When the soul cries, our personal tolerance has weathered another trial. I voice a deeper form of expression that is not just an ordinary form of bereavement, nor is it just another melancholy place or a despondent desolation that is common to many people dealing with a depressed state of mind; The cries of the soul are unique to each and every one of us because we all have different ways of dealing with this inner pain. The human condition gives us an infinite number of examples in which we bring ourselves down to a primal form of mortification. There are many reasons for the soul’s demarcation of this circumstance. Every single human being has experienced something that they can all share among the community because we are all part of a feeling, emoting, thinking, people. We are reactive beings.
When we do not receive the essential and fundamental communicative expressions of human needs from others, our inner selves want to burst out and scream to the world even if we close ourselves off and say or do nothing. If you look closely enough, “we cannot not communicate.” The first principle I learned in a speech communications class which profoundly changed my life was that we as humans are expressive and our inner selves will always show signs (even if it is the micro-expressions on our faces that many people do not notice). This first principle deliberated by Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communications theorist, and philosopher. A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy. Watzlawick believed that people create their own suffering in the very act of trying to fix their emotional problems. He was one of the most influential figures at the Mental Research Institute and lived and worked in Palo Alto, California.
One cannot not communicate: Every behavior is a form of communication. Because behavior does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behavior), it is impossible not to communicate. Even if communication is being avoided (such as the unconscious use of non-verbals or symptom strategy), that is a form of communication. “Symptom strategy” is ascribing our silence to something beyond our control and makes no communication impossible. Examples of symptom strategy are sleepiness, headaches, and drunkenness. Even facial expressions, digital communication, and being silent can be analyzed as communication by a receiver.
If we give credence to this principle, than I would like to direct the reader next to Abraham Maslow and his model of Human Hierarchy of Needs.
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
We are expressive creatures. We create artistic expression and have a complex language that allows us to communicate in intricate ways. Maslow contended that we cannot reach a higher level on the needs hierarchy if are lower needs are not being met. It is my belief that when we do not have enough support in some of our psychological struggles, we will stir until we express ourselves in some way; a signal to the world that we are in some vexing situation that will lead us to cry out and emote this hardship. Our cognitive skill in negotiating this dilemma is ours to take ownership of. Sometimes we just cannot think or feel our way out of it. The cognitive dissonance will drive us to emote a message.
We find many examples of expression through music and the arts. Just some of the many instances where we can voice an inner dimension that can touch people on deeper levels. We can see when the soul cries out in a blues song and when the soul sings rejoicing in a happy ephemeral moment! Both polar dimensions that can have powerful expressive abilities but by in large they originate from the inner sanctions of the soul.
I use the soul as defined including our emotive expressive abilities along with our rational thinking abilities. We cannot treat the human being on just the logical rationale because we are more than just rational beings. We are feeling and expressive beings that have multi-variables in determining our conditioning and outcomes of behavior.
Each of us has an expressive nature that is determined by our level of skill in communicating the outcome. It may seem that some of us are just quiet people who do not flex these expressive emotional and cognitive muscles which may seem true, but on deeper levels I theorize that we all have this expressive nature, and some are better at concealing it than others. If Paul Watzlawick’s principle is true, than only people close to the less expressive people may be able to find their subtler forms of expressive communications.
If we do things that are enjoyable, then we usually find our time spent delightful, hence our affability quotient is enhanced. Our happiness closely correlates in this relationship. On the other hand, when we find that we have little to look forward to, we then see a negative correlation, and our happiness quotient is greatly impeded. When we find that the things we like to do diminishes, we may have embitterment’s not fully reconciled.
When you have nothing to look forward to, you have very little to save you from pulling yourself up to see clearly. We become lost in the haze of a battle within. There are forces that keep us from doing things we enjoy, injuries that prevent us from enabling us to do a physical activity, perhaps our health is besieged by some ailment, or we surrender to some fear that prevents us from going forward with an activity? The misfortune of many circumstances that keep us from a treasured result can have tragic repercussions! A battle is being waged!
Think of World War I: you’re in the trenches with other diverging souls just trying to survive. I use the metaphor about being in the trenches because in a battlefield; scrambling around in routines that are essential only to your survival can be observed. (WWI trenches were dug and the soldiers would stay in them avoiding enemy fire, before the advance of enemy soldiers would make them move, or possibly the shells of artillery fired at them). The front is where many of these battles took place, with trenches dug to escape with life and limb. Avoiding the bullet onslaught or cannon fodder that would rip into flesh as bones shattered and tore through organs whilst the blood would spill. Sometimes we lead ourselves into a series of events that we must take an action, if we do not, we may instead mimic the leaves blowing in a random direction from the wind over the landscape.
The picture painted above is all too real for those that experienced WW I. Possibly one of your grandfathers, or great grandfathers served under such conditions. I paint this visceral picture in contrast with another reality; one that has direct implications to a mind under assault. The contrast to any action willed, the opposite of any action either becomes catatonic in its reaction or a paralysis of the will may come to be if intense loss is experienced. Take a moment and think on some activity that brings you great pleasure, something you have become good in doing, and has given you some esteem in the presence of your friends. Now consider you cannot again take part in this activity.
Extrapolate this experience to many other kinds of activities that you were once able to do, and it gave you a freedom, it gave you an immense enjoyment that is very hard to put into words. Think of all the people that suffer from not being able to act on their will, that they have an understanding that much of their activities must now be supervised, or that can no longer do what they once could do. A broken back, the loss of sight, a heart condition, or maybe simply just an age that cannot be ignored.
We all may have experienced something joyful, that we can no longer participate in on a similar level, or on some other related activity due to many impediments. The tragic consequences we may lead ourselves into after the recognition sets in and we realize that we can no longer do, act on, or take part in on some rudimentary level is heart breaking. This is the extreme example for a case to be made about apathy, and the psychological carnage it can lead us into. We have the ability to overcome, we have the ability to find other activities that can bring us joy and make some niche for ourselves once again during times of tribulation.
But knowing this possibility, many of us find little solace in other activities. Many of us become jaded and bitter, and do not see past the nose on our faces. Where would we be if we lose the ability to adapt, change and improvise? The power to heal our spirits and meet the world head on again comes from trials of failures that we learn as we continue our experimentation in finding hope.
For some people, they don’t try to embrace new experiences given their abilities and aimlessly wander. They often continue to lay in the trenches, not finding out that the war has ended, and they become ghosts of the past, clinging on to old notions of who they are, what they represent, or how they should fit in, (left country-less, pledging no allegiance to the victor of the outcome, and trapped into the past). Maybe they fixate on a time they identify with, so when things change, circumstances change, they become alienated and do not know how to move on from past perspectives?
The analogy can lead us to think on our own situations. How do we relate when we have lost our way when change takes its hold over our lives? When we cannot look forward to a once cherished pastime? When we have nothing to look forward to, when we trap ourselves in a pastime that we can no longer take part in, how do we react? It is very sad, but I think we find ourselves somewhat like the shell-shocked soldier who is petrified and does nothing to change their situation. They remain in the psychological trench they have dug out, and simply wait! They do not seek out new avenues, (or trenches for that matter), and remain in a perpetual disillusionment. Until they reach for help, they may just be psychological cannon fodder that takes up their time on an internal battlefield of the mind.
Have you experienced a loss in your life that has dramatically changed the way you can function? Are you handicapped, or can you relate to getting yourself stuck into a rut of denial that prevents you from moving on with your life? Are you in angst because you once could do something you love, and no longer have anything that gives you such joy, thus you are trapped remembering the past and your former enjoyments doing them?
If this is the case then can you empathize with a person who seems terminally locked into a psychological paralysis that will forever keep them into a state of catatonic ruin? We can heal, but effort on our part must be taken. We cannot survive by living in the past, we must reach for new challenges, despite the gloomy conditions we lock ourselves into. It is a very bleak world when we give up on having anything to look forward to. This means that no matter the time sequence; a day, a week, a month, or a year, we must all reach for something new to shed light on our captive spirits. The frustration and dire consequences may result in not being able to appreciate the diminutive pleasures in one’s life. If we do not awaken from our slumbers, than we may have some opportunity by watching our fellow captive soldiers in the trenches around us to spark or ignite new ways to try!
The legacy experienced for those who have suffered from abandonment issues can lead to tragic outcomes if gone untreated. The abdication of emotional bonds from those in your family are astoundingly painful and is often passed on to future generations. The Family Constellations concept for treating such problems comes to mind for dealing with painful events that can have an ancestral beginning. The dissonant cycles of abusive behaviors are dreadfully common in human genealogies which continue to pass along maladaptive behaviors to future generations.
When challenged with emotional deficiencies from the time you are a child, you become a member of the disenchanted, the forsaken ones that have more difficulty in the journey they travel as opposed to those whom do not suffer from such liabilities. I have spent a lifetime in consternation to uncover questions about the foundations I have inherited from the family I was born into. I have learned through my investigation just what may possibly be the single most identifying personal issue I have to work out; one that stems from feelings of abandonment as a child. John Lennon has spoken about his early formative years growing up with loss and abandonment issues during his lifetime. Many of his issues stem from his early years growing up. The complications in his life when viewed from knowing that he suffered from such a condition makes sense when looking back upon his life in hindsight. The song Mother from his first solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band in 1970. It is a self-evident affirmation of his misery.
It comes as no surprise that abandonment issues often stem from early childhood trauma and losses, according to Claudia Black, Ph.D. and author of the Psychology Today article, “Understanding the Pain of Abandonment.” Those losses may take the form of an absent, inadequate, or abusive parent. For example, a child who is routinely ignored by parents or who is physically or psychologically injured by them begins to believe that he is powerless and unworthy. These children may internalize a message that they cannot rely on others to be there to protect them.
Perspective
When you think of the words “abandon” and “abandonment” in a family context, what comes to mind? How would you define “abandonment” to an average 10-year-old? Have you ever felt abandoned? Have you abandoned someone? What would you say is the opposite of abandonment? Can you describe (a) why some people abandon others, and (b) how abandonment affects typical kids, adults, and families?
What is “Abandonment”?
For our purposes, abandonment is a relationship dynamic that occurs when an adult or child voluntarily…
denies or ignores key responsibilities (a role) that someone expects them to fulfill, like parental or marital obligations, and/or they…
choose to end an existing relationship with someone else despite their partner/s not wanting that. This is specially traumatic when the abandoned one depends on the other person for something important, like a child or disabled adult does.
Abandonment can be psychological (indifference, apathy, “coldness,” lack of intimacy); and/ or physical. Psychological divorce occurs when one or both cohabiting mates abandon the other and their marital vows, roles, responsibilities, and relationship primacy.
Discussion of abandonment usually focuses on an adult leaving or quitting. Family members can be equally affected if a child or grandchild “runs away from (abandons) home.”
Other types of abandonment occur when a person voluntarily gives up a dream, a cause, a belief, membership in a group, hope, the will to live, a lifestyle, and/or physical possessions. When circumstances force giving any of these up, that’s an involuntary loss, not an abandonment. Do you agree?
Some traumatic relationship and role “abandonment’s” are not intentional. They occur when the person is severely wounded and unable to form appropriate bonds and maintain relationships like parent-child, mate-mate, and friend-friend. A common sign of this is thinking or saying “You were never there for me.”
This distinction is important because of traditional moral and legal condemnation of parental or spousal abandonment. Wounded parents who abandon (aren’t “emotionally available” for) their kids psychologically can’t help it. They can control whether or nor to conceive or adopt a child or to vow commitment to a primary partner – if their true Self consistently guides their personality.
What Causes Abandonment?
Opinion – an adult or child abandoning a family is usually caused by effects from the inherited ancestral [wounds + unawareness] cycle. Quitting an assigned or chosen role (like parent, grandparent, husband, wife, partner, sibling, son, or daughter) and/or a relationship can occur because…
the role (responsibility) or relationship was unwanted, and/or was accepted without understanding what it required; or…
the person feels chronically overwhelmed by responsibilities and/or stress (discomforts) in a relationship, role, or group (like a home or family); and/or…
s/he feels incompetent, guilty, and ashamed of “failing” a dependent person and/or obligation; and s/he…
(a) doesn’t see how to correct these stressor’s, and loses hope of improvement; or (b) s/he doesn’t want to correct them.
Each of these reasons is promoted by the person being psychologically wounded and unaware + making unwise role and relationship choices + lacking knowledge and problem-solving (“coping”) skills. How does this compare with your belief about people who abandon their dependents, parents, and/or obligations?
one or both parents are harsh, unresponsive, and/or absent to a young child;
parents divorce, and the absent parent chooses little or no contact with their kids or ex,
a young child’s parent or caregiver dies or becomes mentally disabled,
young or overwhelmed parents give up a child for adoption,
biological parents turn over the care of their young child to an older sibling, relative, nanny, day-care adult, sitter, or au pair. And abandonment impacts occur when…
a young child is hospitalized for some time and deprived of regular contact with her/his mother or parents; and…
a parent chooses a job that requires her or him to be away from home for weeks or months at a time, like foreign military service.
Impacts on the Family System
To fully appreciate the causes and multi-level impacts of adult or child abandonment, view the affected multi-generational (“extended”) family as a dynamic system. Psychological or physical abandonment changes a family system’s roles, roles, rituals, and traditions, subsystems, and social interactions in complex ways.
These concurrent changes cause temporary or long-term anxieties until family members adapt to them and stabilize. They may lower the family’s nurturance level (“functionality”), and usually cause most or all well-bonded family members significant losses which need to be mourned over time.
Impacts on Children
The childhood and long-term effects of excessive parental absence can range from moderate to severe, depending on a child’s age, gender, their bond with the absent adult (weak > strong), and their extended family’s nurturance level (low > high). Common experience suggests that when young children are physically abandoned by a parent or caregiver – or if a primary caregiver is “emotionally unavailable” (can’t bond) – the kids are “badly hurt.” Their hurt is a mix of…
shock, if the abandonment was unexpected and/or explosive; and…
confusion – many mental questions and uncertainties about the abandonment and what it means; and…
shame (“low self-esteem”) – feeling unlovable and unworthy, even if other adults are genuinely nurturing and attentive; and perhaps their hurt includes…
guilt’s – feeling (irrationally) that they did something bad or wrong that caused the abandonment; and/or…
fears of (a) bonding with some or all adults / men / women; and that (b) their other caregivers may also abandon them, and they will die; and healthy kids feel …
grief over (a) involuntarily broken bonds, and later, (b) over lost hopes and fantasies of reunion. If a child is raised in an ”anti-grief” family, s/he can unconsciously carry unfinished mourning into adulthood as periodic or chronic “depression.”
Combined, these stressor’s can cause mixes of significant distrust, resentment, and anger that often carry into adulthood. When combined with significant caregiver abuse and/or neglect, these stressor’s may inhibit the child’s ability to bond (“Reactive Attachment Disorder,” or RAD).
Another impact that may not become clear until adulthood is the effect of parental absence on a young child’s sense of gender identity. Typical young girls need a father-figure’s affirmation and appreciation of their femininity. They also need consistent maternal modeling “how to be female” and delight in the daughter as a special, beloved girl. Boys need to see how a father (“a man”) behaves, and to learn how to manage and appreciate their masculinity – specially how to relate to women and other men.
If these hurts are intense enough, an abandoned child can develop emotional numbness and/or selective “amnesia” (repression) to protect themselves from recalling and re-experiencing their abandonment trauma and losses. One or more of their personality subselves may be living in the past, and still fear the searing pain of re-abandonment.
These effects are often magnified because parental and spousal abandonment usually signals (a) a low-nurturance (“dysfunctional”) home and childhood, and (b) significantly wounded and unaware caregivers and ancestors.
Minor kids can be also be stressed by other family members’ reactions to the abandonment. If some family members scorn and vilify the adult or child who left, biological kids are forced to choose between loyalty to their absent parent or sibling, and other relatives. Older, less-wounded kids may be able to detach and not align with either side without excessive guilt or anxiety.
Impact on Inner Kids
Parental abandonment pain can nourish the development of psychologically powerful inner children like these. Each upset Child evokes one or more devoted Guardian subselves which ceaselessly try to soothe and protect them in various situations. Collectively, these normal subselves can disable the resident true Self and detract from the development, self-confidence, and holistic health of the child.
Some previously abandoned teens can seek love, acceptance, and security through promiscuity or frantic trial primary relationships. Others can seek it through gang and/or athletic membership, drama, and/or fantasizing of reunions.
Choices like these can mute but not heal the root causes of original abandonment pain. Unless kids’ caregivers are…
aware of abandonment dynamics and impacts,
proactively reducing their own psychological wounds, and…
grieving their own losses effectively, then…
abandonment impacts add to the stress the adults must manage. Self-motivated wound-healing often begins in midlife if the adult hits a true bottom.
Impacts on Adults
The effects of adult abandonment on themselves, their partner, and other family members depend on…
whether each person is usually guided by their true Self or not. The greater any psychological wounds and unawareness, the greater the impacts;
the bonding, loyalties, and priorities of each family member.
the effectiveness of the family members’ thinking and communication,
the quality of social support that each member has,
whether the abandonment was…
impulsive and sudden, or planned and foreseen, and…
caused by a romantic or sexual affair, and…
the affect of the abandonment on the family’s financial stability and security; and…
the family’s grieving and anger policies, and religious or ethnic traditions.
Depending on factors like these, the abandoning person may feel significant regret, guilt, shame, anxiety, relief, frustration and/ or remorse for a time, or chronically. S/He may need to privately or socially distort what happened [e.g. deny it, and/or choose a victim role (“I had no choice!”)] to justify their “irresponsible,” “selfish,” or “immoral” behavior.
These compound emotions and related thoughts can add to the impact of the adult’s unhealed wounds from their own childhood, and may promote addictions, self-neglect, and relationship avoidance’s and “cutoffs” with key family kids, adults and supporters.
Abandonment and related cutoffs and “strained relations” can cause all family members significant losses and stresses. Unless the family is pro-grief and intentionally working to reduce psychological wounds and unawareness, these stressor’s may significantly lower the family’s nurturance level. T hat raises the odds that the next generation will inherit and spread the toxic effects of the [wounds + unawareness] cycle.
A major impact variable is whether family adults criticize, scorn, and shun the abandoning adult, or view her or him with compassion as a helpless victim of childhood neglect. Typical adults will need to be guided by their true Self to feel genuine compassion and forgiveness.
Unaware and uninformed lay and professional people risk focusing only on the abandonment and its effects, rather than on the primary problems causing it (above) and how they affect the family system.
A therapy client whom I’ll call Marvin came in to reduce a significant depression . Our initial inter-view strongly suggested he was had survived a low-nurturance (neglectful) childhood. He said that his son had just turned six – the same age as when Marvin’s father had left his mother and him to fend for themselves. She never told him why his father left, so he had to invent his own explanations.
His wounded mother couldn’t provide a pro-grief home, so young Marvin repressed his normal feelings of confusion, anger, loneliness, and sadness. He said that for years he feared he had done something that drove his father away. When I suggested that his “depression” might be long-overdue normal grief for his profound childhood losses, he said he felt “relieved.”
Over some weeks, I invited him to tell me how his father’s abandonment had affected him as a boy, man, and divorced father. As he examined and described that, normal emotions surfaced, including bouts of healthy tears and intense anger at both parents.
Marvin became interested in learning healthy grieving basics (Lesson 5) so he could protect his young son from blocked grief. As part of his own mourning, he decided to confront his mother about his father’s leaving and her “never talking to me about it.” He eventually stopped meeting with me as his “depression” gradually faded.
When an adult or teen abandons their mate or family, all members and close friends experience at least temporary stress from significant losses and family system changes. Though details vary, there are several common personal tasks that family adults and kids need informed support with:
admitting and grieving (accepting) a web of losses (broken bonds), starting with “making sense” of what happened, and why;
self and mutual forgiveness;
admitting and reducing excessive guilt’s and shame to normal;
adjusting and stabilizing family roles, rules, rituals, loyalties, priorities, and identity;
maintaining or improving the family’s nurturance level; and…
reducing fear of re-abandonment to normal – specially in young kids.
A winter’s day, in a deep and dark December
I am alone, gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow
I am a rock, I am an island
I’ve built walls, a fortress deep and mighty that none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain
I am a rock, I am an island
Don’t talk of love well I’ve heard the words before
It’s sleeping in my memory
And I won’t disturb the slumber of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
I am a rock, I am an island
I have my books and my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock, I am an island
And a rock can feel no pain
And an island never cries
The importance of supportive people in our lives is essential for any growth to occur if you are feeling down and having trouble getting out of the situation you are in by yourself. We cannot rely upon our own voices when we are subject to a diminishing view of our affairs because we have the weight of our problems on our minds. Our voices may take us away from an uplifted path that keeps us focused and rational. We will often sabotage ourselves when these voices begin to take a dominant role in our thinking. We begin to doubt ourselves, and we will neglect important daily functions, and even neglect anything that is not imperative for our being able to function without others knowing about our hidden pain we keep from their acknowledgements.
As for myself, I know all to well the burdens of an inner voice that will push out supportive help in times that one can benefit from such influence. Why I continue to push others away is hard to say but it is still as painful as when I began this behavior during the time of my childhood many years ago. As an adult, I have relied upon those close to me, but at times I have not had anyone to give me any emotional cadence in my time of need. I don’t think it is for the same reasons that the Simon and Garfunkel song speak about; in that they reference a bitter unrequited love remark in the song I interpret as one that is of poetic sarcasm. On the other hand I can relate to coping by isolation from others, as it is an intentional strategy to remove oneself from the potential of discovery. The loss of trust in others can also bring about a failure to console with others.
Thus, we who think we are “islands” or “rocks” keep ourselves under the illusion that we do not need others to help us. We are in fact self-sufficient and can do without the interference of others. But this is only a lie we tell ourselves, a condition we impose to subsist without the help from others. In my experience this seldom works, and is only a reminder of how we need the connection of others to give us sound information when we fail to see things in a clearer light. We will lose ourselves in a fog of our own making if we cannot rely upon another sensibility, when we have forgotten our value and are challenged by a personal weakness of spirit.
What is most sad is that family members do not even know what is going on because of the nature of the relationship you are in. They may be oblivious to the precarious nature of your thoughts, and do not reach out, but even more despairing is that they do not even really notice. If you are indeed a good actor, you can fool them, which is fair to say that this is responsible for their nihilism of your condition.
The fact that so many people are living under such tribulation is testament to the widespread nature of this malady. The breakdown of the family, the problems of the current state of affairs in human governance; geopolitics, economics, world poverty, racial escalation of indifference, and business ethics are symptoms of a culture in retrograde. For these reasons alone the mind tells us that we cannot rely upon others. The castle cannot be built upon the sand, and we continue to live thinking that this is justifying our behavior and continue to live in isolation. But when all is said and done, we will never make a better vision unless we have the help from others who can right our errors of thinking. We must rely upon others given the right foundations, otherwise we will not live to see better days. We forget we can often be our worst enemy and be more brutal than the others we initially fear.
Understanding that the world can be a mad adventure, does not exclude that we must live under such conditions alone. We should seek out those to help support our sanity. Change can occur from resistance or from an inspirational fortitude. Metaphorically the rock is hard and unchanging, but truthfully a rock can still erode from other forces upon it. Removing the metaphoric analogy our strength does not come from being stoic and in isolation. Rather, if we join our forces with others, strength can again become our salvation in a time of need. Sealing our hearts off from the views of others may be the tale we tell ourselves to survive, and saving heartache is the reason for such a decision, but in truth we cannot use this kind of strategy for every occasion since we would dwindle our spirits down to an indistinguishable relic which would end up defining us as emotional apparitions.
Nay, we should learn to deal with this heartache and extend ourselves appropriately to others as to reignite our burning fires.
“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”
― Alan W. Watts
“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”
― Confucius
“If you cannot trust yourself, you cannot even trust your mistrust of yourself – so that without this underlying trust in the whole system of nature you are simply paralyzed”
― Alan W. Watts
“Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”
― Leo Buscaglia
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
― Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa
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