Longings: we all have them. Some of us are acutely aware of them, feel them intensely. Some of us repress them as inconvenient or painful. Some spend a lifetime chasing them down. Some substitute lesser things to fill the ache. Some struggle to tell the difference between legitimate longings and counterfeit longings. Some use them as an indicator that they’re alive.
I am a pretty simple person. I don’t need much in the way of “stuff.” A representative list of my yearnings might include:
- a backpacking get-away to a remote canyon
- a glass of good wine with a far-away friend
- a night of meteor-watching
- being held tenderly by a loving man
- visiting Prague or New Zealand
But those aren’t my REAL longings. Those are what I might seek, in an attempt to fill the deeper elemental desires.
I look at patterns and passions to uncover foundational longings — the unique set that rocks my personal world, different from those of my sister or my best friend. As I sit with my hopes and dreams, here’s what I’m discovering: I’m on a search for beauty, for connection, for fascination.
Ranger Kathryn's Arches 
The older I become, the more acutely I realize the unexpectedly disappointing rewards of achieving someone else’s goals for me – or of a ‘trivial’ pursuit that appeared glitzy and attractive but was really quite empty once in hand.
In the end, it is those completely personal, bottom-line almost sub-conscious goals that really matter – and those rewards are unmistakeable.
Quest on! The search is half the fun! ;-?
Comment by Leroque — December 22, 2011 @ 12:58 pm |