If We Were Born With A Treasure Map

I’ve never really believed in soulmates or “the one”, well maybe as a child before I discovered the reality of the world. Back then Cinderella seemed perfectly logical. Once you grow up you realize that there seems to always be something wrong with that glass slipper. Maybe because it’s made of glass? How comfortable can a glass slipper really be? Shouldn’t it be made out of clouds or cotton or something more comfortable? Was this an omen to what real love would be like? Stiff and uncomfortable and non-conforming to what your foot and heart needs?

The more princes I came across that tried to jam my foot into this slipper, the harder I fought to keep it off. I thought you love, you lose, you try to do better next time. Then you meet someone and they flip your life completely upside down, making you question who you are and what you want. You find yourself desperately wanting that slipper in his hand to fit, despite all your doubts and past experiences. You find you want him, more than anything, with your whole heart. You no longer think it was chance that he came along. There are too many variables and circumstances for that. Too many things you could have easily ran from but chose to fight through.

It surprises me to find myself thinking that maybe there is a plan. Perhaps we’ve been training for this our entire lives so we get it right with each other. Maybe when we are born God gives us a map, a treasure hunt to your other half. He couldn’t make it easy and give you a name and address and tell us to show up there on a specific date. We have to find each other. We had to practice on the wrong ones so we wouldn’t mess it up when the time was right. Only after the trials and tribulations of broken hearts would we know that we had a treasure when we found it. We had to grow into who we’ve become after the world has tried so hard to keep us apart.

And if that is the case, how do we know when the hunt is over? Do you stop because you’re tired of searching and this will do just fine? Will the other person seem like a cavern full of gold once discovered and the answer will be obvious? Or is it possible you could misread the map and keep on searching even though you had once held the treasure in your arms and heart but thought a better treasure was waiting out there for you? How are we supposed to know when the map has led us to where we need to be? I question these things now. Then, as I wonder, you hold me in your arms, stare into my eyes, kiss my lips gently and I know there is no place in the universe I would rather be. So whether I’m your other half or just a dot on your map to the one, all I can do is make the most of every single moment that I have with you, remember lessons learned from the past, and pray that you were my last first kiss. I’m forced to trust that the big guy up high is a good navigator and that your map ends here, with my heart in your hands.