To all the hopeless romantics

Some words of solace.

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For as long as I can recall, I’ve fantasized about the day I will meet my soulmate.

If things weren't going well in my life, I would daydream about how I could build a better home with my future love.

I would cope with the need to be seen by picturing all the ways I would be truly loved one day.

This fantasy became a quiet sanctuary during the days when I felt the least understood.

Like water and air, love too is essential for our survival.

If we weren't loved properly growing up, we search for it desperately in others. We start building homes inside people, unaware of the truth that love was within us all along.

This desperate search for love can often draw us to the wrong people, people who exploit this thirst and twist it. Somehow, we manage to find the very person whose home cannot hold us.

And yet, we stay.

We allow them to take us to desperate, dark places in hopes of finding even a trace of love. They stretch our limits until one day we finally break.

And in that breaking, they seem to confirm the fear we carried all along:

That we were unlovable.

So we keep searching.

We head back onto the road, broken yet still hungry, searching for another home.

Countless times we plead with God to allow us to settle and find love in another person.

And countless times, God gently moves us aside and replies,

"Not here."

We negotiate.

We beg.

We hope.

We plead.

Until one day we give up and vow to ourselves we'll never try again.

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believing in love is an act of worship

Despite everything life has thrown at you, you're still standing here today hoping to find love someday.

That, in itself, is proof of your faith.

Choosing hope.

Choosing love.

Even when the world gives you no reason to keep believing.

True faith is setting aside your ego and letting yourself be vulnerable enough to say to the universe,

"I still choose love."

If you carry an unexplainable feeling that there is a soul somewhere deeply connected to yours, maybe it's because they exist.

God doesn't place healthy desires within us that were never meant to be fulfilled.

We carry these deeper callings because our souls were meant to answer them.

The first step toward fulfilling those desires is trusting in them with certainty.

Anything that convinces you otherwise is only pulling you away from your path.

loving when your cup is full

There is a huge difference between the love you offer when you're surviving and the love you offer when you're abundant.

When you're living from lack, you seek love out of desperation.

You need someone else to make you feel whole.

That desperation can lead you to betray your own values just to avoid being alone.

You slowly lose yourself while trying to be seen.

But that isn't love.

It's attachment.

True love is expansion.

Not completion.

You are already whole.

Another person's presence simply lets you experience life more fully.

I'm beginning to believe that the purest form of love is simply wanting to share the miracle of being alive with another person.

"Look at this."

"Listen to this song."

"Taste this."

"See the world through my eyes."

"Isn't it beautiful?"

I've come to believe that love, in its purest form, is an act of worship.

It's admiring God's creation reflected in another soul.

Love isn't about taking.

It's about pouring into someone else's cup because your own is already overflowing.

Most of us settle for shallow attachment.

But there exists a rarer kind of love.

A divine love so deep that it becomes impossible to deny the presence of God.

Healthy love doesn't pull you away from the divine.

It brings you closer.

True love acts as a mirror for your soul.

Your soulmate reflects you back to yourself so you can finally see who you've always been.

The purer your souls become, the more clearly you recognize one another.

> "To love someone means to see them as God intended them." — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Real love isn't constant sunshine.

It's walking through life's hard seasons together.

It's revealing your entire humanity and hearing someone gently say,

"Let's get through this together."

That kind of love exists.

And you deserve it.

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finding love within yourself

As repetitive as it may sound, you must first discover love within yourself before expecting to find it in someone else.

The quality of love you experience often mirrors how deeply you've met yourself.

It's easy to love yourself on the good days.

When you look your best.

When you've finished your to-do list.

When you've stayed disciplined.

But what about the hard days?

Do you forgive yourself after making mistakes?

Do you speak kindly to yourself after gaining weight?

After falling short of your own expectations?

Loving yourself means creating a place inside you where it's always safe to return.

Even when everything around you feels like it's falling apart.

It means choosing time with the one person who has been with you from the start.

Yourself.

stepping outside the noise

I'm not sure whether it's my social media algorithm or simply the state of the world, but lately it feels like there's an endless war between men and women online.

Many women celebrate hyper-independence.

In many ways, that's beautiful.

It's incredible that we can build fulfilling lives without relying on someone else.

But I'm also not afraid to admit that I'd love to share this life with another person.

Both things can be true.

I can celebrate my independence while still craving companionship.

To do that, I refuse to believe the narrative that there are no good men left.

Sometimes it's easier to believe everyone else is the problem because it shields us from looking inward.

Real change begins there.

How can we create safety within ourselves?

How can we regulate our nervous systems?

How can we soften after being hurt?

How can we stay hopeful even when the world encourages cynicism?

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your soulmate is waiting for you

The right person will recognize your soul because they have been searching for someone exactly like you.

You won’t have to act.

You won’t have to change yourself.

There is someone who will celebrate the very qualities others once made you feel ashamed of.

Someone who will never hold your past against you because they'll understand it shaped the person standing before them today.

There is someone who will make your nervous system feel settled.

Someone you'll feel safe building a life with.

Trying to become someone else in order to be loved only attracts the wrong people.

The right person arrives when you finally embrace yourself exactly as you are.

At the end of the day, as Ram Dass once said,

"We are all just walking each other back home.”

Thanks for reading!

-k🦋

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