In her 2018 book, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging & the Courage to Stand Alone, researcher and storyteller Dr Brene Brown invites us to consider a basic confusion that can arise when we show up in different places. She learned it from talking to middle school students who said simple but profound things to her like:  “Fitting in is when you want to be a part of something. Belonging is when others want you.” She learned from them that the most painful thing is when we feel like we don’t belong at home.  “Belonging,” Brown learned from these children, “Belonging is being accepted for you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else. If I get to be me, I belong. If I have to be like you, I fit in.” The house of God, in an ideal sense, invites us all to grow into the understanding of who we truly are, of who God made us to be, to be a community into which we can step deeper into those true selves.

As we celebrate the glorious diversity of human life, and of all creation, on this weekend of honoring St Francis and world communion, you are invited to join us in this house of belonging. I leave you with the words of poet David Whyte, The House of Belonging.

THE HOUSE OF BELONGING

I awoke
this morning
in the gold light
turning this way
and that

thinking for
a moment
it was one
day
like any other.

But
the veil had gone
from my
darkened heart
and
I thought

it must have been the quiet
candlelight
that filled my room,

it must have been
the first
easy rhythm
with which I breathed
myself to sleep,

it must have been
the prayer I said
speaking to the otherness
of the night.

And
I thought
this is the good day
you could
meet your love,

this is the black day
someone close
to you could die.

This is the day
you realize
how easily the thread
is broken
between this world
and the next

and I found myself
sitting up
in the quiet pathway
of light,

the tawny
close-grained cedar
burning round
me like fire
and all the angels of this housely
heaven ascending
through the first
roof of light
the sun has made.

This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.

This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
like the house of belonging.

– David Whyte
©1996

Special thanks: to all of you who helped to make our celebration of Rhea Babbitt’s life so beautiful! Notes to Rhea’s nephew may be sent toSteve Estes and Sallie Suydam, 1181 East Ave, Chico, CA 95926-1018, [email protected]

The Spirit of Kay & Rhea lives on – join us as we continue celebrating the Feast of St Francis at our Annual Blessing of the Animals, this Sunday at 3 pm. We will be giving away lots of Kay and Rhea’s books on caring for dogs, cats, and even goats.