Belong Here. You Deserve It.

On a particularly cloudy Oakland morning, I wandered down the street enmeshed in my net of thoughts on “should I stay or should I go.” My introverted bubble burst once the black writing on the white wall next to me proclaiming “Belong here, you deserve it” grabbed my undivided attention. It all happened in the same split second as I thought “I’m probably overstaying my welcome.”

Maybe Oakland holds space for us all? A plethora of nationalities, ethnicities, and spiritual inclinations. People who were born and raised, and the forever young who migrates. Smelly hippies, thugs, techheads, burners, nutty professors, hipsters, yogis and artists all co-creating a hub to call home.

After four years I feel like a true Bay Aerian. At the same time my rootless nature pokes me with bursts of restlessness as never before. Maybe that’s part of it as well. Perhaps this is my Shangri-la and I need search no more?

Home is where the heart is according to the saying. What happens to the divided heart who equally resides amongst a Norwegian winter’s first snowflakes and the Golden Gate Bridge? The lesson I take from the writings on the wall is to practice feeling like I belong wherever I am, inside and out. Because I deserve it, and so do you regardless of where you’re from and where you reside!