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Exploring Our Connection to People and Place
Category: Love & Belonging
Before & After We Marry, Part 1
After a wedding, you are never really the same. Once we marry, a part of us is gone forever. Even as we embrace our new joined lives with joy, we need to honor what we leave behind.
Belonging, Part 2: my Story
My own story of belonging is both different from and similar to Brené’ Brown’s. Since I didn’t fit in, I used my oddness to my advantage. That worked as a kid but hurt me as an adult.
Belonging
We all have a need to belong. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, belonging is smack in the middle of the pyramid, right there with love.
Our Body, Our Home
John O’Donohue wrote, “The body is your only home in the universe. It is your house of belonging here in the world.” But what if we don’t feel at home in our bodies?
Strive for the Best, Not for the Past
Too often we create home based on what we’ve known and what’s familiar. But that’s not always what’s best. True comfort often requires us to move beyond the past.
Going Home
Sometimes going home is wonderful. Other times, not so much. Each going home is filled with expectation and hope. If our visit is good, home burrows further into our hearts and psyches. And if it is not, home loosens its grip.
White Lutheran Memories of Racism in the 1930’s Midwest
My mom was certainly a product of the time and the place in which she was raised. But she wasn’t restrained by it. By the 1970’s she was a vocal advocate against racism. Prejudices run deep, but then CAN be overcome.
Finding Home – With a Dog
There’s a lot being written about staying home these days. Discomfort. Anxiety. Isolation. Depression. The truth is, many of us struggled with “home” even before the pandemic. I don’t have the answers. But I can tell you how having a dog makes a huge… Continue Reading “Finding Home – With a Dog”
A Home-cooked Meal
So much of who I am and what I love was shaped by my time on Grama Baird’s farm. Technically no longer hers, by then it was owned and operated by her grandson, Mick, who lived with his family across the field. And technically… Continue Reading “A Home-cooked Meal”
Home is a Human Need. Is it a Right?
Home, in the most fundamental sense, is where are essential needs are met. During the Covid19 pandemic, many Americans are struggling to keep a roof over their head. Others are wrestling with what it means to feel safe. Where does the need for home fit within a struggling economy?
The Ultimatum: Stay or Leave?
The State Department is advising all United States citizens abroad: return home now or stay where you are and wait out this pandemic. If you stay, “you may be forced to remain outside of the United States for an indefinite period of time.” So,… Continue Reading “The Ultimatum: Stay or Leave?”
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