The Romanticized Soul-mate!

Soul-mate - The most familiar word to human ears, especially from the age of puberty till adulthood. We dream and desire this soul-mate (fictional lover) and sincerely begin to look (Some people even pray every Monday) for him/her when we attain a marriageable age. This fantasy character is supposed to come in our lives once and stay with us forever (and for added six janams) [Really??? Like for the rest of seven whole lives!!! I am sure this isn't an opinion of married men and women ;)].
We are told that this soul-mate is our better half (another myth) with whom we get romantically involved and once found, we have to tie him/her in a marital knot (because if you don’t, this soulful soul-mate might run away and never come back). So technically, we all should have only one soul-mate for a life time except for the ones who decide to get married more than once (hats off to them!).
It’s amazing to see how we (humans) are such experts in creating boundaries around anything and everything! We say ‘live in the present, live in the moment’ and all we do (and are taught to do) is to live in/for the future. I decided to break this boundary and define my own understanding of a soul-mate. When I encountered the definition of a soul-mate (a person with whom one has a strong affinity, shared values & tastes and often a romantic bond), I realized that I have had more than one person (a normal-living-human-being) with whom I have established that so called soulful bond! And surprisingly, none of them stuck around or promised to stick around for one whole janam (forget the added six lives). Most of these people became my soul-mates for one hour, few hours, sometimes just one day or for few days. These were the people I felt strongly connected with (emotionally, mentally and physically)! Call it a spark, call it a unique connection or a soulful bond, I felt it all! I met these soul-mates in the form of friends, best friends, family members, relatives, crushes, lovers and sometimes just acquaintances. When I think of the times spent with these bunch of (my) soul-mates, I figured that more than the time spent together (in hours, days, janams), I valued the intensity of connect that I felt with them at that moment. And I would not trade this connect with anything else in this whole wide world.
For how much ever time we spent, we belonged to each other.. We connected.. We loved.. We felt that weirdly powerful bond that sometimes become hard to describe.. 
When I began to live life by this definition of soul-mate, I became happier.. I did not cry when they moved out.. I did not pity myself when I lost them.. I did not sob for the fear of not being blessed with another (lover) soul-mate.. I did not go down the pity guilt trail because I knew that I am destined to meet soul-mates everyday for the rest of my life!

So! Is your definition of a soul-mate making you happy? :-) If not, its time may be you break your boundaries too ;-)