Entries in connectedness (1)

Sunday
Feb102013

THE ESSENTIAL NEED TO BELONG

 

On a recent visit to Morikami Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, Florida ,I was reminded of an essential theme that is characheristic of all Japanese Gardens. That is the qualitative value of placement in relation to everything else.  

           Everything has a presence because it belongs to the greater landscape that is beheld. We too have a presence when we feel we belong to something greater than only ourselves. Belonging is to "be in longing" and our emotional, spiritual and psychic survival continues to depend upon this, years past one's physical needs have been met.  

Belonging is the deepest request for relational connection that invites us to be both vulnerable to receive, as well as, to participate in offering the best of oneself. Belonging gives us a relational sense of placement in the world in our personal and social framework of one's life. Belonging to something greater than oneself allows us to rest deeper into the womb of life. It creates an environment for one to extract meaning from its surroundings as well as develop a personal sense of meaning and purpose.

When one feels lost in life, it is because feelings of uprootedness and a disconnection from self, other and Spirit occur. Belonging is key to a feeling sense of harmony and peace. We all need to feel we are a "piece" of something in order to be at "peace". It allows one to settle into the soul's body and draw from both one's internal roots of wisdom, the soul wisdom of one' social network and from sources of wisdom experienced as spiritual, in nature. .

When we feel safe and have a sense of belonging, whether it be in the foreground or background of our personal, social, or spiritual landscape, the soul then roots itself comfortably into the body and begins to dwell. This dwelling within allows one then to be  both present to life and free to accept the changes that will naturally occur.