We Experience Belonging in Places

Common Ground in Places_Credit: Mary Kerrigan

Finding myself, unpredictably, in coastal Ireland during lockdown a maximum 5km travel radius restricts the scope of my daily walks.

Or so I think.

As my daily comings and goings unfold I start seeing interesting parallels with another place - somewhere very well known to me - yet totally different.

That's the place where my mother grew up: a fishing village on Ireland’s east coast.

Childhood visits there involved long summer days building sand castles and sea dips at a sandy beach, all the while looking east across a border lough to a horizon of undulating hills behind.

"That's Finn McCool [the giant] lying on his back." she used to say. 

There’s a lighthouse in the water.

Lo and behold here am I, near a small fishing village.

Here, a sandy beach looks east across a border lough to the long plateau horizon where, Mannan Mac Lir, warrior and king of the otherworld, surveys the estuary from the cliff top. 

There’s a lighthouse here, too!

Later, my aunt buys a wee traditional cottage along the side of the road - two bedrooms - it's a fixer upper. 

Her cottage is on Pier Road, at the end of which sits a ruined castle. 

Called Greencastle.

Unsurprisingly the aptly named road leads to a pier - where we catch the ferry across the lough.

What place do I find for myself here - a last minute find in the midst of a rash of fully booked Airbnbs?

A wee cottage, two bedrooms, along the side of the road.

There’s a ruined castle here, too. 

Called Greencastle! 

And a pier… with a ferry taking you across the lough.

Astonishing.

Entirely different, the essential ingredients of both places are carbon copies. 

With a jolt, I realise I am experiencing belonging - in an entirely new place.

I belong.

We experience belonging in places that:

🟡 Resonate

🟡 Let us linger

🟡 Cause us to connect

What places give you belonging?

And what is it about them that does that?

Like to know more? Reach out.