'Cause we'll hold each other soon

"If there's no one beside you,
when your soul embarks,
then I'll follow you into the dark."

I Will Follow You Into the Dark (cover) ~ Amanda Palmer

I am not quite sure what my beliefs are in regards to souls, and where we end up after this life. I have moments where I think I believe in some things, and inklings on my feelings about other things, but in the end I tend to believe in the possibility of many things. Perhaps I just agree that I'll be surprised when the time comes, and I look forward to finding out.

As for souls, I do not know how to define them, or what I even consider a person's soul to be. We toss the term around so much in this life. Soul mates, soul searching, things that move our soul, break our soul, touch our soul; but do we actually know how to describe what our soul is?

Is it the unique parts of ourselves, our psyches and consciousness? Is it the tastes we have, and the things make us love some things, and some people, and not others? Is it that part of us that cannot leave us, no matter how destroyed our bodies may become, unless we truly die? Is it something that transcends this life? Is it what comes out in our art, our words, our creations, and when we give love to someone else?

I would like to picture our souls as the parts of us that do not have to do anything except just be. The child in us that still plays on the swings and the roundabout and the slide at the playground. The artist in us that paints, draws, writes, sings, creates even if they have a full-time job and children at home. The lover in us that spends hours in bed, taking their time with every inch of each other's skin, not rushing, and not wanting the moment to end. And, the friend in us that holds themselves out there when no one else will, or can, to entwine their hand in another's, even when the other doesn't know how to ask for the hand.

I think that is what I like to see souls have.

And maybe, just maybe, the dark - the ever after - the what comes after this life - is just a meeting up of all the souls who will now spend eternity playing, creating, loving, and holding hands.