Soul searching

   Floating through the stream of time, ethereal beings waiting for corporeal hosts, we drift along unaware of the world moving on without us. Without bodies there are no senses to interpret the constant passing of time. There is no feeling of touch, no sense of smell or taste, nothing to hear or see. I imagine it is like lights reflected on a river. The current may change, the river may rise or fall, but none of this will affect the lights as they shine no matter what happens to the river. They are part of the river in appearance alone. That is the relation between souls and time. Souls are reflected upon time but not changed by its passing.

  Souls are all the same in the ethereal realm, except for one difference. They are connected. Not every soul to the other like an intricate web, but one soul to another, a pair of souls passing through time. When one is brought into the world, the other follows. The moment is not exact, the length of time between the one leaving and the other following could be seconds or years in the ever changing flow of time, but they always follow. That is one reason people have souls, to be connected to another, through a bond that cannot be seen but can be felt, a connection that can never be severed, no matter how far apart, in miles or years, the two are.

  Will they find each other every time? I cannot say. There are no certainties in the mortal world. They will meet other people, may fall in love with someone else, have families, live long lives and die without ever crossing paths. But when they do cross paths, when the mountains between them are climbed and the chasms separating them closed, the feeling will be there. At the first meeting it will rekindle, a long dormant need relighting like a single ember becoming flame once more, and from there it will grow. It will grow without any help from either person. It will grow until it is a fire, and then a blaze burning deep within each person. It will grow until it is an inferno, unignorable, undeniable, threatening to incinerate the worlds they knew and force them to start over. The flames can be fought, suppressed with a force of will, but never completely quenched.

  It is a hard thing to live with that connection and not accept it, to not allow themselves the joy of being with their soul mate. It would be like trying to stop their heart from beating so often, stop themselves from needing breath so much. Hardship is not a strong enough word to describe it, nor is sadness able to describe the feeling when it must be done. To be tethered to someone they cannot have, to force their soul mate away even as they bring them happiness. It may be necessary, but it is definitely painful, and the walls that must be built to hold them apart must always be maintained, the fire always dampened or it will burst quickly and crumble the walls that were so painstakingly erected.

  In the end, whether they find each other or not, whether they come together or force themselves apart, the souls will always come back together when their time on Earth has ended. When they make it back to the river of time, they will once more float along unaware of the passing of time, without senses or thoughts, with only the feeling of the other, connected forever. And when the time comes for them to come back to the world, they will be born again, live again, and hopefully find each other again.

  So may your hunt for your soul mate be an easy one, without too many mountains to climb and chasms to cross. Let there be no obstacles between you when you find one another. Let the fire consume your lives so that you are reborn, still two souls and two people, but with one heart and one life, together.