"How I Met Your Mother" Ending

For those who didn't see the Finale to the show "How I Met Your Mother" I'll sum it up.

1. Ted and Robin get back together after the mother, Tracy (the mother) dies of an illness 6 years before Ted tells his kids this story. This explains why she didn't rush in to rescue the kids earlier in the story.

2. Barney and Robin divorce after 3 years and he goes back to womanizing until he achieves a "perfect month" similar to his "perfect week". He gets "#31" pregnant and she has a daughter, Elle. This finally gets him to respect women and Elle is the light of his light

3. Marshal and Lily have a third kid. After Italy Marshal works in Corporate Law again for a while until a judge in queens retires. That's when he becomes a Judge.

But there are a lot of fans angry about the writers "killing the mother off" after 9 years. To me this made sense. Throughout the series fans have talked about hoping "Robin is the mother" even after they refer to her as "Aunt Robin" in the first episode of the series. This is the only way to give the fans what they want.

I liked the ending. Part of that is because I believe it's possible to have two soul mates. Ted and Tracy were together for many years and he didn't date after she died. This story takes place six years after her death and he only asks Robin out because his kids encourage it. Robin never wanted a family. She always wanted a successful career. She would never be the right person for Ted until she has had career success for a long period of time and was ready for a family.

Ted really wanted a family. He would never have been happy without kids. It took 8 years for him to become the person he needed to be when he met Tracy. Tracy needed to have her own experiences before being ready to be the right person for Ted. They were soul mates.

When Ted and Robin finally got together she had that career and was ready for the family. He had the family and was ready for Robin. They were soul mates too. There are many people who were married to their soul mate who died then later meet a second soul mate. Having two soul mates is a real possibility for some people. It boils down to where they are in their lives. Only God knows how many soul mates we are meant to have and when we are supposed to meet them.

I believe Robin and Barney were soul mates too. When they announced the divorce they still called it a successful marriage. This isn't true with all divorces but I honestly think this was true for them. Marrying Barney is when Robin realized that Ted is "the man I'm supposed to be with". They divorce because she travels a lot on business and they never got to see each other even when traveling together. Ted was really a back-up plan for her until her marriage to Barney ended.

During the series a lot of fans would say "I hope Barney gets a one-night-stand pregnant and it's a girl!" The only way for that to happen is for Barney and Robin to divorce. But during that marriage Barney learns about what real commitment is. By the time he actually did get a one-night-stand pregnant with a daughter, he was ready to be the father Elle needed. He would never be able to commit to a woman like that forever but he can for his daughter. It was the perfect ending for Barney.

There wasn't any surprises with Lily and Marshal. But it's nice to see his journey from Law School student to State Supreme Court Judge. Lily need the Italy experience but she LOVES being a Mom. This was the right ending for them. He supported her dream as she went to Italy and she supported his dream of becoming a Judge. She wasn't going to fully be ready to do that if she didn't reach her dream first. There would have been too many questions for her about "what if?"

The ending asks the viewers to believe in the journey to become who you need to be before meeting your soul mate and to rethink your ideas of soul mate. Most people think of soul mate as being "the one". I think there are some people without a soul mate, some with only one, and some with more then one. God has a plan for all of us. Life is a journey. We don't know his plan until it happens. But even the bad things that happen to us have a purpose. We can only work with what we're given and try to find a way to be positive.

So if there is a possibility to have more then one soul mate, how do you know you have met your soul mate for that point in your life? That's an impossible question to answer. The real answer is "you just know" but there are a lot of people who think they know and are wrong. Sometimes that might be the case of a multiple soul mate but I think in a lot of cases you just really WANT that person to be your soul mate so you convince yourself they are.

I always say "when I met Josh I had a feeling he would be someone important to me I just didn't know what yet". That thought was immediately followed by "I'm only a Sophomore in High School so 'future husband' is out". Periodically I remember this and laugh to myself. There is not a single doubt in my mind he is my soul mate.

It's almost 16 years together. When friends ask "how did you know?" It's easy and hard to answer. You honestly just know. It hits you; uncensored, out-of-the-blue, and sudden. If you are asking "how do you know?" they aren't your soul mate. If it's your soul mate, there are no questions.

Even if you are angry at the ending of "How I Met Your Mother" you can take with it the lesson that there is such a thing as multiple soul mates. God has a plan. Just know you are where you are supposed to be at that time. It makes you think of life's journey and how we change in time. Once the DVD is out we can see the entire series together. The entire story all at once. The ending will make more sense then. Maybe some people who hate the ending will accept it once they see the whole story unfold together.