It all begins with an idea.When two soulmates walk into a building from opposite ends, they can’t help but find each other. Not ten years, not ten thousand miles can keep them apart. Especially not if, the first time they met, their lessons together weren’t complete.

One February 2nd — Groundhog Day — I woke to a text on my work phone. I wonder if you remember my birthday is in March. I fumbled for my glasses, my pulse quickening. The area code was his. Could it really be him — my “one who got away” and the man I had wished for a decade would find me again?

I’m swishing warm salt water through my teeth as I type. My gums ache, and my jaw feels like it has been clenching a pen.

It started almost two years ago with a strange habit called tongue thrusting. I thought it was stress. The tip of my tongue searched for textures in the back of my teeth the way my fingers once worked prayer beads when I needed comfort without words. It was unconscious—and weird.

Unsurprisingly, when I looked into the metaphysical cause, it pointed to unspoken words, silences piling up where sentences should be. By then, my whole jaw had joined the silent Quaker’s Meeting.