Desire "from the stars"

 Desire. The word comes from the Latin de sidere, literally “from the stars.” That feels right, doesn’t it? As if what we long for isn’t random or selfish or shameful, but a signal from the cosmos. A celestial whisper reminding us who we are and what we came here to do. But somewhere along the way, many of us were taught to fear desire, to treat it like a dangerous spark that needed to be snuffed out before it burned the house down. Especially if we were girls. Especially if we were good.

I watch people suppress their desires out of duty, guilt, or fear of being too much. I saw it in the women who skipped meals but fed everyone else first, who smiled when they wanted to scream, who put  their dreams away in drawers that never got opened again. I inherited that pattern, and it’s taken me years to untangle it. Still, it comes up sometimes, this idea that wanting something deeply is selfish or indulgent or doomed.

But what if desire is divine? What if it’s the soul’s compass?

I’ve learned that the things I truly long for, love, freedom, truth, beauty, creation, don’t lead me astray. They lead me home. Owning desire doesn’t mean acting on every impulse or chasing external validation.It means listening carefully to what wants to be born through me. It means recognizing the ache in my chest as sacred. It means not apologizing for wanting more, not just more things, but more meaning, more aliveness, more intimacy with this one wild and precious life.

There’s a difference between desire that consumes and desire that consecrates. One leaves you empty. The other fills you with purpose.

So I’m done pretending I don’t want what I want. I want big, breathless love. I want to write books that interest people. 

I want to dance until my body forgets its name. I want land and laughter and rituals and rest. I want the stars to know they didn’t plant their longing in me for nothing.

And if you’re reading this, you probably want something too. Something you’ve been afraid to admit. Something that might change everything. I hope you claim it. I hope you speak it out loud. Not because getting it will fix you, but because honoring it will free you.

Desire is a map written in stardust. Trust it.

~Shanti Freedom Das