Within each person lies a bone-deep longing for freedom, safety, hope, self-respect, and the chance to make an important contribution to family, community, and the world. To live fully, we each need ways to express this powerful, natural longing. Without healthy outlets, the desire for freedom turns into lawlessness, and the need for safety and self-respect degenerates into violence. Without avenues to make an important contribution, hopelessness translates into dependency, depression, violence, substance, abuse and other forms of self-abuse.
No government program or religious group can help people become self-reliant, contributing members of their communities unless it is built on an understanding of this powerful force, inside each human heart.
Bone Deep Longing (PDF)
© Dr. Claire Forest