6/27/2025
Merriam-Webster defines it as a strong desire especially for something unattainable. Longing. To long for something then is to feel a strong desire of craving especially for something not likely to be attained.
Longing for something unattainable seems like a waste of time at best. Like me longing to be 6’3″. Or 25. I don’t, by the way… But what are examples of good longing? Let’s try some out…
Longing for the end of people struggling under the weight of poverty
Longing for Christmas Eve quiet
Longing for an upcoming vacation
Longing for everlasting peace
Longing for the day when everything on my to do list is done. Or the day when the kids take on responsibility. Or anxiety is forever banished.
I long for the day when I feel like I know what I’m doing.
Does it makes sense to long for these things? I think it can, if the longing isn’t over done. As long as the longing doesn’t weigh more than the moving toward what we long for.
There seems like longing and regret are linked. It’s easy to long for days gone by. Like when my kids were little. I wonder why that is? Of course, hind sight is more clear. We can see our mistakes. I don’t long for the opportunity to work more then. I long to watch my kids light up when they learned something new. Before they learned to curb their unbridled enthusiasm. And I expect that in twenty years, when I’ve just turned seventy, I will long for today.
That’s why it seems so important to stay focused always on what’s most important and ignore the noise that is always around us. If we aren’t careful, we will spend our best days on the wrong things.
That’s tragic.
I needed this post to remind me of that. And more importantly, to remind me that it doesn’t have to be that way. We can make decisions that we will be happy with down the road.
And that is encouraging.