To Be Grown, Not Planted

How gardening rewilded my understanding of home

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I have been thinking a lot about what it means to belong and what home is lately. Likely because I am very far from feeling a sense of belonging. I guess I lost it as an inherent feeling a long time ago.

A house alone doesn’t create belonging. No matter how beautiful or comfortable, it cannot replace the deeper connection we crave — to people, to purpose, to place. Without these ties, what starts as security can slowly become stagnation. The walls that shelter us can just as easily enclose us.

A home, when disconnected from a larger sense of community and meaning, can become a gilded cage — comfortable, but isolating.

And isolation is the antithesis of rewilding.

For me, rewilding means continuously questioning and reshaping the way we live. How little do we really need to feel at home? What does work look like when it sustains both our livelihood and our passion? What makes a friendship fulfilling? What does community living feel like? These aren’t just theoretical questions — they are a way of engaging with life, of resisting the pull toward passive acceptance. Because true belonging isn’t about having the perfect home; it’s about being deeply, intentionally connected to the world around us.