From Longing to Becoming

Winter can be a difficult season, especially for those who feel alone. I know…because I have been there.

It’s a time when everything seems to fall away and get very quiet. Sometimes too quiet.

The wind howls, but shares no words or conversations with you. The cold cuts to the bone and reminds you of your deepest pains and longings. The days are short, and darkness seems to never end.

It was in one such winter that I learned some of my most important lessons about home, love, and belonging.

Yes, it’s true— these things are central to our basic human needs. But what if we don’t have a home? What if we just have a room, or a bus, or a car, or a park bench? What if we feel like we don’t belong to anyone or anywhere?

It’s a painful place to be— but a place many live in.

What I learned about loss of love, warmth, home and belonging is that it is not limited to walls or place and it can’t be lost if it lives inside of us.

Home is not found, made or attained. It is built from within— through the act of creating space in our hearts for others. And making it a beautiful space for them.

Belonging is not contingent on being wanted, but on the quiet act of holding space for another.

Love is felt and grows the strongest when it’s given away.

Nurturing a warmth inside ourselves and then offering it freely, is how we stay warm on the cold days. Being a voice in the life of those who only hear the wind gives us shelter from it as well.

Becoming home is the quiet transformation from longing for it to becoming it, in the way we stand in the world—steady, warm, and open.