There is a way that the holidays bring back old memories and nostalgia about the past. But when your life is spread over two different continents, those memories come with a subtle ache of disconnection – old traditions, songs, or even jokes …embedded in cultural nuances of what once was ‘home’. 

It’s odd. You can be so fully implanted into this life you’ve built – one you can’t even believe you get to live!

And yet. There is this longing.
Not to go back.
But to relate.

Or perhaps more accurately, to belong.

Problem is going back only reminds you of how much you’ve changed. Because you can go back ‘home’, make an old cultural reference, and feel the connection of not having to explain.

But then the very next moment, you’re having to explain the new you.

One moment you mispronounce an Albanian word much to your Albanian family’s amusement. And the next, you’re not quite sure if you’re using the right English preposition.

And you realize you can play the part, but you’re not quite fully part of it. You know the rhythm, but your heart beats a step off.

You know what it’s like to be a stranger in a foreign country.
And you know what it’s like to be a stranger in your own country.

And you don’t know what’s harder.

But you do know this. You don’t have to move across continents to feel like you don’t belong – though that does add layers only few understand. You can feel like you don’t belong in your own backyard.

Because truth is belonging is a Who, not a where.

You are made to belong with the One that understands and knows.

Knows all of it. Knows all of you. No miscommunication. No room for error. No need to explain, clarify or translate.

There is a way that the holidays remind you that there isn’t a place really where you truly belong.
And somehow that anchors your soul in ways you did not even know you needed.

Because true belonging is not a place at all, it’s a Who.