This is something I had saved from the Richard Bach website, which unfortunately is not around any more. I am posting this for Soul Pickle and all those of you who believe in soulmates.

Each of us discovers our own definition for "soulmate." These range anywhere from "A Meaningless Concept" to the pronouncing of our Significant Other's name.

For me, a soulmate is one with whom we've made a mutual decision before the beginning of any life experience, with whom we have an agreement to meet in spacetime and demonstrate for each other the best we know about sharing love.

In the highest sense we're all soulmates, one to another, we're all reflections of one light. But the highest sense renders the word impractical on our worlds of make-believe, and I resolved to lower the vibrations of my definition to embrace at least one and at most a very few soulmates in any focus of consciousness I call a lifetime.

Soulmates are not images of religious custom or cultural institution, of age or gender. Marriage does not define a soulmate, nor divorce dissolve one. No earthside connection affects that bond. We recognize each other when we meet by signals arranged at a time and place we half-remember from old dreams. The curve of a smile, fragments of shared memories, a phrase that two minds speak at just the same instant. And then we begin the dance we asked of each other before the music of time was written, and enter upon the lives we've customized for our education and our delight.

© 1998-1999 Richard Bach

I was so damn thrilled to get her email this morning. Of all my blog friends, I think I have the most in common with her - that is as far as roots and stuff like that go.

...and somehow she brings back memories of Bahrain, and the 'wonder years' as I like to call them. Old school magazines and class photos are all I have to remember those times. I try not to look at them too often; what's the point? - its the here and now that we've got to live in.

I'm listening to 'Time after time' by Cyndi Lauper - like the class photo, this song brings back so many memories. I remember Cliffy, Trini, and myself trying to transcribe the lyrics by listening to the cassette over and over again. And the only place we could watch the video was on this British TV programme called 'Chart Attack' on Dubai Channel-33, where the reception was terrible; but in spite of that, we never missed it. I wonder If I'll ever see those guys again.

I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I type this, so I better stop here.

This is for you m. Don't go away again.

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick, and think of you
Caught up in circles, confusion is nothing new
Flashback, warm nights; almost left behind
Suitcases of memories; time after time

Sometimes you picture me; I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me, I can't hear what you've said
Then you say: go slow; I fall behind
The second hand unwinds

If you're lost you can look and you will find me, time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting - time after time

Time after time.

The Fox

A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said, "I will have a camel for lunch today." And all morning he went about looking for camels.

But at noon he saw his shadow again-and he said, "A mouse will do."

Remember the class nerds I talked about - the one's who would suddenly shock everybody by coming to school one day in baggy pants, LA Gear sneakers etc; or the Chutney Mary who'd walk into class with her hair cut short in a fancy new style?

Like I said - that must have taken guts - real guts.

Because we were mean kids - very mean. We laughed, we ridiculed, we kept names - "look at this dickhead trying to be mod!!"

But the joke was on us. The last laugh belonged to them.

You see, they decided to change; re-invent themselves; get rid of that mould; shed that outer layer of skin which held them back from doing what they wanted to do, going where they wanted to go; and worst of all - which stopped them from being what they wanted to be.

Never let anybody or anything prevent you from being that person you want to be. We owe it to ourselves to let go; to be free.

I owe it to myself. And I love surprises!

Peace, love, and the wonder of You.

You know how sometimes you read something somewhere and you go, “oh, I knew that.”

But it often happens that in spite of knowing it, we forget, for whatever reason. Or we choose not to remember.

Until someone reminds us. Like she so often does.

I wish I knew my way around the English language better, so I could say something to her.

When you’re at a party and there’s this girl you know who’s looking ever so gorgeous in that stunning new outfit; your first reaction is to tell her how lovely she looks. You know what to say, you’re programmed.

I wish I could say something to her.

...but what would she like to hear?

***

Sometimes you know nothing, yet subconsciously you feel you know everything. And at other times you’re sure you know it all, but strangely, you can't remember a thing – you go blank.

I remember in school, how after exams, there was always someone who would say something like - “I knew all the answers, but I just went blank.”

…and even then I could never understand this – how the hell do you go blank?

I never went blank. If I didn’t know something, the reason was simple - I just hadn’t studied that.

And I tell you, God would’ve had to send some of his toughest angels down from heaven to save me from the thrashing I’d get from my dad if I came home after an exam and said “I went blank”.

You cannot go blank.

***

It’s all there. In our heads somewhere. What Don Juan called “silent knowledge”.

Peace, love, and the sound of one hand clapping.