November Welcome – Live Well, Travel Well, and Breathe Hatteras Island
Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving island style
Fall festivals, community events, and family gatherings are upon us this month. If you are on Hatteras Island, perhaps you are celebrating Thanksgiving or even a Friendsgiving with your ‘island’ tribe. Like the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sharing their first harvest feast, it’s a time to come together and show gratitude for all that life brings.
So have you found your tribe? Finding your tribe can really help you thrive.
Sure, your family will always be your first tribe. But what about all the amazing people you meet that just seem to ‘get you’, who lift you up, where you feel comfortable in their company, and they have your back in times of need? As we go through life, we may join many different tribes or common interest groups—like our football team, a book club, pickleball, yoga shala, art class, the soccer moms, and goddess circles, etc. And let’s not forget our high school days and college clubs, when we tried so hard to fit in to those tribes back then.
Finding your tribe can be one of the hardest things you can do. Putting yourself out there takes effort and requires overcoming some fears—but the connections and rewards are so worth it. When you move or have to start over, it’s easy to feel lost until you find your ‘people’ (again). And it’s okay it takes a few tries before you find a group that’s the right fit for you. Finding your tribe means you don’t have to go it alone and gives you a sense of belonging; it makes us stronger collectively and creates opportunities to learn and grow. Remember, your tribe is also out there looking for you!
In another ‘finding your tribe’, I’m reminded of our special Outer Banks story of the ‘Lost Colony’ and great mystery in our history. Could it be the first settlers to the new world were never ‘lost’? Maybe they left Roanoke and headed south to where they found the Croatoan tribe? Was this why ‘Croatan’ was inscribed on a post and ‘CRO’ carved into a tree? And was it here on Hatteras Island they took refuge and assimilated with the Croatoans in order to survive? If you are in Buxton, stop by the Lost Colony Museum, where you can learn all about the native people of Croatoan Island (now Hatteras Island), the Kinnakeet (Avon) and Hatterask (Buxton-Frisco) groups that make up the Croatoan tribe, and the archeological discoveries that hope to solve the mystery of the missing colony and a forgotten tribe!
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Photo credit: Askar Abayev