The simplest things can make us feel grounded and connected—a hand on the shoulder, a favorite song, the smell of cinnamon, eye contact from someone who looks at us and really sees us. A touch, a smell, and we come back into ourselves and the moment.
What small things help to ground and connect you?
Many of us center our sense of self, of belonging, in our homes and families. But not everyone has a home and not everyone has a family. Which means, perhaps, that some people must learn to belong to what is either very small or very large.
What has helped you feel connected in times of estrangement?
What a remarkable thing it is that we arrive in this world already loved, welcomed before anyone has had a chance to get to know us, belonging simply because we exist.
Who loves you—or who do you love—unconditionally, simply as a part of existing?
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
―F. Scott Fitzgerald
What book or poem has helped you feel that you belong?
In celebration of the holiday of Sukkot Jews build deliberately flimsy little buildings to spend time in. In a sukkah you should be able to see the stars through your roof—outside and inside come together to create a different sense of what it means to be at home.
Where, other than where you live, have you created space where you feel at home?
