Quest

We are born. If we are lucky, or some would say, “Blessed,” we live until we reach seventy or maybe eighty years of age. And, we die. In between these events, most of us need more than we get from others. Interest. Understanding. Kindness. Loyalty. And much more. Most of the time, we accept the limits of their interest, understanding,
kindness, loyalty, and much more, knowing that all of these things are trapped in the minds, hearts, and life spans of those from whom we need so much. They get tired and can’t play with us. They get hungry and irritated with us. They go to work
and abandon us.

Or, sometimes, they just disappear from our lives. They leave us, causing us to wonder whether they will ever be with us again or whether they are alive. They cause us to ache for their presence, to give us at least a mere nod to our existence or maybe a
word that tells us that we truly matter to someone. What’s worse, they stir doubt within us about whether we are worth the care we want. And, maybe, they cause us to look for them, knowing that we may never find them, let alone get the precious gifts of love for which we desperately long. They force us to make decisions about their worth to us, to tell ourselves with finality that their lives have ended, even when we know that they live and breathe without us, as if they lived in an alternate universe.

Naturally, the meaning of life’s QUEST is different for each one of us. A reading of this book—QUEST—will confirm for each of us who reads it the significance of the quest in all of our lives: The quest for meaningful relationships. QUEST reminds us of an inconvenient truth, the obligation to reckon with life as it is, when meaningful relationships
evade our grasp.