Losing love hurts. It can be an ache. A deep black hole, an emptiness, a burn.

Love is something we seek and something we can project onto anyone. A passerby on the street or a colleague at work. While the words may not be exact, we may feel it as – If only she/he were in my life, I’d be happy. Consider this true story.

Tanya sees her manager at work. He is handsome, striking. Deep set eyes. Sharp cheekbones.

She works diligently as a junior level executive at Google. She is responsible, independent, and financially successful. And yet, something is missing. Her life feels empty.  She wants a husband and a family. Someone to come home to.

Her manager Jonathan has two girls and a wife, whom he loves very much. He’s always seems happy when he talks about them. But inside he feels weighted, trapped by his work and family responsibilities. His wife, often too distracted with the girls, does not meet his needs. A part of him wants to be free from it all.

Tanya and Jonathan sit next to one another at their weekly team meeting. They share a gaze and a smile. His hand accidentally graces hers.

There is clearly attraction between them. In their imaginations, they travel somewhere. He would be free with her. She would be fulfilled. If only… takes them there.

She looks at him and ignores the meeting. He notices this but pretends not to.

Afterwards, something unimaginable happens. As if by design, they find themselves crossing paths in in a private corridor downstairs. They go to kiss one another. But instead, they do something else.

They look into each other’s eyes. They see into and through one another. They feel the impact of what they’re about to do — to fill each other for what’s lacking in their lives.

Instead of touching lips, they put their hands on the other’s heart. They breathe into the intensity of their physical desire, allowing it to swirl through their bodies. They cultivate within what they don’t act on without.

After a minute or so, they part, expanded with feeling and integrity, each knowing that he and she can become the love they seek. For her, the love she desires in an available partner. For him, the love he wants with his wife.

Attunement to the voids gives them insight on how to use it for growth. Alone, afterwards, each feels deeper into the lack, to absolve it, to pass through it.

This is not typical Hollywood-sexy (or maybe it is) but it is soul-wisdom. This is a story about integrity and self-relationship.

It only took a simple pause and breath to get it. To reclaim what they projected onto one another.

She will make change. As will he. But first is what must be felt. And to keep feeling, opening, into, out of, and within. And then action.

He will talk with his wife about their challenges. She will hold her vision of a family as a gift and not a desperate need.

Later that day, they share a smile. As if saying hello to what emerged. Feeling bigger, ready to step into their lives with energy that wasn’t with them before. It’s a new day.

• Do you ever acknowledge lack as a gift?
• To feel an expanded understanding of what you seek?
• Can you turn scarcity into abundance?

If so, comment and say how.