Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. – Aristotle

According to Greek legend, we started something like this, and were then split in half, destined to spend our lives searching for our “other half.”

What does that mean?
This is another neat quote, being based on mythology written about by Aristotle’s mentor, Plato (in his work, Symposium). The story goes that humans were originally made with four arms, four legs and were half male and half female. After conspiring to climb Mount Olympus, Zeus ordered them cut in half. Since that day, every human spends their life searching for their other half.

It is my presumption that this early Greek myth is the basis for this quote. It was an explanation of why humans feel alone until they find their other half. The name for their other half is frequently soul-mate, and thus the translation of the quote as listed above.

This quote is all about the feeling of wholeness and completeness that is said to be available once a soul-mate has been found. However, it doesn’t address the path to take to find one’s soul-mate. I won’t either, as it is too personal and variable, but it is something I believe is worthy of consideration.

Why is finding the person who completes you important?  
What is missing in your life? It’s easy to say that you have a place-holder for your soul-mate, but is it true? We all make mistakes on the path towards our soul-mate. We think we found something, but then it turns out not to be the right one.

But what if we’re just not paying close enough attention? What if you are looking for love, as the song goes, in all the wrong places? Or if you have found it, are you taking it for granted? Are you looking one way while they are looking another?

There are many ways to determine whether you have found the ‘right one’ but all of them are intensely personal, so I can give little advice on that issue. But I do believe it is important to seek that person if you can, and try to win their heart.

Where can I apply this in my life?
If you are presently in a relationship, I would ask you why are you looking in a different direction? How can you be sure you haven’t found your other half, but are too busy finding flaws to see the bigger picture? Is there any chance that the relationship can be salvaged?

I would caution against using this as an excuse to bail out of an existing relationship. There are any number of reasons a relationship might be going through some stress. I would give some consideration to what you might be doing to sour the relationship first, before giving up on it.

Consider what has changed. What did you do in the past that you no longer do? I doubt you need to spend any time to catalog all the things that have changed in the other person, so focus on yourself. When you’re done with that, consider what could be done to put it back together.

Now I would like to consider the question regarding the accuracy of the quote in the first place. It implies that there is one and only one match on all of the planet for you. If that were the case, either someone is making sure your other half is living near enough to you for you to find, or there are millions of statistical anomalies out there, having found their one-in-seven-billion match.

Yes, there is a great deal of joy in being the perfect match out of everyone on the planet. But how true is it really? Odds are it’s not, but there really isn’t any way to know for sure. I’m not trying to get you to settle for Mr. Right Here, rather than Mr. Right, but I do want you to consider how perfect a match you’re looking to find.

That is because I doubt you will find a person (or they find you, for that matter) who matches perfectly. There will be things you two have to talk about, some adjustments to be made by both parties. If you don’t keep working with each-other, each of you will drift your own separate ways.

If you continue to communicate and continue to work together, there is no end to the problems you can surmount. However, if you start to work against each-other, there is no end to the problems you will face. And down that path lies ruin, so let’s try not to go there, right?

From my experience, open and trusted communication is an absolute must in a relationship. I try to never say “oh, nothing” when asked what’s bothering me. I try to be kind and gentle, but I know that holding it inside myself will not get the issue resolved, and will only cause resentment to fester, making it even harder to forgive them when the time comes.

So is there one and only one person out there for you? I think the jury is still out on that. However, I believe that happiness can be found, and a pair of people can shape each-other into one complete being. And that, to me, is the true heart of this quote.

From: Twitter, ‏@AncientWisdoms
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aristotle143026.html
Photo by Chris Penny