What would you have me know about longing?
Elizabeth Gilbert asked this question on her Substack
As the ending of 2025, and the ending of a 9 year cycle was drawing to a close, this question struck me.
What would you have me know about longing?
It is the question Elizabeth Gilbert asked her readers on her own Substack. The idea is to ask yourself, your soul self, your true self for the answer. Here’s what came to me.
Oh dear sweet lovely girl, you have sacrificed so much for longing. You’ve spent so much energy, so much time, so much money, running from me, in the pursuit of more.
You thought you had to be someone else, from the time you were a small child.
I know why. I’ve been with you all along. When you’d sing and play and laugh with your friends, when you felt free and unencumbered, I was there beside you.
But I was also there when you felt silenced, confused and afraid.
Longing kept you searching. But longing also told you not to give up. When you could have turned your back on love, you defied the allure of a life of bitterness.
Longing held you together. Longing kept your hope alive.
Longing kept you fearful. Longing paralyzed you. Longing convinced you there was more, even though you already had all you needed.
Longing locked you into scarcity, a wound you inherited long ago and through many lifetimes.
What do you long for now, my love? What is it you think you need?
Peace. A self love that remains steady through the storms. An unwavering authenticity, a public bleeding when things are so low, and so very hard to understand.
An uncovering. An emergence. A doing, rather than witnessing.
Pouring my heart into words so that others, like me, don’t feel so alone.
I long for connection. True connection. Real, no holds barred friendship. Truth. Knowing. Love.
I long to know my soul. I long to write from her essence. I long to work together with her, with them.
I long to better understand that my suffering is the suffering of all. And that another’s suffering is also my own, no matter where we come from, what we believe or how we show up. Our suffering is collective. I long to understand this much better and write about it.
Longing keeps me curious. Longing keeps me asking the hard questions, the human questions, the questions that will merge my humanness with my soul.
What would I do if I longed for nothing? If I didn’t have any questions?
Longing is proof I’m alive. I can be content and still long for understanding, can’t I?
When will I know, when I’ve longed long enough?
Who will I be?
Will I be free?