Take Me to Your People: finding those who lift you up

Finding your tribe, the people who breathe life into you day after day, is not an easy task. No one teaches us how to find these people, but they are so very important to our well-being, to our happiness, to our very ability to say "Yes!" to the life we have built, even on the days it attempts to tear us down. At this point in my life, I have watched my five children work their way through the K-12 years. I have comforted them when friends moved away. I have wiped tears when "friends" were unkind and needed to shift into a different lane. I have attempted to be level-headed as, more often than I would have thought possible through my rose-colored glasses, we embarked on the conversation that begins with, "X is so mean!". Repeatedly I have asked myself, "When did this get so hard?"

I remember childhood days in my neighborhood. If the sun was out, so were the kids. We didn't have to look for the neighborhood kids who lifted us up. We all lifted each other. Sure, there were the few kids who when they turned the corner the rest of us would heave a sigh of...a sigh of what?...Maybe, "This isn't what I would have asked for, this changes things, but we can make it work."  And we did. We invited others in. We switched the game. We repeated the rules. We came out with snacks for everyone...even the kid who might be a little bit edgy or mean spirited. Most of the time we had fun. Sometimes kids had to be reminded to not be a "dweeb". haha!  But even that was done in a way that endeavored to include. We wanted to lift. We wanted to live. We wanted to just have fun.

Where did that go? Why did that go? And how do we navigate this new social landscape? As a mom and as a middle school teacher, I try to help the younger people in my life know their people and kindly dismiss those who threaten their well-being. But as adults it is just as imperative that we find others who will lift us up and share the higher ground. Hopefully we find that in the people who share our dwelling, but we also need it in the workplace. Have you found your people? Do you have someone or a few someones, to whom you can go when you need a smile, or a mental hug, or a mental shot of something strong enough to get you through the day? And how do you find them? For me, it is in the shared joys of the day. It is in the shared 'what the ...?' of the day. And it is in the shared understanding that we are in this together and we believe in the good of each other even on the days when life's circumstances bring out our worst. These are my people, and as we near the end of Spring Break, I find that I am not completely disappointed that my break from work is coming to an end because next week I get to reunite with my people and enjoy again all the joy, laughs and energy they bring to my life!

Enjoy reading what I write? Copies of my book, Connections Across the Student Desk, are available on Amazon: LINK HERE  or Barnes and Noble: LINK HERE

Wish I could come speak to your staff and colleagues? Give me the topic, I'll make it come alive! Contact me! maccaronicrew@outlook.com