Walking with Nora

One year, during a bachelorette party in Key West, you get your palm read.
The palm reader is dead on when it comes to you, your tendencies, your heartaches, what you long for.

She tells you that you’ll meet a man in the next two years. Someone you’ll love. Someone you’ll cherish. Someone who will reawaken your soul, your spirit, your capacity to love.

She’s right.

He’s not like anyone else you’ve ever met before. Intelligent. Funny. Hipster. Sexy. A bit of a dork. A bit of a hopeless romantic. Handsome. Strong. Sensitive. Caring. The dates are whirlwinds of nerves, laughter and butterflies.

Within a month, you’re exlcusive.
Within two months, you’re traveling together to Canada for a wedding.
Within three months, you’re spending the holidays with each other’s families.
Within six months, you start talking about living together.
Within a year, you start talking about the serious possibility of a future together.
Within 16 months, something goes wrong.

You remember the day you met the palm reader and search your memory for any bit of information on if she said it was going to last. Or if it wasn’t to last, how would it end. You come up empty handed.

You can’t pinpoint the moment it happens or why it happens, but suddenly your entire world is tossed upside down.

It feels like your souls are drifting apart and even though you want them to continue to float along together in the universe they are drowning in a sea of confusion, hurt, frustration, hope and still, above all, love. But love isn’t always enough. 

Within one week, you’ve cried enough tears to fill the Mississippi River.
Within two weeks, you’ve spent more evenings awake, wondering if it he has changed his mind, if things could be different.
Within three weeks, you call him just to make sure this is how things are supposed to be.
Within four weeks, you realize that though there will be hurt, pain and sorrow as you mourn a relationship and best friend, this is where you are supposed to be. You don’t know why, but this is where the universe has taken you and you have no choice but to move forward.

There are fewer tears but still a deep ache within your soul.  
There are fewer sleepless nights but still the emptiness fills up your bed.
There are fewer messages and phone calls but in the silence, you know there is truth.
There is less certainty in your life but instead an eternal hope.
There are memories stashed deep inside your soul assuring you that you’ll never forget.
There is the realization that this is the best decision for both of you, despite the sadness and hurt you’re learning to cope with.
There is peace in heartbreak at last.