“To love is to open the window of the heart, reflecting the beauty of the one we love. We must gaze steadily into our beloved’s face to open the path into our inner self.” – Rumi
This is an interesting statement about the importance of connection.
I often think of the phrase “no man is an island”. We all want to be islands, fiercely independent, needing no one for anything at all. However, it is hard to know who we really are in a vacuum.
I can be the nicest, friendliest, most wonderful person…when no one is around.
The real test for me, and I think for all of us, is when we are confronted with the difficult concept of having to interact with others. Some people are great, you feel that zing of connection, and you just want to be around those people all the time.
In Islam, we believe that all of our souls were created before the universe was created. I like to think of us as little balls of light hanging around in the same vast room. In this world, those who you have those seemingly incomprehensible instant connections with – those were the people you hung out with as a little ball of light. (I don’t know if we were really little balls of light, that’s just how I imagine it happening). That’s what I think a soul mate is, and why you can be soul mates with anyone, not just the love of your life. I suppose that’s what Anne of Green Gables refers to as a bosom friend or a kindred spirit.
Anyway, those people who instantly drive you totally bonkers? My understanding is that your souls just didn’t hang out together, so your energies just don’t match up. That kind of makes me feel better when I take an instant dislike to someone (c’mon, who doesn’t ever get that feeling). I just figure, hey – it’s cool, we just weren’t friends back in the day, and we don’t have to be friends now.
Did I get a little off track just now? Probably, but I guess my overall point is – love comes from a place beyond our minds, it comes from our souls, which we are connected to via our hearts. We aren’t islands, we are connected to each other from way beyond any ties we may have formed in this life. So getting to know those kindred spirits is a window into our own nature – it helps us to understand ourselves on a deeper level. We need each other to really learn to be ourselves.
Seeking Pearls 