Halfway through coding the transcripts, a pattern I didn't expect: people describe belonging in the language of maintenance, not arrival.
We often talk about belonging as a destination — a club we enter, a house we build, a group we finally fit into. But when you ask people to describe the moments they felt most secure, they talk about small, recurring labors: returning a phone call, checking in after a bad day, acknowledging a minor achievement. It is a garden, not a building.