My Tribe
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Illustration by Caila Jo Hood
When I say I have found my tribe what I mean is that I have found a community of people I enjoy sharing Earth with. Really. My tribe is the people I stand next to while I cook, while I work, while I play, while I mourn, while I grow—and who stand next to me. Life comes at us, one moment after the next, and how we respond defines us. My tribe is made simply of the people who have responded beautifully, as well as they could, as effectively and hilariously and deliciously and disastrously and helpfully as they could. During one of those moments, that person did it right. Not necessarily gracefully or even well, but right. It fit. They made it all work.
My tribe is not all people I like. It is not all people I agree with or even get along with. There are people I love dearly who I cannot stand to be in the same room with for very long. But those moments that come at us change everything. Sometimes it is subtle, sometimes startling, but there is always change. A deeper smile line. A new scar. A work of art.
My tribe is not a still pond. Some days it rages and thrashes like the ocean in a storm. Some days it is all four seasons at once. We are many and varied and ever, ever changing and we are doing it together here on this planet. We may not always be entirely happy about all of it—hell, some days, some moments, it’s absolutely infuriating to be human. But I am. We are. And the fury is an energy that can be directed, blended, integrated. It need not be an isolated cold fury that hardens the heart, but can instead be shared and warmed and used to promote change. The further we share it the greater the chance that the change will integrate and spread out in a trillion little ways.
And this is what we do. We offer of ourselves, we share and accept from one another, and who we are and what we want to do with our lives becomes part of what we are all doing with our lives. We become a whole by being together. By joining our flames, our passions, we light the way toward the future.
Watch us shine.
When I discovered that “bohemian" was its own separate thing, that all humans don’t have an innate appreciation for beauty, truth and love, I began to see my place in all this.Not all are given to write or to speak or to paint or to build.Not all are driven to see how it all works and sing about it.I am.
My rural upbringing gave me a deep appreciation for nature and life and the cycles of being alive.My ventures into city living have grown in me a deep abiding love for my fellow humans of every color and shape and background.That love of humanity and the cycles of life are my foundation and my inspiration for writing and creating as one among many. Should my voice express some tiny perspective which unburdens or inspires another, I am fulfilled.
