I don’t know how, but soul mates have to be real.
Chinese folklore speaks of a red thread connecting people destined to marry. Jewish tradition has the idea of bashert, a partner meant for you. Different beliefs, but a similar thought: maybe some connections begin before we ever meet.
And I don’t mean there’s only one person in the world for you. I mean maybe we know each other somehow before we’re alive. Before we have names or faces or any memory of being here. Then we spend our lives meeting people until someone feels familiar in a way we can’t explain.
You’re still learning who they are, but something in you already recognizes them.
You can just feel it.
And I don’t think all those connections are romantic. Sometimes it’s a best friend you can tell things you’ve never known how to say to anyone else. Sometimes it’s someone who changes how you understand yourself or teaches you something you needed to learn while you’re here.
I wonder if we forget the people but keep the feeling. Just enough to recognize them when they finally show up.
I don’t know how any of it would work. But I’ve met people I can’t quite believe were ever strangers.
And that makes me think there’s gotta be some truth in it.