Sometimes I listen to music on my walk to work in the mornings. On the hottest days of summer I’ll listen to recordings of live shows and pretend I’m at a music festival, instead of thinking about how many sweaty blocks I have ahead of me. In the winter, focusing on music and lyrics gives me something to think about other than how cold my toes are despite the wool socks and boots. It’s a good distraction.
Sometimes it’s a lot more than that. Sometimes it’s exactly what I need. Like one morning last week, when Stephen Kellogg’s “We Belong Here” showed up on my Pandora rotation. The lyrics speak to that feeling we all get sometimes that we don’t fit in, don’t deserve to sit at a certain table or call ourselves by a certain title. That feeling that in some way we aren’t enough. Kellogg’s lyrics go on to address pushing past and fighting back against those feelings.
To find the courage to believe that we do belong.
For me here is being a writer. Sometimes I get stuck in a loop of thinking about the things I don’t have (a big publishing house, a ranking on some list, a certain number of books sold) and convince myself I’m not invited to the dance.
Your here may be something entirely different. It might be baking bread or making spreadsheets or going back to school. Whatever that thing is that you’re not quite sure you’re enough for but you’re really, really working hard at because you love it so much– you belong there. Just in case you needed a reminder today.
I blogged about a similar topic over at Women Writers Women’s Books this week, check it out if you have a chance!
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