The Thing About Soulmates

It was easy with them, wasn’t it?

You were vulnerable with each other and that kept you close. It was the way you found ease in your emotions. There was a stillness to your hands on each other, a significance to the way your legs folded together as if they were supposed to. You made note of the moments you shared and the little details that made it a moment: the birds, the warm air, the blankets, the soft morning voices.

It was easy with them until it wasn’t anymore.

There were fights. There was anxiety. There were times when you wished they had never entered your life. There were nights when your mind was clouded with doubts and fears, and there were days when you thought about letting them go. You thought, Maybe the love I want isn’t real. Maybe a love like that isn’t written in the stars.

So you let them go.

But then one day you’ll see it: who they are to you and why they matter. You’ll find yourself thinking about them, how elusive you were together. How warm and smug and sincere your bodies used to be. How you considered that one morning to be your last together. And you’ll realize it isn’t, it wasn’t, and your story isn’t over yet.

You never realize they belong to you until one of you leaves. And the thing about soulmates is that they always come back, even after you’ve let them go.

And this time around, everything is different. Not easy, not hard; everything just is. Everything you thought mattered—the birds, the air, the blankets, your hands—doesn’t anymore. It doesn’t matter where you knew them then and where you know them now. What matters is how you know each other.

The universe brings people together for a reason. One day, you’ll wonder: It is them, isn’t it? Is a love like this real? And you’ll start to believe in it.