I’ve heard it said that it’s important to find your people — that place you belong where your talents are celebrated, and your quirks embraced.  Where you can unapologetically be yourself.  Where being a misnomer – finding the who.  The place doesn’t matter, it’s the people there that make up the tribe.

It took me so long time 0to find my tribe.  To find my purpose.  To find my calling.

I am a writer.  My brother and sister writers are my people.  For once, I feel like I don’t have to explain myself.  I can just be. 

I can breathe easy.

And yes, everybody is looking at me because we are writers and that is what we do.  We notice things.  And connections.  And the background.  The soundtrack.  We notice these things about one another.  It’s your tribe when you know you are being seen and you are still comfortable. 

The West Virginia Writers Annual Conference is the coming together of my tribe.  Cedar Lakes seems the perfect setting for it.  I think we might be as rooted to that ground as Appalachians are to the mountains.  Perhaps the where is important. 

This past weekend was my 4^th conference in 5 years.  I had to be dragged to my first one against my will.  I’m now leading sessions at the conference.  As the tv said in the 70s, you’ve come a long way baby. 

At the conference, it seems that I always encounter that one person or learn that one thing that rocks my world.  This year it was Doug Van Gundy and his Lascaux of the Brain.  His thoughts on the importance of sto0ry and the importance of getting them out and leaving them behind for future generations.  He postulated that perhaps before language, the first stories appeared as cave art.  I wonder.  I’m trying to remember what I was taught in my anthropology classes.  Interesting that I can’t remember that, but when a writer ties it to storytelling it’s burned on my brain.

The idea that story is what makes us human.  In the beginning was the word.  And what a sweet spirit Doug is as well as multitalented. Poet, songwriter, plays 11 instruments and still has time to teach and mentor. Oh, how I hate that I couldn’t attend one of his sessions. 

And then there was Meredith Sue Willis.  She’s a legend and lives up to it.  The consummate strength-based teacher – finding the worth in every student.  She, too, was an inspiration.  Her anything-goes theory of drafting.  Just get it down.  And then worry about shaping it and editing it and making it palatable.  Write the damn story. 

And Lee Martin, a Pulitzer nominated novelist – another sweet spirit.  He talks about the need for strong characters – character driven prose.  He was preaching to the choir with me.  Much, much story can be revealed through good character development.  That he stopped me to praise my open mic performance meant the world. 

My tribe. Mine.

And the new people I met.  Some I mentored.  Some mentored me.  New faces, old faces, a coming together of tribe that only see one another once a year.  The only thing missing was the tribal dance around the bonfire.

Or is that the purpose of the porch?  Where we come together, release our inhibitions, what’s left of them, and let our hair down.  To celebrate our coming together.  To celebrate and reinforce our bonds. 

Find your tribe.  Find your people.  It’s worth the search.