“[I]t doesn’t matter whom you love or where you move from or to, you always take yourself with you. If you don’t know who you are, or if you’ve forgotten or misplaced her, then you’ll always feel as if you don’t belong. Anywhere. (xiii)” ― Sarah Ban Breathnach, Moving On: Creating Your House of Belonging with Simple Abundance
“I didn’t belong as a kid, and that always bothered me. If only I’d known that one day my differentness would be an asset, then my early life would have been much easier.” ― Bette Midler
“What if we all stopped fighting to belong and realized that we already do? What if we acknowledged, in each interaction with ourselves and with others, the eternal, beautiful interconnected energy that flows between us? What if we recognized our equality and celebrated our differences? Imagine how the world could be.” ― Vironika Tugaleva
“When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.” ― Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” ― Brené Brown
Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week is about Belonging.
Lovely! I think the importance of staying true to yourself is not something we necessarily realise when we are children or teenagers, it comes with experience. And I love the Vironika Tugaleva quote! Wouldn’t that be nice 🙂
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Kellie – maybe as children and teenagers we feel a strong need to belong without understanding that we must still be true to ourselves in the process? Hopefully, as adults, we can integrate these two without too much suffering. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
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You answer the question that was lingering in my mind since morning, thank you for a beautiful and soul comfying post.
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Dearest A. – the question of belonging is a big one as we stand between so many worlds, almost everyday (cultural, spiritual, professional, political…). Looking forward to our discussion about this in person 🙂
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🙂
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Hi Nomzi – I am sure you have lots of poetic thoughts yourself on this theme 🙂
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Oh so many exciting and important themes to write about. 🙂
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I like this much! When I was a nomad for several years, roaming the world, I found the true meaning of ‘home’; it’s a place inside. Once you’ve found it, home can be anywhere we go….
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Hanne – that’s a timeless piece of wisdom you discovered on your journeys….
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Thank you, Annette. Those are beautiful words and yes, it truly is!
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The Bette Midler quote caught my attention particularly. Her fabulousness is directly related to her being anything but cookie-cutter. So important to teach this to our daughters obsessed with conforming. A lovely, thought-provoking post with the perfect photographs for the theme.
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So agree with you, Barbara. It is our uniqueness/differentness that makes us who we are; no clones necessary or even desirable!
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Beautiful blog on belonging with lovely pictures and great quotes. Absolutely love the last quote — indeed sense of belonging and self acceptance go together.
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Hi Darshana – glad you enjoyed the post.
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A really lovely, and thought provoking post, Annette.
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Thank you, Sylvia.
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That is pretty amazing, love the sculpture piece.
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Thank you, Charlie. I wished I knew the artist who created this beautiful piece. But there was no plaque or inscription on it. So the photos will be my tribute to the anonymous sculptor.
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” Be yourself; everybody else is already taken” ……Oscar Wilde
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Perfect, Cornelia.
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Love the photos and love the blog…..perfect!
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Thank you, Glenda, happy you like it.
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Beautiful quotes to go with the lovely photos. I think as we age we come into a better sense of self acceptance and comfort in one’s own skin, that we belong. A lovely post.
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Thank you, Sue. There have to be some advantages to aging 🙂
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What a soft and strong sculpture – so much said in this art.
Thanks so much for your visit!
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Thank you, Moondust, glad you enjoyed the post.
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Lovely sculpture and the quotes are wonderful too. We all do need to feel we belong, don’t we?
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Thanks, Cathy. Yes, a sense of belonging makes all the difference in our sense of self, security, and contentment.
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Where have I been all year? Learning about belonging… This is a truly inspiring post. In the last few days I’ve stumbled upon the idea that somewhere during this search for home, I have inadvertently dispensed with the need for it. I have become that home (albeit a sometimes disappearing home, but it’s only early days)
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That sounds intriguing, even a bit mysterious, Robyn. Hope to hear more about your insights and experiences over the past year. Finding yourself a home within yourself is such a monumental inner milestone…
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You’ve captured so much beauty. Thank you for sharing your travel joys!
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My pleasure…
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Just remarkable. Not only is your opening quote by SBB something I came to realize in my cross-country transplant to the west coast (It’s not where I go, it’s what I take there: me), the series I’d mentioned was in fact one on belonging. A string of guests shared times/seasons they’d felt they didn’t belong. It was THIS series that had given birth to that one:
http://holisticwayfarer.com/2014/03/10/my-race-coast-to-coast-part-1-2/
(Feel free to just skim. It’s just to give you an idea.)
We went around the world in 80 days, with stories from bloggers across the cultural map.
The reason I went ahead with the series on belonging was the obvious fact that we all feel like an outsider at some point in our lives.
Loved your quotes.
Diana
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