Is There Something We Long For To Make Our Lives Whole?

Beyond Achievement, Beyond Belief, the Quiet Pull Toward Meaning and Presence

What lies on the other side of a career, family obligations, fitness routines, shiny cars, big houses, and endless cycles of vacations and financial worries—if anything?

Is it true that American culture produces too many people who live with chronic discontent and quiet, existential anxiety?

Ask a devout practicing Christian, Muslim, or Jew, and they will likely agree and claim it’s because we sin and have strayed from God and His commandments.

A seasoned meditator or Zen practitioner might say we’ve been distracted and cut off from the “stillness” inside that allows us to see the illusions built around who and what we think we are.

Self-proclaimed atheists might point to American consumer culture, hyper-individualism, and technological overstimulation, all part of a system never meant to make us whole in the first place.

This essay doesn’t pretend to supply a definitive answer. But it does offer something to reflect on.

What we might be longing for, beyond the noise of our hypercompetitive, consumer-driven, and overly stressful lives, is a return to something always with us from the beginning, beyond words and beyond description.

You don’t have to give it a name.

You don’t have to believe in it.

You don’t have to be for or against it.

Try this the next time you interact with someone: While they are speaking, quietly ask yourself:

What is it that has been alive in this person since the beginning, before they were self-aware, and before they could understand human language?

How about asking the same question of yourself?

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If something here stirs you, don’t keep it to yourself! Leave a comment or reach out to me at: everydayspiritualhealth.com