In the Heart, the Ache of Longing

The human heart is never still. There is a divine restlessness in each of us which creates a continual state of longing. You are never quite at one with yourself, and the self is never fixed. There are always new thoughts and experiences emerging in your life; some moments delight and surprise you, others bring you onto shaky ground. On the outside, your body looks the same. Your behaviour, work, home, and circle of friends remain consistent and predictable. Yet behind this outer façade, another life is going on in you. The mind and heart are wanderers who are always tempted by new horizons. Your life belongs in a visible, outer consistency; your inner life is nomadic. Hegel says, “just this unrest that is the Self.” Your longing frequently takes you on inner voyages that no one would ever guess. Longing is the deepest and most ancient voice in the human soul. It is the secret source of all presence, and the driving force of all creativity and imagination: longing keeps the door open and calls towards us the gifts and blessings which our lives dream.

Longing belongs to the word family associated with the word “long”; it suggests either a spatial measurement or a temporal duration. The crucial point here is that longing is a quality of desire which distance or duration evokes. In other words, your longing reaches out into the distance to unite you with whatever or whomsoever your heart desires. Longing awakens when there is a feeling that someone or something is away from you. It is interesting that the word “desire” comes from the Latin “desiderare,” which originally meant “to cease to see.” This suggested a sense of absence and the desire to seek and find the absent one. Another possible root of “desire” is “de-sidus,” “away from a star.” When you are in a state of desire, you are away from your star. Your heart yearns for the light and luminosity that are now absent. While we are in the world, a large area of the heart is always in exile. This is why we are suffused with longing. Deep down, we desire to come back into the intimate unity of belonging.