I Don't Believe in Soul Mates

I don't believe in soul mates. 

Imagine that there was really only one other person on the planet for you. There are roughly seven billion people alive today. Most of us prefer one gender over the other, so that leaves 3.5 billion people we could be attracted to. And that's just of the people who are alive. What if your soul mate died a year ago and  you never met them? Or what if you or your soul mate can't ever afford to leave the country you were born in and so you never meet each other because of that? 

And how do you know if someone is your soul mate? Popular TV, movies, even some books, would have us believe that first love is the be all end all of existence. Usually it's not. But say you marry someone and then find your soul mate. Does that negate the love you feel towards the person you married? I hope not. 

The problem I have with the concept of soul mates is that it implies there is one way and only one way to find someone you can love and commit to and go through life with. 

I loved writing The Stupid Book. I loved my two main characters, I loved the world I got to build for them. I did. But last week, I stopped working on it because a new story with a new character popped into my head. And I couldn't ignore her. 

I don't know if I will ever circle back and try to get The Stupid Book published. But I love it and it taught me something about writing and about myself. I don't know if this new story will become a book at all, let alone one I feel ready to publish. 

I hope I write more than one story worth publishing but I know I'd be lucky to publish one. Maybe this new story is the story, the one I want to give the rest of the world a chance to read. I don't know. 

I do know that even if it is, it won't be the last book I write, let alone the last story I love. But I love it already, like I love The Stupid Book, like I love my Butterflies stories, like I love my Elemental stories 

Like I said, I don't believe in soul mates. Not even when it comes to books.