Love and Friendship

Yesterday was my forty-first birthday. Birthdays are a natural time for reflection, I think. I lay on the couch watching my daughters interaction, and smiling with pride at the miracle God has allowed me to share my life with. Love is a powerful thing. The love I feel for them grows stronger and deeper with each passing year. Love affairs may come and go throughout our lives, but a mother's love is the one love that will not fail, will not wax and wane, it's the love we take to the grave—eternal. I wonder if any two people ever feel that way toward one another. Is it possible that two souls could come together, and be so totally and completely right for one another that love is effortless...instant...natural? Is there such thing as a soulmate?

My personal experience with love leads me to be skeptical that there is one perfect person out there who will fill that void completely, but do I believe it's possible, absolutely—anything is possible. Loving somebody else begins with loving yourself first and foremost, and I've never been good at that, but I work on it every day. Sometimes, you meet someone who makes you want to be better, and that too, is rare. We never know why certain people come into our lives or how long they will stay. Some people come back into our lives after a long time, and we wonder how we ever fully lived without them. It is a gift which should not be taken for granted. Some friendships can resemble love I think, because they can last a lifetime. Anyone who is able to find one love, one friend, or maybe that rare person who is both, is very blessed indeed.