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Strength. There's physical strength and then there is emotional strength; but there is also the strength of heart, to pull from the essence of your soul and being to persevere through unbelievable obstacles. In strength, we also discover character and integrity.

Patrick Swayze is someone who truly lives by the strength of heart. He's an often complex man, and he's one of intense devotion to life. His will is endless, and thus we see his true character and just how strong he is, mentally and physically.

So many know Patrick as Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing or Sam Wheat in Ghost. They think of the sexy hunk and the shaking hips. Some think of walls and daredevil fighting (I'm thinking Road House here). They see the leading man actor, the one People Magazine once voted as the Sexiest Man Alive.

To me, Patrick has always been about heart. Those movies are great, but they've never been my favorite. I prefer City of Joy, where a dissatisfied and suicidal doctor finds his soul in the middle of Calcutta, India. He learns the meaning of joy there. Patrick himself came back changed from that experience. In fact, it was roughly a year before he began a new acting project.

I look at the man who is totally devoted to his life, and his life is his wife, Lisa Niemi. They've been married 33 years as of June 12. For most of that time, they lived on a ranch they dubbed Rancho Bizarro outside Hollywood. Over the years, they built it up, having everything on it they ever needed. They built a dance studio and a music room. Lisa had a little writing room for her work. They filled their ranch with horses and dogs who they considered family. Whatever they needed was on that ranch.

In an interview, Patrick once said that it got a bit dangerous once because it was tempting never to leave their ranch. They didn't need to. Rancho Bizarro was their safe haven, their place to exist without the interference of media, or even the rest of their large family.

Patrick and Lisa have what I call, a nation of two. They need no one else and nothing else but each other. Their love for each other transcends anything and everything else, and it's always been that way.

Once, a few years ago, Patrick was praising Lisa for her talent during a TV interview. His eyes sparkled, and his smile was bright as he looked at her while speaking. You could feel the love, and the belief. He wasn't just saying that, he believes it, every word of it. I say that because I was in contact with someone at that time who insisted

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