People often talk about a "soulmate" as if it were a mythical figure - that one and only being waiting just for us, like a locked door that only one key can open. And then we turn life into a search, instead of living it.
But maybe a soulmate isn't someone who comes to complete us. Maybe a soulmate is someone who challenges us to grow. Someone who doesn't offer us a peaceful sleep, but wakes us from our slumber. Someone who makes us question where we buried our dreams and why we keep quiet about the things that hurt.
Sometimes a soulmate shows up too early. Sometimes too late. Sometimes a soulmate is a lover, and sometimes a friend. And yes, sometimes it's a passerby - someone who barely brushed against us, but changed the direction of our path forever.
In love, the idea of a "soulmate" carries a risk: we look for perfection, and we miss reality. And reality is imperfect, full of wrong words, clumsy touches and bad days. Maybe true kinship isn't about fitting together perfectly, but about knowing how to stay together even when the pieces don't match.
A soulmate isn't necessarily the person you stay with for the rest of your life. Maybe it's someone who teaches you the most important lesson about yourself, and then leaves. Maybe it's someone who knocks you down to show you that you can get back up. Maybe it's someone who stays and hears the loudest song in your silence.
And maybe the greatest irony is that, in the end, we become our own soulmate - once we learn to live in harmony with ourselves.
Because only then can we give someone else what we're looking for.
So I wonder: is a soulmate someone we look for in others - or is it a part of ourselves we have yet to find?