#longing

These hands," he squeezed them both on my face to make his point, "will never touch you without being gentle. Unless that's not what you want, of course." His eyebrow lifted waiting for me to balk, but I just waited. "These arms will never hold you back, but I'll hold you as tight as you'll let me. I can't wait for you to be all mine. You belong to me in every way, Maggie. Mine." I nodded in his hands. He leaned closer and whispered, "Say it." I didn't wait a beat. "I belong to you." And he belonged to me. He grinned. "You're daggum right you do. ↗

— Shelly Crane

#gentleness #love #love

Touch. It is touch that is the deadliest enemy of chastity, loyalty, monogamy, gentility with its codes and conventions and restraints. By touch we are betrayed and betray others ... an accidental brushing of shoulders or touching of hands ... hands laid on shoulders in a gesture of comfort that lies like a thief, that takes, not gives, that wants, not offers, that awakes, not pacifies. When one flesh is waiting, there is electricity in the merest contact. ↗

— Wallace Stegner

#infidelity #longing #touch #loyalty

Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend. ↗

— Wallace Stegner

#attachment #belonging #home #homelessness #roots

Sometimes you have to wander around until you find where you really belong. And sometimes it's right where you started. ↗

— Rachel Gibson

#gospel

We gain nothing by being with such as ourselves. We encourage one another in mediocrity. I am always longing to be with men more excellent than myself. ↗

— Charles Lamb

#am #another #being #encourage #excellent

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ↗

— Aldo Leopold

#because #begin #belong #belonging #commodity

It is said that many children who live in the central provinces, away from the ocean, have a great longing to see it. I who had never been away from the monotonous country surrounding us looked forward eagerly to seeing the mountains. ↗

— Pierre Loti

#been #central #children #country #eagerly

To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the torture Of restlessness and vague desire-It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid. ↗

— Edgar Lee Masters

#boat #end #life #longing #madness

Death is the great hope of all life; the desire to expend itself; to be used and consumed by its own longing for itself. ↗

— Bryant H. McGill

#death #desire #expend #great #great hope

I realized that my truest passion was for helping people change through faith in a higher power. That meant, for me, belonging to the church. Using my abilities to bring Christian doctrine to a postmodern world. ↗

— James McGreevey

#bring #change #christian #church #doctrine