The Beautiful Sadness of Longing

Something within the human heart wants to be with the Beloved

Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

There is a beautiful kind of sadness –
one most people think they shouldn’t feel,
that needs to be celebrated,
or if not celebrated then at least welcomed
like the evening’s last beggar at your door.

This sadness is divine,
the experience of what most people consider to be an absence,
but in reality is the presence of the divine longing for the Beloved.

It would be easy to conclude that this feeling is a disconnection from joy,
an unfortunate amnesia
that would make an easy target for well-meaning givers of advice
to quote from their favorite scripture,
but I am not talking about this garden variety of sadness.

I am talking about another kind —
a holy melancholy that sculpts, deepens, and refines from within.

Like the dusk that follows day, it is not devoid of light —
only another shade of light.
Yes, it is darker, but so what?
Isn’t it the darkness that allows the stars to shine?