Absolutely, GringoLOCO, there is a special partner for each of us, I totally believe that. It will be the most powerful thing that happens to you in your lifetime, and will affect every part of your life.
When I hear someone like you speak about your longing for your soulmate I really feel for you. My best friend is looking for her mate. She won't even spend five minutes on someone who isn't THE ONE for her, after a number of failed relationships and 7 years of loneliness. My current partner was alone (for the most part) for 10 YEARS before I showed up again into his life. I was with a wonderful husband who was NOT my soulmate for 15 years.
So, face it, anything can happen.
Pick up that phone! My current partner can converse eloquently for hours at a time. I have to hang up. But I love it. Every woman loves to be the center of attention....she will fall in love with your voice if you can get her on the phone long enough.
The other thing is, just go with the flow. I know it's excruciating. But I think now on all the time I was sighing over my own loneliness and wish that I had picked up more stirring and intellectual books, picked up more instruments and learned them. Etc. Etc.
Lose yourself in what you love....whether it be art, books, music, bodybuilding, hunting, movies, service, pets, children, ...whatever, it doesn't matter. A woman is stirred to love by a man who shows how powerfully he can love.
So, it's not over yet, I assure you.
Here is an Irish folk song for you. I don't know who wrote these lyrics but it is a very pretty song:
The water is wide, I cannot get oer
Neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, my love and I
A ship there is and she sails the sea
She's loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim
I leaned my back against an oak
Thinking it was a trusty tree
But first it bent and then it broke
So did my love prove false to me
I reached my finger into some soft bush
Thinking the fairest flower to find
I pricked my finger to the bone
And left the fairest flower behind
Oh love be handsome and love be kind
Gay as a jewel when first it is new
But love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away like the morning dew
Must I go bound while you go free
Must I love a man who doesn't love me
Must I be born with so little art
As to love a man who'll break my heart
When cockle shells turn silver bells
Then will my love come back to me
When roses bloom in winter's gloom
Then will my love return to me
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love, blink