(Spoiler Alert!) All is not what it seems—even in the movies. Life, as in dreams (more on that later), is symbolic in nature. What we experience in relationships, life events and self-exploration is essentially symbolic. What I mean is, the person you are having a relationship with is there to give you something, teach you something, allow you the opportunity to learn something important at the soul level. Even bad relationships are there for our learning, at the soul level. In LA LA LAND, the two principal characters fall in love and then their respective careers pull them apart. Was that a plot twist to make the movie more interesting, wrestle from your being a tear? I would argue no, it was there to remind us that sometimes, yes sometimes relationships are only meant to last a short time, because, once the gift is given, once the loving is offered or the smack on the face rendered, that’s all that was needed and so, it ends. Ridiculous, you say? Think back on relationships you’ve had that were of short duration. What did you get out of them? What did you learn? The characters in the movie were never going to stay together as portrayed in the last sequences of the movie and live happily ever after. No, they weren’t because on a soul basis, they were very different soul evolvements and each had his and her path to follow. One, to stand up to daunting challenges and declare himself a valued soul. The other, to be admired, deeply and globally admired. One is looking inward, the other, outward.

I once had such a relationship. It lasted essentially three months. It was intense, the most loving relationship I’ve ever had in my life. The night I boarded the plane to work internationally, an opportunity that was very compelling to me, the relationship was ending, the energy running out of it. Communicating with each other was nearly impossible in those days before the Internet—on purpose. We weren’t supposed to carry forward this newfound love. He was bound for medical school in another city, I was bound for Micronesia to find an ounce of belief in myself. How could we have been pulled apart in a more direct way? I got to feel loved and he got to be a doctor. People are props in our individual helter-skelter plays here on earth. The script is intended to give us what we need, even if just a one act play.

I, like others in the movie theater, shed tears at the end of that movie because we wanted it all to work out, for the two of them to forsake their intended preoccupations, their husbands and wives or lovers and live and love together, once again. Oh, the longing I had for that! Then I saw it was my own story that I had longing for. Don’t we always want that great love affair to go on? I only recently gave up longing for the one I’d missed. I always thought I’d screwed it up by leaving and not moving in with him, in a different city, living his life, his career instead of mine. It was shown to me recently that it was not to be, couldn’t be, for what I experienced after that love affair gave me more than I could ever have received moving to that city—LA. I found my soul in San Francisco.

Annette Goggio, MPH, EEMCP, holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in the health sciences and is the author of Healing: A Conversation. Her practice in energy medicine is based on the teaching of Dixie Yeterian, renowned clairvoyant and healer, and Donna Eden of Eden Energy Medicine. To learn more, please visit www.healingaconversationbook.com and www.aquantummoment.com.