How Deeply We Belong

Recently, I finished graduate school and along with the congratulations comes the inevitable question: what comes next? The truth is, I don’t entirely know. But maybe that is the issue, should our attention be so focused on what comes next. What if we thought less about the next thing we need to accomplish and more about how we want to live and what we want to be connected to? That is where I found myself as I read this week’s Crisis & Transition post, “Healing the Human Heart.”

We can move through life doing all the things we feel we should do or those things that others tell us we are supposed to do and yet still find ourselves wondering, is this where I belong? We can be surrounded by people and still feel completely disconnected. We can and do have access to more information, technology, convenience and communication, then at any other time in human history. All the while, we find ourselves less connected to the places where we live, the natural world around us and ultimately to one another.

When I entered graduate school, I wanted to find answers to questions I had. And over the past few years, this journey and my research on long-term community recovery following the Lāhaināwildfire deepened those questions considerably and I believe aligns well with this week’s post. As the post highlights, beneath it all we are yearning for a deeper connection with nature, with each other. And so, what does it mean to belong to one another, to a community, and to the natural world?

Again and again throughout my research, I found myself coming back to the importance of relationships. We don’t exist in isolation. In interview after interview, people spoke about the interconnected nature of recovery and of community. They spoke of the importance of re-establishing the balance with the natural world, the ʻāina. And as the post highlights, Mother Nature always finds a way to restore balance. Our role is continuing to recognize that we are part of the natural world, that our well-being is interconnected with its well-being, and that belonging carries a responsibility to care for what cares for us.

“When we feel we are a part of a whole, a part of something great, the human heart will get satisfied. The human spirit will be uplifted.”

I find myself sitting with this, especially as I continue my journey. Perhaps this moment in my life is less about having a destination or having an answer. Rather it is about connection to people, to place, to the natural world. And being of service to the world.

I also believe it begins with noticing where we are, with listening and ultimately caring for one another and for the ʻāina that sustains us. And perhaps it begins with remembering that none of us were ever meant to wander through this world entirely alone.

Read the full post here.

Toward a more just and loving world.