Remembering Ourselves Home
“Our longing for community and purpose is so powerful that it can drive us to join groups, relationships, or systems of belief that, to our diminished or divided self, give the false impression of belonging. But places of false belonging grant us conditional membership, requiring us to cut parts of ourselves off in order to fit in.
Your rebellion is a sign of health. It is the way of nature to shatter and reconstitute.“
This week we are working with Toko-Pa’s book Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home
With these excerpts, we explore our own experience and know more deeply our own longing.
How am I a rebel in my life now?
What is my history as a rebel? What rebellion could I invite in?
“Like the tidal wave in a dream which races for your windows, longing can be fierce and unapologetic, threatening to dismantle everything we’ve built.
What if we are depriving ourselves of what could be a cathartic encounter? Just as lover and beloved long to be in each other’s arms, so too is it between us and the life which is meant for us.
Like a plant growing towards the sun, longing is nature inclining us towards the light we need in order to be fruitful.
“That which you seek is seeking you.” Rumi. So longing is not only the quality of seeking reunion, but the sound of something in search of us: the calling homeward.”
Am I living the life meant for me?
What could I call in to come home to myself more deeply?
“The Death Mother is that paralytic energy that dismisses your creativity and demands your smallness, and your silence. No longer able to withstand the pain of rejection, the child stops offering her creative spark. She hides it away where it can’t be criticized, believing, as she’s been taught, that it’s worthless.
We must work to reclaim those parts. We must affirm and allow them, moment by moment, strengthening our capacity for inclusion, for belonging.
It is the practice of bringing the fullness of our presence to a moment, whether it’s filled with rage or an upwelling of sadness, to say, “This too belongs.” ”
I welcome all of me with an open heart
How does that resonate? What could you call in to make sure in every cell of your body that you know all of you belongs and is welcome.
“Witnessing transition is one of the extraordinary powers of community.
When we leave behind an old identity for a new form of belonging, there are always moments when we are tempted to slip back into our old skin.
Whether it is a grief that is too big to grieve alone, recovery from an illness that threatens to return, or stepping up to a new altitude of Self that’s tough to acclimate to, community helps us bear the weight of transition.
Friends remind us, simply by bearing witness, that we have become something new and we can never wholly unbecome it.”
How do my friends and community witness me?
How might I open more deeply?
“We spend so much time worrying about how to approach our future that we rarely consider how approachable we might be. We armour ourselves with savvy, strength, and certification so that when our moment arrives we feel sufficiently prepared.
To be approachable to life, to each other, and to mystery, we have to cultivate an inner hospitality. Like the host who prepares an extra helping of food, a fire in the hearth, and a seat at the table even when guests aren’t expected, belonging always begins with an invitation.”
In my deepest heart’s desire, I am inviting …
Join us this Sunday to explore and be witnessed in community. Details and link are here.