It is through dwelling in the place that we belong. A process of making one's home, stories and memories. We make connections with the social, material and imagined surroundings. It requires movement: movement when walking through the streets, getting to know every stone and corner; movement when making your home yours, painting or finding your favourite spot; movement of interacting with others, walking, talking, shaking hands, dancing, eating... We belong.  
Through movement things become familiar to us, we start making memories and stories, which even in its most mundane form can become powerful anchors.

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Do you remember your lockdown walks? Did you choose to go always the same route, seeing the small changes in the nature when the spring brings the flowers into bloom? Or did you try to pick every day a different route, exploring streets and ways you did not even know existed?
 
I did both. I learned to love my familiar walk around the block. I still walk it often the same way. Seeing this year those flowers bloom I was looking back to it all. I will never forget the flowers. I also became a tourist in my home city, photographing sites without people, discovering small details I had passed by for the past years without noticing. 

I call this my home city. It didn't used to be. Now though, and always in my memories, it is a home in Belfast. 

In a public space, walking is social interaction through movement even when done alone. People, who you might not see, can see you pass their windows. You might bump into someone. A person behind the corner might hear you humming that song that has been stuck in your head the whole day. A walk is a performance, a process where you bind yourself to the space. The people might start recognising you, know you belong here, start smiling when passing by, give a nod, say hello or even ask how you are doing. Months or years pass and you notice that you have walked yourself into the social memory of a space.

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You belong.