Quotes About Longing

Uncomfortable with our sense-of-lack today, we look forward to that day in the future when we will feel truly alive; we use that hope to rationalize the way we have to live now, a sacrifice which then increases our demands of the future.

In the hero stories, the call to go on a journey takes the form of a loss, an error, a wound, an unexplainable longing, or a sense of a mission. When any of these happens to us, we are being summoned to make a transition. It will always mean leaving something behind,...The paradox here is that loss is a path to gain.

We were born with four words engraved on our bodies and in our hearts: Love me, hold me.

In the hero stories, the call to go on a journey takes the form of a loss, a depression, an error, a wound, an unexplainable longing, or a sense of a mission. When any of these happens to us, we are being summoned to make a transition.

It is a sign of health when we acknowledge the legitimacy of our longings.

The perfect partner is the mirage we see after crossing the desert of insufficient love.

She thought the world a charnel house…and couldn't get enough of it. She thought herself unhappy…and wanted to live, unhappy, for as long as she possibly could.

The very best of high school still can't compete with the glory of any ordinary summer.

And there's never gonna be enough money And there's never gonna be enough drugs And I'm never ever gonna get old There's never gonna be enough bullets There's never gonna be enough sex And I'm never ever gonna get old So I'm never ever gonna get high And I'm never ever gonna get low And I'm never ever gonna get old

Even the pleasant things in life are grasped after with an unwarranted desire which overestimates the pleasure they will give, and is accompanied by a constant fear of their loss.

Perhaps five thousand miles of desert and mountains and ocean separated him from his family. But sometimes their faces were so real he felt he could reach out and tousle their hair….

So, how agreeable, perhaps, to be a pastoralist. Just be that—have that longing right in front of you, continuously addressed. To be forever lost and found.

I would miss having Nic in my life. I would miss his funny phone messages and his humor, the stories, our talks, our walks, watching movies with him, dinners together, and the transcendent feeling between us that is love. I would miss all of it. I miss it now. And here it sinks in: I don't have it now. I have not had it whenever Nic has been on drugs. Nic is absent, only his shell remains. I have been afraid - terrified - to lose Nic, but I have lost him.

Nonetheless: if only and if only and if only.

Why do I want to meet him? No matter how unrealistic, I retain a sliver of hope that I can get through to him. That's not quite accurate. I know I can't, but at least I can put my fingertips on his cheek.

Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; Then have I reason to be fond of grief.

Siente una especie de dolor en el pecho, intenso pero placentero. Es como si hubiera una herida, pero una herida leve, una marca en la piel que quieres acariciar, reconocer, disfrutarla por todo lo que significa para ti. Ahora que aún está, porque es posible que, pronto, desaparezca.

Creí enamorarme un par de veces, pero en realidad seguía enamorado de alguien que ya no estaba conmigo.

But then we always knew heaven would be a desperate place. Everything you desired coming in one fearful moment to greet you.

There is a faith in loving fiercely the one who is rightfully yours, especially if you have waited years and especially if part of you never believed you could deserve this loved and beckoning hand held out to you this way. I am thinking of faith now and the testaments of loneliness and what we feel we are worthy of in this world. — David Whyte, from "The Truelove," The Sea In You: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love (Many Rivers Press, 2016)

It's just a real gentle moment. I'm here by myself and I don't mind. I kind of wish it could just stay like this for maybe a few years, or I just never moved out of this spot. I could just watch the light stay like this. And maybe somebody coming along and just putting their arms around me for a few minutes.

You're the kind of man a man wants when a man wants a man.

For our kind, there's always the burning to be more. (...) that is why true human beings feel more pain. Because we are more, but it's never quite enough - never.

I need . . . I need your God. I have watched you and . . . and you have such joy. Such peace. Both you and Zoe. How I long for it. But, Julia, I cannot go to your meeting to find it. Your father would be very angry. He might disown both of us.