Is it something to imagine, something to think of with
desire or hope, that isn't in itself indicative of something lacking in yourself? Is the fact that you fantasize about any number of scenarios that play themselves out in a relationship
making you uncomfortable? Do you not allow yourself to do it? To imagine someone holding you, someone reaching for your hand as you're walking. To close your eyes and pretend
to be kissed. To lay in bed and feel the emptiness and void that exists there.
Is it wrong to want to be married, even if you're not ready right now? Is it somehow unhealthy to want someone who wants you for keeps, who would do anything to keep you? I long for those things, and I dream about them in those many moments when I am alone. I try to avoid thinking about it among other people because I don't think anything good comes from wanting something for lack of it by comparison, to want someone with you right then because everyone around you has someone and you don't want to be left out. I don't want to be desperate with my dreams of love, nor do I want them to guide my daily life. Then, and only then, if it were to become this way, would I really be concerned that wanting to be with someone is in any way bad or in itself a detriment to me.
There are other ways to hope for connection, to be sure, and I am in no shortage of those as well. I hope for communication with God, God who is here and who is not silent (to quote Francis Schaeffer) on a daily basis. I would like to make more friends. I hope to get closer with my family, or to at least come to terms with how things are with them and I. But love is always there, represented albeit poorly, all around me. And by allowing myself to hope for it, I am giving it some room to breathe. I don't see too much harm in wanting that, even if I won't have it for a while. Do you?