Reflecting on Belonging

I frequently hear people share their longing for meaningful community. So many of us are searching for it and wondering what it really means.

Cultivating and creating a meaningful community has to do a lot with building spaces of belonging. Early this month I shared a video featuring John Powell from the Institute of Othering and Belonging at UC Berkeley with the other women of the collective to dive deeper in this topic and peel the layers of this complex theme.

“Belonging means more than just being seen.…entails having a meaningful voice and the opportunity to participate in the design or social and cultural structures. Belonging means having the right to contribute, and make demands on, society and other institutions.” powell writes.

Unfortunately some of us experience more “Othering” than belonging. Often because of gender identity, sexual orientation, cultural origin, race, socio-economic status, etc. designed processes, dynamics and rigid structures exist that consciously or unconsciously deny our shared humanity and fail to yield access to a whole and full equal membership to groups and individuals. Furthermore, othering induces marginality and inequities based on the different identities.

Othering is the real threat to “meaningful community”, a core value of our collective. Eye of the Heart Center for Creative Contemplation intends to combat othering by connecting and linking different people to the experiences of our process and programs. Eye of the Heart does that by building and designing new and co-created belonging practices that are persistent and transformative. Although there isn’t a road map or blueprint with instructions to build a meaningful community, I know that an active commitment to a contemplative life, self-reflection, listening, silence, and prayer are strong bridges that will lead to a society where belonging prevails.

We hope you will feel belonging and make meaningful connections at our upcoming cross-cultural Crone Carnival.

What are your bridging practices that create belonging? We’d love to hear from you.

— Celina Martina