FRIENDS AND SOUL MATES

While doing a group workshop a number of years ago the leader passed out the names of telephone numbers of the 15 of us in the group. Our commitment to the workshop during the coming weeks was to be available to everyone in the group 24 hours a day. He explained how important this action would play out in finishing our goal. He also pointed out one other factor that has stayed with me for years. He stated, “In your entire lives you will be lucky to have one or two friends that are always there for you 24 hours a day forever. It will be a friend or soul mate that will always be there for you. Even if you are separated by distance and you don't talk to each other for a time you will know they are there. Congratulations you have 15 of those for the next couple of weeks.” It was that experience and the events in my life during the last couple of years that lead me to this story.

Soul mates are those people that come into our lives and become part of us. First as parents we are the soul mates to our children, we will always be there for them no matter the age or distance from them. They can take on other forms such as our home towns. Red Bank holds that place for me as the town has been a major part of my entire life. It has always been there for me growing up and for my children also. I could always count on my town to be there. I see many people returning to Red Bank having traveled and lived the world over to be with aging parents or to return to a familiar place that formed the early part of their lives.

Besides my son, daughter and grandchildren I have been one of the lucky ones that have two great friends that I have known for over thirty years. We know each others strengths and weaknesses and have helped each other over the years with both life and career changes. If you are lucky to have one such friend you are blessed to have two or three is a God send. These are the people who you will go to any length to help you in time of need as you would be there for them.

To find a soul mate in the form of a husband or a wife is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. It is hard to find and sometimes when found is not recognized or in the saddest of cases not able to attain. I have known a few couples that were soul mates. Their love and concern for each other was endless with their concerns being only for the others well being. One couple I knew would have people walk up to them in the street to tell them wonderful they seemed together. From the strongest man to the gentlest woman everyone looks for that one special person to share their life with. Other people will cheer you on to attain it. Is there man or woman out there that read or saw the movie “Bridges of Madison County” that was not cheering or yelling for her to pull the door handle on the truck she was in and run to the love of her life as he drove out of town. I bet not………if you are lucky enough to find a true soul mate do everything you can to keep it.  It usually comes along once in a lifetime.