The hospitality of belonging is the fifth and final Prairiewoods value we will explore together this year. Belonging reflects a particular depth of relationship. It is described by many as a felt experience of safety, significance and wholeness. Belonging is essential to human flourishing and an antidote to isolation and suffering.
Belonging is central to our spiritual well-being as well. “The way we relate to ourselves, our communities, and the larger ecosystems we share, is inextricable from our well-being… especially in the area of belonging which is knowing and being known; loving and being loved…” (Source: Sacred Design Lab, Illuminating Spiritual Innovation, 2024). We seek consciously or unconsciously this deep sense of connection with self, Source of All Being, community and place throughout our lives.
The Hospitality of Belonging
It’s no surprise that ecological spirituality is an ongoing and everlasting story of belonging. Ecological spirituality reveals to us we are in intimate, inextricable relationship with the Divine, with all humanity and with creation itself. From this experience of deep and unconditional relationship, we develop the trust and resilience necessary to navigate uncertainty and to transform our lives and the world around us.
If belonging is the “what” we seek, hospitality is the “how” it can be experienced.
The Ties Center, an organization that serves individuals with significant cognitive disabilities, provides an easy to understand set of ingredients for what it takes to cultivate a sense of belonging. In order to create communities of belonging it is essential that individuals feel they are: invited, welcomed, known, accepted, involved, heard and needed (Source: tiescenter.org)
This sounds complicated but it is not. It is about a quality of attention. The ingredients of transformative hospitality are available to all of us. At Prairiewoods we strive to offer service, attention, generosity, presence and empathy that contributes to an experience of welcome
How to Become an “Illuminator”
john a. powell and the Othering and Belonging Institute suggest that belonging can be experienced when we create “intentional, structured spaces where we can encounter one another as full human beings – complex, contradictory and worthy of belonging.”
David Brooks in his book How To Know a Person, encourages us to be “illuminators” and to approach others with tenderness, openness and curiosity. This is communion and community building. When we practice attention, generosity, presence and empathy, we move beyond participating in groups of loosely connected individuals and we begin to create intentional and life-giving community.
In order to foster a genuie welcome for others, we must begin with ourselves. We often neglect to explore our sense of belonging to and with ourselves. How shall we create a sense of belonging within ourselves?
1. Give yourself permission to approach yourself with the attention, tenderness and empathy that you would offer to another.
2. Give yourself the quiet space necessary to rest in the tenderness, attention and acceptance offered by the very Source of All Being. You are seen, loved, and embraced by the very wholeness of Creation.
Building Belonging and Community at Prairiewoods
Perhaps it is easier to begin by exploring the place to which you belong. Sometimes we only sense the significance of a place once we have left it. Where do you feel at home? Where do you feel the awe and the embrace of creation? Where do you feel most alive, connected and whole?
Start by drawing a map of your place; gathering or creating pictures of it; noting the plants, animals and insects that share this place with you; or physically visiting your place.
Actions like these can bring us into deeper relationship with our place on the land and renew our sense of being woven into the very fabric of Creation.
Experiences at Prairiewoods are built on this foundation of belonging and communion. Whether you come to Day of Self Renewal, a retreat or simply come to walk the land, you are welcome here.
“The hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature… Every one longs for intimacy and dreams of a nest of belonging in which one is embraced, seen, and loved.”
-John O’Donohue