#Yearning

Turning Longing Into Present-Day Action

However, turning longing into action doesn’t mean obeying every craving. The “ache of not yet” can sharpen priorities, but it can also fixate us on an idealized outcome. Here the quote suggests a subtle discipline: treat desire as a compass pointing to meaning, while refusing to let it become a cage that locks you into fantasies. In practical terms, this might look like asking, “What value is this ache signaling?”—belonging, mastery, security, recognition—and then choosing a present-day step that serves that value. In this way, the future stops being a mirage and becomes a sequence of lived moments. [...]

Transforming Longing into the Work of Creation

To see this more concretely, Tagore’s life models the principle. In Gitanjali (1912), spiritual longing becomes song, where devotion is fashioned into crafted verse. His yearning for a humane, borderless learning community materialized as Santiniketan (1901) and later Visva-Bharati University (1921), a living workshop where arts and scholarship met under open skies. Even grief became generative: after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Tagore renounced his knighthood (1919), turning sorrow into moral action. He composed national anthems—Jana Gana Mana and Amar Shonar Bangla—translating collective desire for dignity into shared music. In each case, ache was not merely felt; it was made into something that could carry others. [...]

After Flight, Eyes Forever Turn Skyward

This oft-quoted line, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, captures a recognizable human pivot: once we experience a higher vantage—literal or metaphorical—our attention tilts toward it thereafter. The world on the ground remains, yet the sky becomes a compass of desire. Such longing is not mere nostalgia; it is the mind reorganizing its priorities around a heightened sense of possibility. From this starting point, the path leads naturally to Leonardo’s own attempts to make the sky thinkable as a human domain. [...]

When Light Invites, Desire Finds Its Feet

Finally, the proverb resonates in present-day decisions about spaces we share. Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) noted how light and lively sidewalks coax people outdoors, multiplying safety and connection—moonlight by other means. Streetlamps, benches, ramps, and night markets are small moons that entice motion, especially for those who might otherwise stay home. The lesson is not technological but humane: create conditions that welcome, and appetite for participation will follow. Thus Achebe’s image endures, reminding planners, hosts, and neighbors that opportunity often begins with illumination and that, under kindly light, desire remembers its feet. [...]

Poetry as an Exile’s Longing for Freedom

This sense of existing 'out of water' resonates with broader themes of alienation that often underpin artistic creation. Poets like Emily Dickinson, who famously led a reclusive life, turned their feelings of isolation into works of profound imagination—seeking, much like Sandburg’s sea animal, to leap beyond constraining circumstances. Thus, poetry becomes the language of those who feel out-of-place, yet are compelled to express their wonder and perplexity. [...]

To Desire Is to Yearn for the Absent – Kahlil Gibran

Desire is described as a longing or craving for something that is not present or currently unattainable. [...]

Breathing Dreams Like Air - F. Scott Fitzgerald

This metaphor highlights the human need for a sense of purpose and direction. Just as air is vital for physical survival, dreams are crucial for our psychological and emotional well-being. [...]