When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person or persons who can take our loneliness away. Our lonely hearts cry out, 'Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me.' But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness away cannot give us what we ask for. Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness, no mature human relationship can develop. Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and to trust that this space allows us to dance together. Henri J.m. Nouwen
Some Similar Quotes
  1. I’ve been fighting to be who I am all my life. What’s the point of being who I am, if I can’t have the person who was worth all the fighting for? - Stephanie Lennox

  2. I know you're tired but come, this is the way. - Jalaluddin Rumi

  3. That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful. - Jalaluddin Rumi

  4. Down on the lake rosy reflections of celestial vapor appeared, and I said, "God, I love you" and looked to the sky and really meant it. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care of us all, one way or the other." To... - Jack Kerouac

  5. Frustration and Love can’t exist in the same place at the same time, so get real and start doing what you would rather be doing in life. Love your life. All of it. Even the heavy shit that happened to you when you were 8.... - Jason Mraz

More Quotes By Henri J.m. Nouwen
  1. Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.

  2. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

  3. The more you are motivated by Love, The more Fearless & Free your action will be.

  4. We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.

  5. There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.' No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.

Related Topics