Reflections 1st May

On my Mind

The changing nature of belonging

Place

I've found myself reflecting this week on the nature and complexity of belonging. It was triggered by a decision we made not to move house from where we have been for over thirty years to somewhere smaller and easier to manage as we get older.

Although the logic is sound, we underestimated how much we belong where we are. We are fortunate in where we live in Derbyshire, fronting on to the River Derwent, with ancient woodlands to the back of us in a place that has seen the beginning and end of the Industrial Revolution.

What I had not realised was the depth of the relationship we have with the land we are on, and how much we have become part of its rhythm. It's been a gradual and largely unconscious process, brought into awareness by entertaining the idea of moving, and carries with it the question of who belongs to who. The house has been where it is for around three hundred years, and the land, of course, for rather longer. The idea of own…