So, The New York Times (of all publications) is almost swaying us to think arranged marriage isn't that bad.

Sure, at first blush arranged marriage seems arcane. Prehistoric. Completely illogical and an almost cruel and unusual punishment. Afterall, we Westerners are apprehensive to even spend a faux-romantic evening with someone our family chooses for us—let alone a lifetime. Marriage Has It’s Charm, Partly Because Divorce Is So Lousy

Granted, we won't be trying it out anytime soon, but it had us thinking: do we, really, need to marry our soulmate? Or does marriage almost work better when … Read More

When enmeshed in the search for love, it can be difficult to determine whether it should be something we find or something that we decide to do. Many people experience the romantic love story. But a lot of couples find love to be something more learned and practiced. For people who are still hunting, it's difficult to decide whether to view it as a noun or a verb.

Louise Rafkin has been interviewing couples and telling their love stories in a weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle for the past couple years. As someone who is still searching for … Read More

Ah, love. That special feeling that makes a man want to stay in and bake cookies with his woman or emblazon her naked likeness on a surfboard and give it to her as a present.

We know that feeling, Brody. And we're happy to know that you do, too.

Thanks to your interview with People, we know it, perhaps, a little too well.

We know that after baking those cookies together, you like to "watch DVDs and have nice quality home time." We know that your girlfriend is "in amazing, amazing shape." And we know that that surfboard you had made … Read More

Romance, of the fairy-tale romantic comedy (and supposedly mind-deluding) variety, can get a bad rap. People say romance is too sappy, lovey-dovey or corny for them. But it's not all the unhealthy, high-fructose variety! Here, we've pulled together YourTango's top all-natural, schmaltz-free (OK, maybe there may be a teensy bit of schmaltz—but hey, that's what makes it fun!), 100% guaranteed true-love tales from 2008. Watch and read stories of love lost and found in locales from Michigan to Beijing that have happened to people of every age.

Romance Lives in KalamazooA feel-good story.

Alma Viswat and Harold Van Heuvelen (known … Read More

Do you believe you have a soul mate? There are lots of ideas out there about the person you marry: he should be the one, your true love, your soul mate. Unfortunately, life doesn't usually work out that way. It's romantic and beautiful to believe that there's someone out there who is meant for you, who is your other half, who fits you perfectly, but putting too much faith in those notions can lead to trouble.

Today on Ask Dan and Jennifer, Scott and Stephen Petullo list nine soul mate myths … Read More

Based on a recent speed dating experience, graciously sponsored by New York Easy Dates, I came up with the following list of tips for what to do and what not to do to make the most of one's time in the unique world of forced encounters on the clock.

DO tell a person about your habits or quirks. Just maybe not in the first sentence, like "Hi, I'm really messy. What about you?" Oh, are we moving in together? Funny. I thought we'd just met.

DON'T use humor that might possibly be perceived as off-color, or worse, just plain un-funny. … Read More

Dating and relationship advice from arranged marriages!?

I know, it might sound strange.

But for my book, First Comes Marriage: Modern Relationship Advice From The Wisdom of Arranged Marriages (Fireside, 2008) I spent five years researching arranged marriages and talking to over 300 women from Canada, the US, the UK, and across Europe about their experiences.

The majority of women whom I spoke with seemed so confident in their relationships (especially compared to our general environment of relationship angst). Surprisingly, what I was hearing really seemed to apply to my own relationship issues.

My book does not … Read More

I was in college the night I met him. And even after all these years, the thing I remember most is the unexpected, very physical shiver that immediately ran up my spine when he looked at me. He's It, that shiver said.

We talked, we flirted, we had our first date two days later. I fell hard. I loved that he was sweet, but not saccharine. I loved that he was Jewish, but not too Jewish. I loved that he was a fan of Hot Tamales, the candy I ate by the truckload back then. And (OK, call me … Read More