Belonging

Today is Sunday and I went to Church! This is not a weekly event or part of my weekend routine, but I like to dabble and I do quite enjoy attending St Peters on a semi regular basis. I am familiar with several members of the congregation and have some friends that are members there. Anyway the theme of todays sermon was 'belonging'. It really got me thinking, thinking about how I perceive belonging and why it is important to me.

I belong in a family and I am really blessed in that I was raised as part of an amazing family and now have the most special family of my own, this is where I feel most at home. Sometimes I feel I am searching to belong with others, wanting to fit in with people, do we all want to fit in with our friends? I think this may be human nature. I have found friends in many places some of whom will be reading this! I have people I count as friends that I only know virtually, people whose blogs I follow, people I have chatted to on forums, yet I feel like I belong with them at times!!

I have friends, real ones I have known for years that I belong with too. Times change and I don't always see them as much as I would like to. When I lived in London I had 'friends' but do you know I haven't seen many of these 'friends' for years. Some just seemed to forget about me after I moved away. I don't believe in best friends anymore, I haven't had a really close friend for years as the last one 'broke my heart', so I prefer to have a few close friends instead.

Friendships to me are like characters in a novel, some you meet at the beginning in chapter 1 and they feature heavily throughout. Others only appear in one chapter though they may have had a significant role in the story. Some drift in and out of different plots but don't really contribute a lot. Some characters you think are out of the story line and then they pop up later in the book as a surprise! I am still waiting to see who will be there in the closing pages but I am enjoying it midway through!

I am sad when characters have left my book with no obvious reason or explanation, I thought I had found some ongoing friendships but sadly people do not always feel the same way and do not want to continue as part of my storyline. I need to let people go and move on with the story as there is so much more to come and I am still supported by some amazing characters! I was fortunate enough last year to become reaquainted with a character who featured heavily over 10 years ago, this was partly due to crafting. I hope this renewed relationship continues to grow and who knows where the next chapter might take me or anyone else for that matter!

So for my current chapter I am counting the blessings that my friends bring me, especially my family who have no choice in the matter and are stuck with me. These are the main characters that 'belong' in my story, others will come and go and minor characters may contribute to minor events but overall I belong with those true friends who accept me as I am and I don't need to try with them to belong.

Thank you to those who make me feel I truly belong xxx