Belonging

There is something deeply unnatural about asking a young person to build a life without belonging. We would never look at our own children on their eighteenth birthday and say, “Good luck. You’re completely on your own now.” Most families continue to offer support, wisdom, encouragement, financial help, a place to return, and the quiet…

Over the years, I have become increasingly convinced that many of the struggles we see in young people, families, and even entire communities are not simply behavioral problems, emotional problems, economic problems, or even trauma problems at their core. Beneath so much of what we are witnessing is a profound crisis of belonging. Not surface-level…