the_potency_of_longing tender_square “longing is different from craving; it’s the craving of the soul. you want to go home. in our culture it’s confused with depression. and it’s not. there’s a saying in sufism: ‘sufism was at first heartache. only later, it became something to write about.’ “like everything that is created, love has a dual nature, positive and negative, masculine and feminine. the masculine side of love is ‘i love you.’ love’s feminine quality is ‘i am waiting for you; i am longing for you.’ for the mystic, it is the feminine side of love, the longing, the cup waiting to be filled, that takes us back to god…because our culture has for so long rejected the feminine, we have lost touch with the potency of longing. many people feel this pain in their heart and do not know it’s value; they do not know that this is their innermost connection to love. “if you’re taken by longing, live it. you can’t go wrong. if you’re going to go to god, go with sweet sorrow in the soul.” —dr. llewellyn vaughan-lee, quoted in “bittersweet: how sorrow and longing make us whole” by susan cain (51¬–52) 220427 what's it to you? who go blather from