Find Your Tribe

Yesterday, I wrote very briefly of the significance of our tribe ~ the people with whom we feel most comfortable. This motif has repeated itself recently, including bringing forth this image and quote.

Though we hear the call to live our passion, we don't always do that every moment of every day of every year. Many find ways to keep it alive within us even when expressing it is difficult.

The more important task is finding those who help kindle our passions and those who inspire our pursuit of them. These people comprise our tribe ~ the ones who call us on our laziness and support us through our dark moments.

Our tribe doesn't always reside in the same place. Sometimes those individuals we call part of our tribe don't like or even know each other. We aren't stagnant, single fixtures even with our passions. So our tribe may not be either.

Obviously, I write. Each person who reads my blogs is part of my tribe. By showing up and reading it, you encourage me to continue to write. Is that important? Yes. It fans my personal flames even when I feel discouraged.

I have other writing tribe members. Some are friends who've read my letters, blogs and stories over the years, encouraging me to continue. Writing course and group members who point out phrasing that strikes them in a positive or negative manner. Writers whose works I read and whose style I may in some way emulate or incorporate into my personal voice.

Beyond writing, I have tribal membership with spiritual groups. I have learned about different forms of divination, including tarot, dreams, astrology, shamanism ~ each of them calling forth their own tribes. These tribes sometimes overlap with each other as well as with my writing, family or work tribes.

Everywhere I go, in every form of passion I have, I find people who fan my flames. And whose flames I, in turn, also fan. Being part of a tribe is like that. It's as important to have others who provide you with true inspiration as it is to provide them with inspiration.

What tribes do you belong to? What passions are awake within you? Who fans the flame of those passions? How do you fan the flames of others' passions? What support do you need? How do you ask for it? What support are you willing to give others? Do you find yourself supporting others who do not support you? Do these relationships feel tribal to you?

I Will Be Myself

In high school ~ in a previous iteration of myself ~ I researched and wrote a paper on the Brontë sisters who are currently edging into popularity again, perhaps because it's more commonly known that they used masculine identities to publish their works.

My personal favorite of their books continues to be Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë intentionally wrote her character as a plain and rough-edged woman as well as strong-willed, forthright and devoted. One of Jane's statements is the quote on the image:

"I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself."

That statement epitomizes what consistently endears the book and its heroine to me, wrapped particularly in those last four words: I will be myself. Born into a middle-class urban family with many privileges, the fact remained that I was a female in a decidedly androcentric world. Being as intelligent as any of the young men in my class and surrounded by young women with the same level of intelligence and potential, nevertheless, we females were not encouraged to express our full selves. The expectations were different; the focus askew, never quite the same.

Now, decades later, as I stride forth into retirement, I am again confronted by that sentiment: I will be myself. How has that expressed itself through me over the years?

• Opposing the attempted anonymity of my neighbors when their prejudices frothed ugly when my not-like-them friend showed up on my doorstep.
• Standing beside an ostracized newlywed couple whose husband chose to leave the priesthood for love of his bride.
• Attending the NGO Forum before the 4th World Conference on Women.
• Participating in the extraordinary ordinations of women to the priesthood.
• Honoring the individuality and capacity for self-determination of every person.
• Marching in the Women's March the day after the inauguration.

Looking around me as I type this at my local coffee shop, I sense the diversity of my connections within my community. Over time, I grow more and more cognizant of the occasions when I allowed others to define me, when I remained silent for fear of being caught out, when I kept my support, vision and voice subdued. I have awakened to the strength of my desire and determination to live into the words of Charlotte Brontë in the voice of Jane Eyre: I will be myself.

How has your presentation of yourself in the world changed over your life? What interferes with you being yourself? Where are you most challenged to fit in? How diverse are your connections? Where are you most comfortable in being yourself? Where are you least comfortable?

July 2016 Capricorn Full Moon

One theme of July's Full Moon is letting go. Letting go what no longer serves us. Letting go the past. Letting go regrets. Letting go the tight controls we put on our emotions. Another word for all of this might be surrender. It's not a passive release. It's an active process of allowing for experience, expression and exhalation.

Allow the experience of remembering and considering what is holding us back from being or doing our best. Allow the expression of regret, grief, fear or whatever other emotions bubble up. Allow the exhalation of pent-up breath, tears, exhaustion and worry. The Capricorn Full Moon is present to support us as we dig deep into our very selves, call up our shadows and bear our souls.

Uranus, the Ultimate Awakener, and Eris, the Goddess of Chaos, are square to the Full Moon as well helping to shake the foundations to cause destruction of the old and rebuilding of something new and better. This is the time to rebalance and refocus on our higher path, realign our earthly self with our heavenly self, bring the ideal into reality.

What do you need to let go of? What no longer serves your best good? What feeling/s are cramped inside you, waiting to be released? How will you move forward from here? How will you embrace the healing and joining of your earthly self and your heavenly one?