Belonging

My colleague and friend, Vanessa Sage, has an Instagram challenge going on this month. She is providing a one-word prompt for every day in May, and anyone who wants to participate posts a photo that exemplifies the meaning of that word. Vanessa’s Instagram handle is vanessasagelife, and the hashtag for her challenge is #enchantyoureveryday.

Isn’t that a beautiful concept—enchanting your everyday?

Anyway, today’s prompt is ‘belonging,’ and it made me think about the various places where I feel I belong.

The first thing that popped into my head was last Sunday’s dinner with my husband, children, and grandchildren. After dinner, we gathered in the living room for a movie, with my 3-year-old grandson curled up in my lap. It was the epitome of belonging. My son doesn’t want photos of his children on the internet, so I’m not posting a picture about that experience—I’ll just savor it in my heart.

Then I thought about the retreat I helped to facilitate a couple of weeks ago. Here is the whole group—our team and our retreatants, with faces small enough to defy recognition. But I hope you can feel the positive energy, the connection, the belonging, that permeated each of us.

Being with women who are on a spiritual quest, who care enough to spend some time exploring their own relationship with the divine, with themselves, and with each other, gave me a special sense of belonging. It even reminded me of the way I feel when I am sharing Soul Psychology insights with clients who are curious about what their hands have to tell them.

How about you? Where do you experience belonging?