Finding Magic in Your Tribe

Thinking back to my childhood, it felt a bit nomadic. My father was in the military, and we moved quite often, never staying in one place long enough to build deep friendships. I was quiet and shy growing up, I didn’t let people in, and I always had my guard up. Why open my heart for friendships to only have it broken when it came time to move again.

Finally, in the last quarter of my senior year in high school, we laid down roots in California. It took a couple of years to settle in before I started to feel the pangs of loneliness. I didn’t have any friends with shared experiences that went back more than a couple of years.

So I spent my 20s trying to find my people, my tribe. I so badly wanted to fit in, so I stayed in the box of other people's expectations. The only people I felt comfortable being around were my family, and even they thought of me as odd and quirky. It wasn’t until my 30s that I started to feel the stirrings of my inner journey and eventually, I found my tribe, or at least thought I had.

We had the same interests, and I even felt supported, but I started to think that my entry into the group was conditional. If I wasn’t striving towards the same goal in the same manner, I was not truly part of the group.

So, I packed up my proverbial bags, and I continued my search, but I kept