What is life?

What is life?
Is life simply breathing, thinking,
the beating of a heart?
No.
I used to think I was alive,
I thought that I was living,
but I was wrong.
I was simply existing,
moving from day to day,
eating, working, sleeping,
all in order to do the same things tomorrow.
No purpose, no reason for my existence,
other than existing in itself.
Then I met her.
my breath was taken away by her beauty,
giving me a real reason to breathe.
Getting to know her past, her fears, her favorite things in this world,
gave me a real reason to think.
Staying up late at night, staring into the stars,
thinking only of her,
thinking of how much I cared for her,
thinking of how much I wanted to be with her,
thinking of how much I wanted to make her smile
that beautiful smile,
that smile that pushed away clouds,
pushed away old heartaches,
for at least a second, pushing away all of our fears,
knowing that we have nothing to fear when we are in each others arms.
Her simply being in my life has given my heart a reason to beat.
I realize what living is now.
Living is taking that heartbeat, those breaths,
all those things that make you alive,
and using them to show her how much you love her,
to show her that everything will be all right,
that she is the most precious and beautiful thing in this world.
Living is loving,
without love, there is no life,
only existence.
I am alive.