"When we think of "meant to be," we assume forever. But maybe it isn't supposed to be forever. Maybe it's just someone who is in our life to teach us something. Maybe the forever is not the person but the lesson we learn from them."

We love romanticizing things. We love "soulmates" and "true love," and we love the whimsical feeling of someone's being "destined" to us. All of these things mean 'forever' to us but that is not always what happens for various reasons, but then that causes us to sometimes doubt the validity of those times the right person came into our lives at the perfect time simply because it may have been short.

There are many names for the relationships we have with people, probably because we do not have the words to properly express what they mean to us. One person can be so many different things to us at once and so much more when we find we needed all those things when they became them. There is nothing quite like having a person be what we need at the right time. There is nothing quite like having them leave either.

Whether we drift apart or someone we love passes away or circumstances pull us apart, there can be no denying that the time they were with us was "meant to be" and everything they were to us and for us made part of who we are in some way. Sometimes people teach us something just in time for someone else to come into our life.

Sometimes someone teaches us something just in time for someone else to teach us something that depended on what the last person taught us. We, humans, are quilts with patches of cloth from other people, places, and events, puzzles whose pieces fit perfectly somehow, we collect bits and pieces from around us and they make us up, and that lasts forever.

When someone we love leaves our lives for whatever the reason may be, it is painful but we can know that we have something they left behind that will help us be ready for the next someone to teach us something. Not that they are replaced or forgotten, but that what they taught us will make so many more relationships fuller and better because of what they left behind.

The quilt is warmer and more colorful, and the puzzle is more complete. May we always keep the scraps of cloth or piece of landscape that we may need to wait to place in memory of the person we became while the someone was in our life.

And if they stay in our life, may we never forsake or take for granted what they give us. There is nothing quite like when someone who is "meant to be" stays in our life either. It is magical, mysterious, and comforting in exciting ways. This will happen often throughout our lives, people will come and go and we will be left with gifts they leave behind. May we be brave enough to experience the many different kinds of "forevers" in store for us.