Heroes Not Zombies

In the A to Z of Becoming, Y stands for “yearn”.

I’m not sure this is a verb we use a lot, but it has such a deep, heart felt quality.

Thomas Moore, who wrote “The Care of the Soul”, and “The Care of the Soul in Medicine”, captures what the word “soul” means to us by reminding us how we use the word. We talk of “soul mates”, “soul food”, “soul music”. It’s a deep, embodied concept. I think this is where we yearn from. To yearn is to become aware of what our soul hungers for.

Yearning involves longing. It’s more than desire, more than getting in touch with a goal, it’s a deep, heart-felt connection which fills us with its presence. Such a particular kind of presence…….the kind of presence which contains an absence. There’s something missing, and in yearning there is often an element of sadness, maybe even of melancholy. We’ve lost touch with the value of a feeling like this, I think. The thing is, we might yearn for something we no longer have, for the presence of someone who is no longer with us. But we can also yearn with an eye to the future, and it’s this yearning in particular which I think is of value for us.

If we stop to think about what we actually yearn for in the future, then we are likely to become aware of what matters most to us. We are likely to be able to clarify just what is that bliss which Joseph Campbell said we should follow?

I don’t think yearning is about joy. I don’t think it is about hope. And it’s about more than wishes, but its a way of revealing what is really important to us, what lies deep within our souls. To yearn is feel a sap rising…..

To yearn is to feel something deep unfolding….

What do yearn for?