LESSONS OF THE HEART
"Everyone of us is created with the hunger for the Other. This ineluctable loneliness is the core of being human. That desire that is central to my being and living, and that no other human can satisfy, is not in vain, does not come from nowhere. It is created in us by the one who has to love, who is love, whose whole being is that mysterious Other that we meet in answer to that universal longing. This is a very, very important truth.The amazing thing is how little it operates in the awareness of most of us. All of us have this loneliness. For some it is never made conscious. They experience it as a kind of restlessness, a discontent with life, a haunting sense of "Is this all there is?" For others there is awareness of the loneliness, but it is focused on the search for the other, for the perfect match, for the woman of my dreams, or the man for me... It is a special thing when we find a special someone. This is a wonderful thing when it happens, if it happens. But it does not take away, after a while, the loneliness... We cannot complete each other. If we understand that, we are really freed to love while acknowledging the larger longing... "In me the galaxies hunger for God."
From: Patricia H. Livingston, Lessons of the Heart: Celebrating the Rhythms of Life. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1992, 112-13. Abridged.
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