Locks

Day 74. Locks.

Ever meet someone that you felt an immediate connection with? Someone that seems to know you better than they should, considering how little time you've had together. A person that you just "click" with, that you feel like you can say anything to and they won't walk out on you, or hang up on you. If you haven't, I hope that you do. It's an amazing feeling to find that missing piece of yourself, when you weren't even looking for it. And I'm not talking about goopy, sappy romantic lovey dovey stuff.

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise. Richard Bach: One.

In "One", Richard runs into Leslie, a woman he knew for years, in a chance encounter. She's so not his type, and he's not hers, but they're not looking for anything but a friend. They start meeting to play chess and eat ice cream out of giant Jethro Bodine-sized bowls, and talk. And talk. For hours. About anything and everything. Hopes, dreams, mistakes, loss. He realizes it first: that they are like two halves of a seashell that was broken apart on the rocks, floated around for years and finally made their way back to the same beach.

Luck plays a part in helping you find that person. The one with the keys. And locks. I think the locks are as important as the keys. It's amazing when someone opens a lock you didn't even know you had. We're all created by the things we live through, and they sometimes forge locks we can't see. I've shed tears at things that opened up right in front of me, things I had closed myself off to so they didn't hurt me. How nice it is having someone that can fill in the missing gaps in your soul, places you didn't know were empty.

Never take lightly the value of someone you can talk freely with, it's a precious thing that many of us never find. The knowledge that your words are being heard, and you are not required to prove anything. Safety in the form of friendship, an equal partnership where both sides are free to express their reality. Paradise no longer lost, but found in the laughter and tears shared by adults who are comfortable enough with themselves to let the keys open the locks. That's when you can give your very best, and get theirs in return.

Lesson Sixty Four: Do you have someone you feel safe talking to, someone that really "gets" you? Are there times you just pour your heart out to them, knowing they won't judge you or be disappointed? Think about how lucky you are, how lucky they are, that the pieces have come together to complete you both. With both having being restrained by the locks you're both trying so hard to open, it's nice to know that someone has the keys.

656 to go...