Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko Pa-Turner - A Book Review

I spent the first month of summer just carrying the book around, getting a feel for it in my hands and studying the captivating cover. Then I started reading, and I started remembering, and I kind of started Belonging.

The book is split into nineteen manageable chapters that greatly accompanied my busy summer schedule. Perhaps the earlier chapters could be read out of order but once you near the end, the conclusions you draw require chronology. While exploring dream theory and spirituality, this book simultaneously engages your mind and soul in considerations of ‘False Belonging,’ ‘Pain as Sacred Ally,’ ‘Holy Longing,’ and other riveting subjects. It reminds you what you have to remember and why you should want to remember it.

Discussions of origin, ancestry, and generational trauma absorbed my attention throughout the book. I had never before considered how pain and hurt are carried through families and how not knowing my own ancestry could be holding me back in my own self-actualization. Furthermore, learning to accept and welcome difficult emotions into life was a lesson this book offered. Receiving your own emotions as valid and meaningful is one way we accept ourselves and create our own belonging. Essentially, belonging is just being okay in your own longing. The book also included ways to embrace your livelihood, reminding you how it feels to create and accomplish, how it feels to have a community, and how the world has changed.

It’s reassuring to know that I am not crazy. This book made me realize how much has changed and how much is missing in modern life. Generations before us were much more connected, thus a longing for more is justified. The world today reeks of greed and exploitation that once didn’t exist. We’re expected to be grateful for a mountain of privilege, not outraged that children somewhere are starving because of it. This book helps to reconcile this false belonging we have tolerated for so long. It’s a soothing read, an emotional read, and a powerful read. It reminded me how important remembering is and reminded me that I deserve to belong.