(excerpt of letter written 2 Sept. edited for content)

 

Hey, you remember last night when we were speaking about “the familiar ache”? I’ve been thinking about what you said and what I said (for what it was worth) and listening to music (which often will conjure up the Ache as well as any sunset or silent forest) and it occurred to me that it what I was feeling was a sense of loss. But not a loss of something I had or ever possessed. A loss of a part of me, a weight on the center of my being, painful to the point of being a physical ache. Some times so strong I have trouble drawing breath. And yet, beautiful beyond words (which is exactly why I am trying to write now…hope springs eternal, and all that…)

 

perhaps this Ache (sorry, I see it in that way in my mind and so it appears on the page that way)Â…perhaps this Ache is part of what makes us human. When God made Adam, He saw that it was not good for the man to be alone. Mayhap, our first father shared this Ache, this longing for some the inexpressible (if it were possible for someone who sees God to desire something else). Perchance this is why God made EveÂ… it may be that this Ache is our desire to be united with someone is a way that is no longer possible because of the Fall. But because of our human nature, we still share itÂ….

 Why do we keep trying to explain what this is? What is it in us that seeks to know what we are feeling and why? Why canÂ’t it be enough to know that it is a beautiful and oh-so-very human yearningÂ…