Longing is a desire for something distant or unattainable.
 
Don’t we spend our lives longing,seeking,desiring for…?
It could be love or power or money or prestige. It could be position or freedom or peace. Satisfaction is a fleeting human state and even that we long for at some point in our lives.

What will be our last longing? 

For what or who will we stretch out a thin hand as we offer our last breaths to this world?

When my father was dying we were all gathered around his bed. We were watching his every breath as if we could keep his heart pumping by the power of our watchful gaze. Dad looked around the bed,serene in his observation,he saw each one of us and then he smiled and said, “No man could be more loved”.
Those words were a gift to his children and grandchildren who had gathered to hold him as he went the way of our mother just 3 months before. Those words told us each that he felt loved,that he had received and revelled in what we had sought to give.

To understand the exceptional quality of my father’s words you need some history on the man. My father was a lifetime entrepreneur. He had experienced some sucess and some great failures. In the end he had done well but not to the expectations of his dreams. He often felt that he had not “made it”. Personally I think that is the dysfunctional aspect of the otherwise positive character of a lifetime entrpreneur- always looking for that next great thing. 
As I aged myself and I was 52 when he passed,I came to believe  that my father’s greatest accomplishment was his family and the love we had for him. It saddened me that he did not seem to see that and that it appeared to be overshadowed by his self perceived failure in business.
So when he uttered those last words,it was particularly poignant.

I wonder if my father’s last longing was just that,to know himself as well loved and to let us know that we had loved well,to release us from the self doubt that we had not done enough, been good enough or loved this sweet man sufficiently.
I wonder when this longing began to take root in his mind and heart. Had it been there all along but lay dormant? Or did it just come to him in his last hours?

As last longings go, that was a pretty darn good one.