Belonging is not only received — it is owed. The community that holds you has a claim on your presence, your contribution, your willingness to show up for others the way others have shown up for you. The person who takes belonging without returning it eventually finds that the community cannot sustain the imbalance. What you owe is roughly proportional to what you have received — and the honest accounting of that is its own form of examined life.
Each step builds on the last.