Finding Your Soulmate: A Joy Worth Waiting For

“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thought nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” —George Eliot

Today finds me in Rome, Italy – Day One of a three-week trip we planned over a year ago!

My husband and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.

Considering that I spent years and years living alone, pining for love, and wondering if I would ever meet my soulmate, this is a milestone worth savoring and celebrating. My teens and twenties were a long bleak period in the romance department, punctuated by a few revolving-door relationships that were not easy on a longing heart.

Two months shy of my 30th birthday I met Jay Vogt in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We were introduced by a mutual friend, Alice, who thought we might hit it off. He says he fell in love the instant he saw my curly mop climbing the stairs to Alice’s apartment. I fell in love the minute I realized that I could be – completely and ridiculously – my self.

After a wonderful Thai dinner and a movie (“The Big Chill”) with Alice inexplicably sitting between us, we headed back to my car which was parked on a major street in Boston. When I saw that the driver’s side was completely bashed in and rusted all over I completely lost it… in front of the tall, handsome man I was beginning to fall for, and no doubt, trying to impress.

Still ranting and discovering that my key wouldn’t fit in the lock either, all three of us – in what felt like a slow-motion scene out of a movie – took a slow slideline glance over at the car parked immediately behind.

My car.

Same make, model, and color. Minus the rust.

Within a split second we all fell on the street heaving and crying with laughter. I laughed so hard I peed in my pants – right there in the middle of Beacon Street.

It was at that moment that I knew. I had found the man of my dreams.

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Photo: This is me and my honey in Patmos, Greece – the trip we took in 2008 to celebrate our 25th year “Meetaversary” –  the year we met (1983).