Your Niche is Your Tribe

This one I dedicate to anyone who has ever felt out of place in life, especially the younger people who are just finding their way. Life can be hard enough when you have the skill set to deal with pressure to fit in, but when you are young or insecure because you can't identify and others verbally say or show you that they refuse to identify with you, where can you turn?

I faced this growing up and found that being honest was the best way to find those who cared about me. I owned my voice, as small as I was, and gained the interest of a beloved teacher. I had no one else. As I got older, I learned to trust this process. I turned away from friends who were at an imbalance with the vibrations I could feel inside and turned to those who felt right and helped me create the world as I wished to experience it. It served me well. I learned to imagine and write in the process and it is my passion and career today. I learned early that it is okay to say yes to me. It is not only okay, it is essential.

My latest book selection highlighted this for me last night and it was reiterated today in a song whose words resonated with me. Both indicate that the human spirit and each individual is endowed with a uniqueness that has to be discovered and celebrated by the self and in doing that, one finds their niche, their crowd, their tribe, their love.

Try getting in tune with yourself by asking, what lights a fire under me or what would I do if I could do anything and be paid for it? As long as it does not hurt you or anyone else, you may have a clue as to what the universe can help you create and the world that you can experience. You want magic and wonderment? It's out there to be had. Some lives are like a fairy tale. In fact, the book of wisdom says that a man's gifts will take him before kings and the ride there, we can imagine, would be pretty superb too.

Finding your niche is finding your tribe, because as we get older we need others. Young people feel this keenly but, as we move towards older age, we also need to give back and to feel that we have created. If we haven't, there is a tremendous feeling of despair and isolation. It is a warning that I loved hearing in the song that I woke up to this morning, "Runnin' (Lose It All)" by Naughty Boy featuring Beyoncé and Arrow Benjamin. The words and the emotions provoked by that song are prolific. Are you willing to go all in for the passion you have inside?

We don't want to run from ourselves and we must be willing to stand alone and for ourselves wherever that may take us. We can trust that we won't be alone forever. Life is relationship to the self and others. If you deny yourself, how can you truly relate to others and how can they relate to you? They can't really see you to know if they fit in.

So if you find that your present circumstances do not match with what is in your spirit and what you have to offer inside, don't be afraid to break away and develop your talent, pursue your loves and interests. That niche will reveal itself, if you don't already know, and your tribe will find you.

There's nothing like being loved from the soul of someone who can perfectly mirror you. Nothing like being of the same mind with attributes that build each other up and complement. That is the power of the true tribe. It is to build that legacy together, each one contributing a gift of his own.