Monday, November 30, 2020

Finding our Soulmates

 

Soul Connections

“The soul enters the world with a deep need to connect with other souls. The soul within you craves intimacy and honesty. Guess what? So does the soul of everyone around you.”

Naomi Levy (Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul, p.159, Flatiron Books, 2017)

          One of the things I miss most in this self-imposed isolation during the pandemic is the opportunity to have long conversations with people I love. I have a hard time with “small talk” and am no good at all at parties. What almost always happens in such situations is that I end up spending the evening sitting in one place, with someone I do not know telling me their life story. I think that is because what Rabbi Naomi Levy wrote in the quote above is true—we are all looking for someone with whom we can connect at the soul level. That’s why it is so popular to say someone is “looking for their soulmate.” When we connect with another welcoming soul, we feel safe and at home.

          It is nice when this connection comes with the added benefit of romantic love, but it does not always happen that way, and that is as it should be. Sometimes we have friends for decades with whom we never connect at the soul level. I don’t understand the reason except for the fact that our soul knows the difference between those who are simply friends and acquaintances and those who are soulmates. Both are valuable, but we connect with the former at a more superficial level, and with the latter at a deeper, more intimate level. When souls connect, there is no feeling of distance, no need for subterfuge, no pretense, no desire to delude or manipulate, nothing to prove, and no desire for power. We become our authentic selves without the need for ego defenses. If we are lucky, we will have many soulmates over our lifetime.

          Naomi Levy uses the example in her book, Einstein and the Rabbi, of a child who moves to a new town and a new school. At first that child knows no one—doesn’t know who to sit with at lunch, has no one to play with on the playground, may even be a subject of scorn. That child is lost and probably terrified. Then one single child comes over and says, “Hi, I’m so-and-so. May I sit with you.” Just that one act of connection makes the world a better place and gives that child hope that better times are ahead. One soul has recognized another.

          We are all in the market for soul connections. I’m a believer in asking the universe for what you want. “Pray without ceasing,” as the Bible tells us in 1Thessalonians 5:17. The soul who wants connections and is open to allowing a higher power to guide them, will find other souls with whom to connect. The reason for this: all our souls are looking for the same thing. Let today be your day to connect soul-to-soul.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane

         

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