" We cannot receive love if we are not open to the raw and tender experience of wanting it. Suppressing or denying desire shuts down our openness to receiving nourishment, and thus only intensifies our hunger…Perhaps if we could make friends with our desire to want love we might find that our wanting itself is holy. We want love, after all, because we intuitively know that it can free us from the prison of the isolated self, allowing us to feel connected and at one with all of life..and…what is so bad about wanting that?"

I recently encountered someone who proudly announced they don't need men or relationships because they are self sufficient. While it may be true that one doesn't need to married to be psychologically or emotionally healthy I do believe we all need to be able to receive love from others because none of us can "sustain" a healthy relationship with ourselves and others because of our own individual limitations. While I believe developing our own "internal resources" to handle life is critically important to the well being of us all, I also believe it is equally important to be vulnerable and allow love from others. This can be more of a challenge for some of us than others because of the lack of love in our past and is complicated by the fact that we live in a society that often encourages self sufficiency over dependency.