Recipe for Belonging

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1⁄2 cup unsalted butter

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3⁄4 teaspoons baking powder

1⁄2 cup milk

Directions

1) Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9-inch square cake pan.

2) Beat sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until lighter in color and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating briefly after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

3) Combine flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients in batches, alternating with milk, beating cake batter briefly after each addition.

4) Pour cake batter into the prepared pan.

5) Bake cake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 to 40 minutes.

6) Remove from the oven and cool completely. Frost and enjoy!

Did you carefully read all of the ingredients and steps? Maybe you did or maybe you skimmed it, but it doesn’t matter since you’re not going to bake a cake at this moment. You’ll probably be a lot more careful with reading the instructions once you actually prepare to make a cake. Why? Because the ingredients and directions matter.

Following the instructions of a baking recipe is important. You need to make sure that you have all the ingredients and tools necessary to make your cake. Without flour, the cake won’t have any structure and it’ll turn into a liquidy mess. Without sugar, the cake won’t be sweet and it’ll have a dry or rubbery texture. Without eggs, the cake might become dense, crumbly, and not hold together. Returning to the list of ingredients, notice how each ingredient has an exact measurement? This is accomplished through multiple measuring tools, each serving a different yet precise purpose. And in the directions, you’ll need pans, bowls, the oven and a mixer. These are all necessary to bake a cake.

Each ingredient and tool used to assemble a cake serves an important purpose. Everything is needed and everything belongs. The lack of something can change the entire outcome of the cake.

In many ways, life and our search for belonging is the same. Every person, every experience, and every quality we bring into the world plays a role in who we are and how we connect with others. Just like the sugar in a cake or the pan needed to bake a cake, everything is needed, everyone belongs.

In life, the experiences and traits of every individual—their culture, their stories, their personalities—is what creates a sense of identity. This can expand into forming connections with those around us, strengthening a community. We all have different strengths, and together we form something greater. When we start to believe that we don’t belong, it’s like taking the sugar out of a cake where the end result is incomplete, or not having a pan where the end result can’t even be reached.

Even ingredients that seem small, like baking powder, can make a big difference. It might not seem like much, but baking powder is crucial for helping cakes rise. In the same way, the smallest actions from remembering someone’s name to a simple word of encouragement can create a significant sense of belonging. These things that you might have done for someone or someone might have done for you demonstrate a welcoming connection among individuals.

Like a cake, everything has a purpose. Even the smallest elements matter greatly and the right tools can create an amazing outcome. You and I, we are all important and belong in this recipe of life. Whether we’re the flour or vanilla extract, the pan or oven mitt, we are needed. You and I, we belong.