Often I have wondered why we can't just be like animals. Or like trees. They never seem to have any difficulty finding out what they are meant to do with life. They just get on with being fox or crow or birch.

Our huge human brains make it more complicated for us though. That, and the luxury of free choice that our Western culture gives us. Unlike our ancestors, we aren't born into our parents' trade, or into a tribe where we belong from the day we are born. We have to make our own path in life, and for some of us that can make it very difficult to find a community where we feel at home, or a role in life that fits us.As we are searching for a home for our souls and our creativity, our confidence can easily be knocked. It can be hard to find our place in life, especially when the role that is naturally ours is not one that easily fits into our culture.

In my last post, I spoke of my calling to be a priestess. Actually admitting that much is hard even now. It is not an answer that a little girl will give when you ask her what she wants to be. It took me ages to work it out. And it isn't easy to work out how to actually live out that role.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this. There must be many people, healers, dancers, poets, who are told by their parents and their culture that what they do isn't a 'real job', that they should really be something else. And people do. They try to be something that fits into the have-more-get-more culture that we live in, and they get desperately unhappy hiding their true light. They may even feel worthless. I have certainly had such feelings myself.

Right now, though, I feel very lucky. I have a community, a tribe, that is getting to know me for who I am. Again, it has taken me years to work out just how much this group of people means to me. But the tribe of OBOD Camps is a true spiritual community that gives people the opportunity to shine their own light. Not only do they value everyone's unique gift, they give it food and shelter and allow it to grow tenfold. This Lughnasadh, I threw all caution to the wind and did my work for my tribe. And I was given so much in return.

I learned more about myself and what being a priestess means and feels like than I did in years of training courses and private meditations. Three things were crucial for me. First, I had decided a few weeks before that I my spiritual work needed to be at the centre of my life. Second, my tribe gave me the opportunity to do that work in service of others. And third, I let go of the limitations I have put on myself for so long. I shook of my feelings of worthlessness and not-belonging and just allowed my heart to open to my goddess and my people. I let my light shine.

As it happens, many OBOD camps are held close to the town of Highworth in Wiltshire. Thank you, Ian, for pointing that out. For me, it was a time of high worth at Lughnasadh.

So, if you have a dream of being something - anything, I would encourage you to find your tribe. They are out there, those people that are crazy in the same way that you are. They really do exist. It took me 35 years to find my tribe, and then another five to realise that I had. If I can do it, so can you.