Belonging

There is a quotation I found on a community planning website shortly after I came North. It reached into my chest and touched my heart. It seemed to encapsulate my feeling toward this new place in which I had found myself, and it spoke to me of hope.

"When people feel they 'belong' to a neighbourhood which is theirs through their own efforts, then it will become a place which is worth struggling to retain and develop. People will safeguard what they have helped to create."*

I feel that way about this place most of the time - I want this town to continue, I want this town to thrive. I want to promote this town to the world outside, to say, "I came here, and look! I became part of something - not because I want to take over and tell people what to do, but because I want us all to develop and retain this place to which we all belong!"

It's a bit lofty, I know, but it keeps me going.


*Lord Scarman and Tony Gibson, The Guardian, 11 December 1991 [emphasis mine]