5 Comments
Mar 6, 2023·edited Mar 6, 2023Liked by Brian Stout

A bold undertaking to define belonging! I resonated with all of it - and particularly the element around feeling “welcome.” I struggled most with how belonging and freedom fit together, but definitely am aligned with the idea of belonging to oneself first - and that fits with the “wholeness” piece. However, my biggest ah-ha from this piece was the notion that there can be an “other” without “othering”: it expands the notion of belonging and feels really powerful. Sitting with that. Thanks for all the work you put into this (and all of your writing)! Love, Jen

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May 30, 2023Liked by Brian Stout

I just discovered your writing through the Citizen University eblast+link. Your writing gives me a sense of belonging - look, someone else is thinking and writing along these lines as well! I'm inspired - and also will be quoting you on communications to come. I love what you're doing here. Thank you for sharing your voice and work!

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I'm very grateful to have finally carved out the time to soak up this outstanding essay. Your essays are a masterclass in holding clarity, nuance, understanding, and not-knowing all at once, and with care and wonder. I felt the point about power to be especially resonant... Feeling safe in our own expression of power and significance *and* feeling enlivened by another person's sincere expression of their inner power—without feeling intimidated or less than—is belonging in action. I see too that rejecting or dampening another's fullness and significance (#2) can come from collective trauma around lack of safety (#1) in visibility, expression, and agency (the integration of all facets, #3). And then there was the part of belonging to the land, and even with specific trees. There is so much to reflect on here, and it felt healing to read... thank you.

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Mar 9, 2023Liked by Brian Stout

Thank you for this thorough investigation of the essence of belonging. In European/US cultures we have been socialised to become individualistic; we learned to compare ourselves with others and compete. No fertile ground to get a sound sense of belonging. I love your view on "the practice of belonging" as a bunch of skills we can acquire. These skills are so needed in this polarised world.

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We share a lot, the importance of the definition of words and the somatic experience and the use of fractals!

I thought about it about defining love: in a nutshell it's a fractal!

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