🟢 The Hidden Journey Behind Every Home Search: Longing and Belonging

FROM THE CALM AGENT DESK

How Longing and Belonging Shape the True Meaning of Home

Finding a house is never just a transaction. It's a search powered by some of the deepest forces in the human heart: longing, belonging, and the desire for connection.

After listening to Susan Cain on The One You Feed podcast and later reading her book Bittersweet, I thought about how deeply her ideas about longing, belonging, and beauty mirror the real search for "home." Alongside the timeless wisdom of Rumi and Homer, they reveal powerful dimensions that can help us serve our clients more meaningfully.

1. Longing for a "Home" Runs Deep

At the core of every search for a home lies a profound longing — not just for a property, but for a place of ultimate peace and union.

Ancient traditions and literature reveal this deeper yearning:

• The Garden of Eden, Mecca, and the soul’s return to God each symbolize the longing from a religious perspective.

• In Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses’s heroic journey is driven by homesickness, his aching need to return to Ithaca.

• In the Sufi tradition, longing is referred to as the soul’s craving to "go home," a profound pull towards its true origin.

• Rumi captures it beautifully: "All language is a longing for home."

When clients search for a house, they're often pursuing something far larger: a safe place where they feel whole, secure, and profoundly belong.

2. Belonging and Connection as the Force That Carries Us Home

While the longing for home is innate, it is belonging that carries us there.

In her conversation on The One You Feed podcast, Susan Cain shares how shared sorrow and vulnerability create bonds that move us closer to peace, when we recognize the same feelings of pain and separation in others, a natural connection forms.

Even knowing the impermanence of life, we grieve. In that shared grief, we find a union that transcends sorrow.

Belonging is not something we find after healing. It is the force that heals. Through connection, we move closer to home.

Rumi echoes this:

3. Turning Toward Beauty as a Way to Channel Longing and Foster Belonging

The bittersweet state, shaped by longing, holds the potential for wonder, awe, and transcendence, but can also give rise to sorrow and anxiety. One way to navigate this is to consciously turn toward beauty wherever we find it.

Susan Cain describes this practice as "marshalling the powers of a bittersweet way of being." Seeking and sharing beauty — through art, nature, or small moments — creates a community connected by shared appreciation, and transforms longing into belonging.

This movement toward beauty does not eliminate longing. It channels it toward connection, transcendence, and a deeper sense of home.

Rumi captures this, reminding us that home is found not only in a place, but in a deeper, internal state.

REAL ESTATE NEWS

Bankrate’s Housing Market Predictions for the Rest of 2025

Bankrate’s latest outlook points to three major trends:

1. Mortgage rates are expected to remain elevated through most of 2025, with limited Fed cuts.

2. Home prices will likely continue rising, but at a slower pace.

3. Low inventory will continue to keep the market competitive for buyers.

The full report offers a detailed view of where the market might be headed. Read more →

 AI UPDATES

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AI Avatars in Court: A Reminder About Legal Boundaries
A defendant in New York tried to use an AI avatar to argue his appeal. The judge rejected it quickly, raising concerns about transparency and authenticity. AI avatars might be clever, but they cannot protect you from legal trouble. Staying compliant is still non-negotiable for real estate professionals. Read more →

AI Vision Takes a Step Forward
xAI’s Grok chatbot can now "see" through a smartphone camera, recognizing objects, text, and environments in real time. While I have not tested it yet, tools like this could eventually support agents during property viewings, offering new ways to gather information on-site. Read more →

AI PRODUCTIVITY

Tuning How AI Talks to You

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently noted that GPT-4o has become overly flattering and cautious. In a Verge interview, he acknowledged that the latest model is "too nice," sometimes at the cost of giving clear, direct answers.

To get sharper and more factual responses from ChatGPT, you can use this simple prompt:

There is such a thing as being too nice.

Calm Agent ChatGPT Playbook for Real Estate Agents is here!

Access it in the Calm Agent AI Suite on the website. Here is a link to the download page.