longing – Mindfully Musing

Adventure

The Heart of Hiraeth.

August 18, 2016August 19, 2016

I happened upon a most beautiful word the other day. As a writer, you can imagine my excitement upon this magnificent discovery.

The word is “hiraeth” – a Welsh word, whose meaning is elusive in many different languages. Though, for many of us here – we instinctively know.

Often translated as an intense longing, though, in reality – its meaning is far more complex. As, it incorporates a much deeper spiritual aspect.

To feel hiraeth is to experience a sense of incompleteness…a profound yearning born from the very recesses of our soul.

Something, we’ve all experienced – I know.

Close your eyes and feel it with me – think of those far off places that have yet to be explored. The dreamer in you is calling – at first a whisper, a gentle urge…until that ‘call’ is all that can be heard.

My darlings, we are all born with this yearning within – driving us forward, and into those places we most fear.

It wakes us from our darkest sleep, pulls back those sheers and lets our heart awaken.

It’s hiraeth which beckons our soul to come ‘home’ ~ and, today my darlings, hiraeth is the word I love most of all ~

“Hiraeth beckons with wordless call,
Hear, my soul, with heart enthrall’d.
Hiraeth whispers while earth I roam;
Here I wait the call “come home.”

Like seagull cry, like sea borne wind,
That speak with words beyond my ken,
A longing deep with words unsaid,
Calls a wanderer home instead.

I heed your call, Hiraeth, I come
On westward path to hearth and home.
My path leads on to western shore,
My heart tells me there is yet more.

Within my ears the sea air sighs;
The sunset glow, it fills my eyes.
I stand at edge of sea and earth,
My bare feet washed in gentle surf.

Hiraeth’s longing to call me on,
Here, on shore, in setting sun.
Hiraeth calls past sunset fire,
“Look beyond, come far higher!” –author, Tim Davis (c) 2007, used by permission

Awareness

Can You See the Moon?

June 7, 2015

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory. And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I remember the year was 1989.

It was the first time I had ever been so far from home, traveling to a remote village nearly half a world away.

And though I was surrounded by such a breathtaking beauty – of wild orchids clinging to rocky shelves, and ‘hidden’ waterfalls destined to serve the forest graces – I couldn’t see past my own sense of longing. I was missing that which I’d felt had left me.

I couldn’t stand to be ‘this far’ away from home – 4, 852 miles to be exact. And, I felt every single last one of them, too. At night, I’d stare into the darkness – thinking of all those memories being created without me there.

Everything seemed so far away. I felt so lost, so alone, and so terribly afraid.

After all, my family was ‘there’, and I was ‘here.’

I must have cried nearly every evening. And then one night, I had a call from home.

“Why are you so sad,” my father asked.

And, in one long, drawn tearful breath, I began to tell him everything I missed – the creek, the trees, the family meals; the Sunday drives, the evening treats. The way the towels smelled ‘straight from the dryer’ – soft and sweet, like Dogwood flowers. And, did you know there were no winters here?

My list was endless, it seemed.

But then my father, always knowing just the right thing to say asked, “Can you see the moon? Because, I can see it, too.”

And, just like that – those miles collapsed. As, those that we love are with us, always.

They’re in the soft glow of the moon’s gentle reach; and the swirling patterns of waves breaking to beach—they are tucked away in all those spaces that bring our hearts peace.

“It is like a lighted torch,” the Buddha once said. “whose flame can be distributed to ever so many other torches.”

And, don’t you know – their light can never be extinguished?

In that respect—how can we ever miss that which is always there? These treasured keepsakes—never so far away.

“Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining”

Can you see the moon, my darlings?

Because, guess what? I can see it, too.

Buddhism

Offering Ourselves Unconditionally to this Present Moment.

November 19, 2014

“It is not until the door is jammed, that we begin to value the ‘room’ inside.”

I believe this was said by author, Chirag Tulsiani – a reference to the longing that fills Absence’s place.

In our loss, we gain an often painful perspective; that we might learn to cherish, that which sits – right here, right now – in our own two hands.

Indeed, to understand the value of this gift, before the treasure is lost. That’s the trick now – isn’t it? To find balance between the distractions of day and the that continuously awaits us.

“To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it?”― Marilynne Robinson

Longing is perhaps our most difficult emotion – formed in those few short moments when we feel we’ve lost something we never really had.

Giving rise to grief…to disappointment…to uncertainty…to fear…

It is only when we’ve finally let go, that our hearts may be truly liberated.

My darlings, never wait for the longing to show you what you already had – though, sadly missed.

To offer ourselves unconditionally to this present moment – without prejudice, without judgement, without the burden of our past pains – my darlings, this is to have truly lived.

Gratitude