The Value of Longing

There were several moments in the recent past weeks when I found myself awaking to the possible value of longing.

I guess in the past I’ve viewed longing as a little self-centered or something that needed to be dealt with so it would go away. I’ve watched my Enneagram Type Four friends navigate through their attraction to what is missing and the internal longing that sets up. As a Six, living primarily from my head, I’ve spent years locating and befriending my heart, and it’s still certainly a work in progress. Maybe my past experience of longing was that it hurt emotionally. I now feel that in my quest to be with what is, to live from a place of acceptance, I’ve overlooked whatever richness longing has to offer.

For whatever reason, I never examined longing’s place in my life until a few weeks ago in a class on contemplative decision-making with Cynthia Bourgeault. In class, she spoke of longing in a way that made me want some of it in my life. On her website, the following question is posed: “Could it be that love, desire, and longing all have a critical role to play as the driveshaft of creativity?”

I’m beginning to see, to examine and explore, how longing can be motivating, how it can open my heart to find hidden desires. I hope I’ll find the hidden creativity she speaks of. I’m very much at the early stages of this exploration and curious what else I’ll find. I do know I want longing to have a voice at my decision-making table.

Do you find value in longing? We’d love to hear.

PS—check out the definition of “longing” from the Google Dictionary—it’s pretty cool.

LONGING
noun
a yearning desire.

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