Meant to Be

For Paul, one of the keepers.

How many times have you heard the term "they were meant to be?"  I believe in fate, but not that there is only one person in the whole wide world that we are meant to spend the rest of our lives with.  How frustrating and exhausting it would be to try to find the one and only.  I'm not saying I believe you shouldn't settle down with one person, but maybe there are many in fact who could be the one.  What determines who we end up with ultimately and what becomes of those others?   Maybe they are meant to be the best of friends or they are meant to have another place in our life.

I don't believe in chance encounters.  I believe we were meant to meet certain people through out our lives.  What we make or don't make of those encounters is our decision, but there are many people who shape the person we become whether lover, friend or foe. 

Each meeting or situation allows us choices to make that determines our future.  Think of yourself at a party.  You meet a variety of people, mingle with some and have extensive conversations with others.  With each person you meet, you make a decision, whether conscious or unconscious, what part if any that person will have in your life. 

Let me take it a step further.  All decisions you make impact the people that you come into contact with.  Do you take the train or drive?  Do you take a job with company A or company C?  Think of people you know that met because they just happened to be at the same place at the same time.  Each made a decision to be at that same place and then made a decision to talk to each other.  

All of these interactions provide us with an opportunity to bring a new person into our life.  There are some people I am glad are no longer in my life, but I wouldn't change those experiences if I could, even though they were challenging and emotionally draining.  They were meaningful even though they were difficult.  I look at the person I was before and who I have become after, and I'm thankful for where I am now.  It's that learning experience that helped me grow and become more confident and stronger.   

On the flip side, I have also met some incredible people with who I have developed very strong bonds.  These are the keepers, the people who I will always cherish.  It's an awesome experience when you meet someone, and you have an immediate connection.  They also provide a learning experience and help to mold the "future you."  They offset and balance the negative experiences.

I believe all of these people were meant to be.  They were meant to enter our lives, help us grow with challenges or with love and support, and leave us hopefully smarter and stronger and on a better life path.

Think of the people you have met throughout your life who were "meant to be."  How did they change your life?  We should have no regrets in life, only opportunities from which we've learned so we do not make the same mistakes twice.