Beneath the longing to possess and to be possessed by the beauty of another—to know, in the Biblical idiom—there lies a longing, closer to the heart of the matter still, which is the longing to be at last where we finally belong….

When I think of all the beautiful ones whom I have seen for maybe no more than a passing moment and have helplessly, overwhelmingly desired, I wonder if at the innermost heart of my desiring, there wasn’t, of all things, homesickness.

— Frederick Buechner