Anam Cara

Each Person Incarnates Longing

Our quest for meaning, though often unacknowledged, is what secretly sustains our passion and guides our instinct and action. Our need to find meaning is urged upon us by our sense of life. Normally, when we look at people, whether at work, on the street, or in our homes, we inevitably think of them in practical terms. We experience other people very concretely. We notice the way they look, the role they play, the clothes they wear, the habits they have, and especially the styles of their personalities.

Yet when you distance yourself from the particularities of individual lives, you begin to realize that no human person is here on earth accidentally or neutrally. Each person is a living world of longing. You are here not simply because you were sent here. You are here because you long to be here. A person is an incarnation of longing. Behind your image, role, personality, and deeper than your thoughts, there is a pulse of desire that sustains you in the world. All your thoughts, feelings, and actions arise from a secret source within you which desires life. This is where your sense of life is rooted. Your sense of life expresses itself in your convictions, intentions, and passions; it precedes them. Your sense of life is pre-reflective, yet passionate and powerful. This secret presence of longing helps you endure the routine of the daily round; it emerges strongly when difficulty entangles you, or when suffering strips away your networks of connection with the world. Your sense of life is not something you can invent or force with your mind. It is the wisdom of your clay and is eternally acquainted with awakening. As you discover the faithfulness of life within you, your sense of life transfigures your fear and assures you that you are more deeply rooted than you realize. It frees you for the adventure of solitude.