Yearning
“Blessed
be the longing that brings you here,
and
quickens your soul with wonder.
May you
have the courage to listen to the voice of desire,
that
disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you
have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease,
to
discover the new direction you longing wants you to take...
May you
come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
May you
know the urgency with which God yearns for you.”
John
O'Donohue (“For Longing,” To Bless the Space Between Us)
Oh, my goodness. What a
wise man John O'Donohue was. Wonder what would happen if this
blessing came to pass, and we gave up doing only what's safe, and
began doing what we most desire. Wouldn't that upset the apple cart?
If all of a sudden, we stopped following our cultural leaders like a
flock of sheep, and instead, began listening to the voice of our own
truth. How would our world be different?
Yearning makes us
“itchy.” We want something that's just out of reach. Sometimes
that is relational, and sometimes it's so deeply internal we can't
even identify it ourselves. What if, instead of trying to push away
the discomfort yearning causes, we were to redefine it as “divine
urgency.” As something God, or our own soul, wants us to do.
Something Spirit is calling us to. How would we get there? If you're
anything like me, you begin right away to plan the route. Make a
list, take steps, check off each item. That works for some people,
but there are other, better ways. Instead of jumping into the breech, we can
let go. We can hold the yearning within, be with it, nurture it like
a baby-child, and wait with expectation. In my experience,
heavy-handedness is not the way to go when it comes to yearnings of
the heart. That which we long for is like a timid muse, like
inspiration—it has to come to you.
Wait. Pray. Hold the
image clearly in your heart and mind. Whatever your soul is longing
for will come to you when the time is right. Your job is to leave the
light on.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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