Once Upon A Tribe

When trying to decide what my very first post should be about, I stewed over so many ideas spanning a wide range of topics. I have so many things I want to talk about! But then I had to remind myself, “Pace yourself, Heather. You’ve got a lot of time, quit trying to do it all at once,” which, if you know anything about me, is something I tend to do. Overdoing it is one of my special gifts – often in great ways, but sometimes to a fault.

To be honest, the idea of Our Whole Tribe came to me last spring. I was mentally gearing up for our annual East Coast road trip, during which we visit so much of our tribe. I wanted to document it, story it, and walk through it with whomever was interested. For whatever reason, I didn’t want to use my already established personal Instagram page, although in hindsight, that was probably silly. What can I say, I got excited, didn’t think it through, and overdid it. Again. You’ll begin to see a theme.

When I was choosing a name, I wanted it to encompass a few main ideas:

1) I wanted to pay tribute to the ever expanding and always fantastic group of people and families that we have connected ourselves to over time and distance. Our tribe, as it were.

2) I also wanted to include the continual health journey that we find ourselves on, doing Whole30’s, establishing our movement routines, and raising a family who appreciates not just the importance, but the necessity, of being aware of what we put in our bodies and the joy in how we move them.

3) Also, we are a military family. We live by kind of non standard rules in some ways. We travel a lot, we move a lot, we have had a lot of homes and it can often feel challenging to instill in our kids that sense of place that so many families build over time when rooted to the same town or even home. People often ask so many questions about how we travel with littles, how do we manage so many moves, isn’t it hard to have your spouse away so much? The list goes on – and, as we approach yet another relocation, I’d like to address some of the crazy little details that go into being a military family on the move.

In the end, I knew it was time. I have been wanting to start a blog for such a long time. I’ve made a few half hearted attempts at it over the years, but nothing ever felt like something I was meant to do. When I went to name my Instagram and saw that this name wasn’t taken, I couldn’t believe it. The name had come to me so randomly – I think we were eating dinner or something. When I though of it, I simultaneously thought, there is no way that name is available. Then, when it was, I immediately checked Gmail – the email wasn’t taken either. Then I googled for a website. Nary a site could be found. That just seemed like kismet to me.

I’m not entirely sure where this is headed, but I know I have a million thoughts that I’d like to share over many posts. I highly encourage anyone reading to ask questions, make comments, share stories. Stories are my favorite. I’ve got reams and reams of stories to share. But one of my favorite things is hearing and reading other people’s stories – I’ve been an autobiographical junkie for eons. I want this to be a forum and community where people can either find a little bit of themselves reflected or maybe just enjoy a story about a recipe I’m loving, an adventure we had, or a challenge we are facing. And trust me, there will be plenty of those to come. Regardless of why you came, I hope you stick around and enjoy Our Whole Tribe!