The most human of our needs

Love, we know, is the strongest and the most human of our needs. We need love even to grow physically. Scientists and doctors seem to agree now that if a child, an infant, lacks the basic necessary affection, tenderness, love, and concern, at the human emotional level, even the best physical treatment will not allow that child to develop, even physically. So our need for love is deeply embedded even in our biological nature. We need love to grow; we need love to be. And because it is our deepest and most human need, it is also our most painful wound. Depending upon the presence of love in our life, we are happy or unhappy, we are free or unfree, we are joyful or we are depressed. If love is flowing in our life, if the inner and the outer dimensions of our life are united by love, then we are fully alive.

( Aspects of Love 1, by Laurence Freeman )