Sense of belonging

I got this quote from the internet: “I feel like an outsider, and I always will feel like one,” the autistic writer Anne Rice once said, in an internet interview. “I’ve always felt that I wasn’t a member of any particular group.”

And I found Anne Rice speaking my mind.

I had been encouraged, pushed to foster a sense of belonging, mostly with people in my former church. The pastor told me I had to make an effort as well, the problem didn't just lie with others' insensitivity or unfriendliness.

I did try, but was never successful. I always felt out of place. I used to say that I was a poet in a time when poetry was no longer read.

Could you allow me to stay in this lack of belonging? Could you leave me be myself even though you find it weird? Our worlds are a bit different, that's all.