Breathe in, breathe out. Lift your chin up, fix your posture. Take a step forward. Be alive.
It is so simple to be alive, and at the same time, it appears to be the most complicated and torturous experience, with some occasional glimpse of happiness, of course.
At least for us, humans.
The body, the mind, and the soul rarely sing the same tune. The three-headed monster within each of us, all wrapped in one union: the union of our identity. An identity that craves to belong to a tribe, to a place, to a cause.
Truth be told, however deeply we desire to feel the harmony of our existence, more often than not, we are crucified between matter and spirit, between here and back then, or worries for the future, between heart and mind.
Shall I follow my gut? Shall I take this job because of the pay, even though I hate it? Do I stay in the relationship for the kids? What will people say if I… and so on, and so on.
There is one major factor that helps us get back on the road again, to the original scenario: the Observer within you. The Observer—the real you in YOU.
The part of us that knows the truth about everything. The part that sees it all: it is the lost child in us, the broken wings of smashed dreams, the deep cry of anguish from the well of our soul to be needed, to be seen, and to be loved.
The Observer is the one who feels, creates, and watches impartially. The Observer, who is the focus of perception, is the one who struggles with the sense of belonging.
To belong is a gift of peace and an absolute presence in the moment. The three-headed monster finally sings in harmony with the flow of the world. It is the blissful state of life without borders. There is no here and there, no me and you, no in and out, but a complete dissolution of the thin border of individuality.
Or, as brilliantly Rumi said: Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.
The skin of the container serves as the protection and the filter between the fish tank and the sea, between internal reality and external functionality.
Those rare moments of complete merger and shapelessness, of unity with all and everything. The symphony of life itself orchestrates all elements with precision, wisdom, and gentle guidance, and we are nowhere to be seen. Just the small outline of the Observer stays in awe of the magic of the all-in-one.
And in this fleeting, fragile moment, something shifts—just one invisible element somewhere in the background of the whole complicated picture—and a powerful swing of thought moves, and the balance is lost, what feels like forever.
So, between the noisy internal dynamics and the external demands, we are lost in a search for belonging: belonging to a moment, to a state, to a tribe, to a life we believe we deserve.
To close the cycle, we come back to the question:
How often do we ask ourselves if we belong somewhere?
It is given from birth, as it seems. We are born into a family, class, and expectation—or the lack of those. And this turns out to be the norm we start from. This is the natural level from which we begin life; we project through the filter, rituals, and beliefs of the matrix we see and experience.
Only in cases of friction and unfulfillment do we notice mismatches among objects, ideas, and events. Synchronicity is the way of the universe showing you that you belong to this life, this location, this identity.
The blissful moments are those in which we start asking questions; we start asking ourselves. We question the status quo, and the familiar environment no longer soothes us, no longer contains us. We do not fit.
The transition of belonging is the meeting of firm physical reality and quantum reality. A meeting between two Titans of experience, two worlds, two planes of existence.
The idea of belonging comes with the confidence and comfort of understanding our place in the world, our own value, and our particular set of expectations. The role we play is the role we accept, the position we cherish, and the character we willingly adopt and perform.
Belonging is the merger between our inner voice and calling and the needs of the world we want to be part of. Society introduces us to an order, widely accepted, and we either fit and flourish or live in an internal agony of disillusionment, accepting our identity while questioning our core values.
The labels in the internal map of the soul are not always the same as the general map of the world.
So, how do we navigate the complex mathematical architecture of the creator?
If we approach the expectations of society with idealism, constantly overlapping and comparing them with our own, we abandon the position of happy searching souls. We begin to create an image of the tasks at hand to protect us, to justify us, and to prove our place.
But perhaps true belonging begins the moment we no longer need to prove that place.
Perhaps it begins when the Observer, the body, the mind, and the soul stop fighting for authority and finally agree to listen. It is when the faith is born, and the Ego and the idea of what should be are replaced with just letting it be.
And maybe that is all belonging ever was: not a place, not a tribe, not a label, but the quiet recognition of yourself wherever life has placed you.