Celebration: Dancing through a Waterfall of Fire at Burningman

 Standing almost 7 feet tall, I watched the horizontal waterfall of fire wash across the desert, clearing barriers and igniting exhilaration. The wind blew coals from the burning man across my boots and out toward the open playa. CRASH! The Man caved in on itself releasing an explosion of fire. An airborne chuck of flaming shrapnel hit me in the chest, and I laughed, because I was wearing body armor! And out of everyone in the crowd I was the safe one to hit with projectiles. Stepping to my left, I waded out of the burning river as the people surged forward and began a howling counter-clockwise run encircling the fire.

 With my 7 inch knee-high platforms with spot lights glued to the toes, body armor, EL wire, and pink spiky wig, people happily separated and flowed around me.  Someone stopped, and I picked them up in an enveloping hug until they let go of whatever cares they were holding.  I set them back down slowly; they flashed a brilliant smile continued their run.

 I stood at the edge of the fire behind a star and watched as the world circled, looking for its right position, each heart gleefully running, and hopefully pausing.  Each place in the circle was a universe of its own, and a pause in such a place brought on an expectant journey.

 Most of my week was spent in solo adventures, an unattached wanderer flying through the energy circles of a thriving, pulsing, living city, surrounded by the deep-dust space of a soul-canvas eager for the paintings of humanity.  Exploring, dancing, journeying, feeding the craving of the adventurer within, I painted the canvas with large confident strokes, proclaiming my independent connectedness.  I rode miles through the dust following a superhighway only visible to me, arriving at a spirit-paradise that only I could see, and sitting in a place that only mattered to me.  Days of this, nights of this, spirals of freedom, as my smile slowly grew into a whole-body glow. 

 I danced, climbed, played, and floated.  My spirit initially a bit intimidated by all the other playful spirits quickly began to live the celebration.  I watched sunrise after sunrise, each growing in meaning, brightness, and connectedness.  As my glow brightened I began to paint the canvas with others rather than just next to them.  I set up a slackline and taught the art of balance, here-now, and mindful movement.  I became a furry smile, gifting hugs and stability, with an ear for all troubles, and a playful heart for adventure. 

I was overflowing with life.

My journey to Burningman began 8 years ago as I slowly ingested the idea of such a radical “festival.”  But the turning point came a year ago while my friends were all at the Burn and I had my first Playa dream.  It was so intensely powerful that I woke up in the middle of the night, turned on my computer, and tried to buy a ticket. 

Post Burn dreams this year were even more prolific, and yet most were jumbled and hard to understand.  My mind-state matched, full of puzzle pieces floating around, some fitting, some not.  Most have landed now, but some I feel will continue floating unnoticed until they find the right place, setting off a sure-fire spark of connections again rocking my delicately resilient world. 

 The integration back into the world has been seamless and inspiring. The playa catapulted me through a few barriers I’ve been struggling with for awhile and only barely suspected.  Eyes open, heart open, life open; I am looking forward to the brightness of the future, but also sitting calmly in the refreshing now.

Ideas for next year are soaring, art projects, costumes, rogue prank art, love, and fire.  Rites of Passage (the theme for next year) already has its hooks in my heart, as I think it is something our world has sadly neglected, so possibilities for the upcoming burn are flying around a light speed.  Every once in awhile I catch one, and oooh it cool! But then it takes off again buzzing and gathering speed.  What they will become who knows, but right now my mind is a hive of excitement.

Burningman is a week of excess, a period of time that is extra, forgotten, out of the books, happy and free. It is a time for humans to put down the shovel and say “ok, now for me, what would I like.”

The doorway between worlds had been a pleasant one, full of its own journeys and adventures, each leaving with a completely confusing, and yet totally useful gift. Most I have yet to figure out how to use, and a few I haven’t even seen yet.

Black Rock City is a place of passion, a place of motivation, a place of freedom. Is it incredible to see what people can do when they are left alone to pursue what they love. A week is a big enough window into the soul of humanity to provide a gloriously uplifting view of what’s inside our society. It provided clues to what we crave, what we nurture, and what we don’t care for at all.

 The desert is unnatural. From the moment we arrive our body is out of its comfort zone, so we adapt, because that’s what we’re good at. We learn, and change, because that’s what we do when we’re out of our comfort zone. We work to make it comfortable. The same thing happens when we land in a far off city, country, world. We start to learn the language, figure out the public transit system, learn where to get food, where to sleep. Burningman is the same. A new world constructed right on top of the old.

We wake up, and for a moment we want to stay in our bed, because it is safe and known, but then our curiosity gets the better of us, and says “hey! There is a pretty amazing world out there to explore, go!” and so we go, and we explore, and we stay up until sunrise because there is so much exploring to do. And each person we encounter along the way through the day is part of the journey.

Black Rock City is a microcosm for the intentional existence. Thing happen at the right moment, the right place, and to the right people. This is partially a byproduct of everyone going openly, without an agenda.

So, again, what is it all for?  What do 50,000 people do when they realize the desert has changed them?  They go back “home” to the default world, and look closely at it, trying to figure out how they can sneak a bit of passion into an everyday activity. 

 The complete set of photos  can be seen here.  Take your time, enjoy, there are about 200 of them.

Navigation:

Burningman: Black Rock City, NV 

For a week every summer one of the most inhospitable places in the world, the Black Rock Desert in Northern Nevada becomes the State’s 5^th largest city boasting a population of over 50,000 (2010).

More info via Web: http://www.burningman.com/

And Twitter: http://twitter.com/burningman

Black Rock City has the luxury of being able to engineer its existence for the citizens.  About 50,000 thousand people show up, and so the street layout is designed to accommodate that.  The city itself is ingenious, and is laid out like a clock.  The area between 10:00 and 2:00 is left open for large scale art projects while the city occupies the rest.  There is a radial street every half hour (15 degrees) and circular streets organized by letter from A to K (varying by theme, this year it was city names) with an inner ring Esplanade as well as a “Center Camp” location reserved for city info-structure. The space between Esplanade and the Man has a radius of 2120 ft and is left open for Art Car operation and large scale art projects.

  Navigation in Black Rock City is simple, because of the ingenious street layout; however, finding someone specific is a miraculous combination of chance and keen observation.

 The traditional way is to know their coordinate address, which consist of a letter and a time (mine was 5:30 and C).  This narrows the search area down to a swath between 500 and 1200 feet long by 200ft wide.  Once the person’s hammock/tent/RV/car is located a note can be left with little detail:

 “Hey Friend! I came by to find you, but you were out adventuring or sleeping.  My camp is at 5:30 and Cairo come by and find me.  Love you!’ 

 That is if you brought a pen and paper and some way to affix the note in the wind.

 Then maybe they will come by and find you, or maybe they won’t find the note, or you’ll be out or sleeping when they come by.  Anyway, this process is really convoluted and only mildly successful.  So what’s the other way?

 Set an intention to find that person and then go have an adventure and see what happens, but keep your eyes open for when they show up (seriously).

 The second method is not surprisingly way more fun, but also a lot more effective.

 Number of people I found by going to their address: three

Number of people I found by setting an intention: 14

 Why does this work?  I’ve got a couple theories I love, but what do you think?  Random chance? Or is there something else?

Additional Info:

 The Festival (and organization) was founded in 1986 in San Francisco and moved to the Black Rock Desert in 1990. 

 Burningman is a 501c3 nonprofit, that uses all ticket money to put on the event, restore the playa to pristine condition afterwards and enrich the Nevada Community.

 Good history via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man

 There are Ten Principles: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/principles.html

We should all incorporate these into our everyday life, basic, and yet incredibly enriching.

  Black Rock City has a legal airport designated 88NV by the FAA.  “88” is coincidentally the HAM radio code for “hugs and kisses.”  Awesome.   The airport serves planes, helicopters, and many skydivers.

 It has a Department of Public Works, Fire Department, Medical Department, Post Office, Internal (as well as official) Law Enforcement, and many other “necessary” cultural structures.  Money is completely absent, except for the purchase of two things: Ice and Coffee, the profits from both which go to fund Gerlach school system.

 With the absence of money a culture of gifting has developed.  There are restaurants, bars, taxi services, hotels, all run by people who have saved up excess resources over the year and wish to share it with the community. 

 Burningman also has spawned many do-good organizations thoughts the world: “Burners Without Borders” http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/ has recently deployed to Haiti and S. America to help with earthquake relief and rebuild. 

 Black Rock Solar http://www.blackrocksolar.org/ has now installed and donated over 1 megawatt of solar power to fire departments, hospitals, schools, etc. throughout Nevada, giving back to the state that hosts Burningman.  This is approximately equal to $6,000,000 in power costs saved in the upcoming years.

Shoes are a challange on the playa.  Not wearing them is great for one day, maybe two, but the dust is really harsh on skin.  I wore my Vibram Five Fingers (an old pair) the whole time (except when wearing giant platform boots) and the VFFs were amazing. 

Burningman and Black Rock City are very odd, and hard to explain to most people, so this was an attempt to answer some of the questions I’ve gotten over the last few days/weeks/years about the structure of it.  Is there anything I missed, or that you’re still curious about?

The complete set of photos  can be seen here.  Take your time, enjoy, there are about 200 of them.

“…the difference between being “nowhere” and being “now here” is just a pause and a deep breath.”

Illumination holds the glow of my experience from the perspective of humanity and is on ElephantJournal so give them some love and read it there! Comment, discuss, yell, scream, do backflips.  Waylon already started quite a discussion via a link right in my post about why he will never go to burningman. So let’s get it started!  What do you think?  Have you been to burningman?  How many times? Why did you go?  If not, why not?  Would you go?

A stop-motion video I took Friday Morning at sunrise.  A photo every 15 seconds for 45 minutes looking east toward Lady Bliss from The Man.

The complete set of photos  can be seen here.  Take your time, enjoy, there are about 200 of them.

Bumping around the land of my childhood with two of my best friends over the last week and a half was amazing!  We spent the 4^th of July in Ashland, which is always a good time.  I went to my 10 year high school reunion, which actually deserves its own post for all the awesomeness it was!  We then headed into the Russian Wilderness in N Cali, and spent 4 days alone together next to a mountain lake soaking up the peaceful beauty of the natural world.  We watched eagles, napped in hammocks, skinny dipped in frozen lakes, and glissaded down snowy slopes.

A rising craving for the Pacific Ocean turned us West and we headed to the coast.  I spent an evening visiting two friends in Eureka who are gearing up for marriage and a life of happy excitement.  Wow!  I have never seen either of them more sparkly and amazing than they are now.  It makes me a bit giddy just to see so much well-placed love coming from these two splendid people.

We then spent a day basking in the power of the infinite expanse that is the Pacific Ocean.  There is a direct tie from this body of water to my soul.  I don’t realized how much I miss it while I’m in Colorado, but when I return to the West Coast part of me wakes up and comes out to play that refuses to share my body unless my toes are dipped in the Ocean. 

Another day we returned to the forest, the most amazing forest in the world, the redwood forest.  This place is magical, a playground for fairies, and a jungle gym for me.  There are logs to run on, trees to climb, and ancient spirits to sit next to.   Eight foot ferns create a luscious understory to the 300 to 400 ft trees who are well over a thousand years old.  It is the paradise of my soul, a place that calmly heals and revitalizes all the warn places from the rub of daily life. 

I found a tree, broken off a hundred years ago 50’ up, 15’ in diameter, that had been hollowed out by years of rainstorms leaving a solid shell surrounding a soft pile of foliage, bark, and delicate tree tissue.  I sat in this place and listened to the silence of the forest.  Many feet of wood on all sides shielded the sound of the world from my ears while magnifying the living energy of the place and funneling it right into my soul.  I could have stayed for hours drinking in life for this was a place where only the most positive moments exist, strung together into a calmly ascending journey backwards and forwards through the mists of space-time.

We returned to the Rogue Valley, and I spent a day talking to my dad, and working with him in the garden that has provided so much vitality to his corner of the world recently.  We dug up 3 wheel barrow loads of garlic, and started braiding them for winter storage.  I love getting my hands filthy with growing things. 

My dad is one of the most inspiring people to talk to, for unlike a lot of the world, as he ages he continues to fling himself into life, deepening each experience as his yeas continue to present him with more and more opportunities for growth and wonder.  We go places in our conversations that I seldom go with anyone else, places that catapult the human race into new realms of meaning, path, and dream-creation.  I feel certain we have a serious adventure to have in the near future, and I’m looking forward to it while trying not to be too anxious.

My brother bought a house recently with his girlfriend.  It’s amazing seeing him fully arrive in life each day, and make the moments peacefully strong around him.  We spent an afternoon at this house, sharing time with all the family of Oregon.  Wow!  Such beauty in age and experience.  From my Grandpa and Martha at over 90 to Toren at less than 1 there is a true energetic happiness and curiosity in the world I seldom see.  The true gift of a multigenerational family smacks me in the chest every time we all get together.  THIS is the way we are meant to love, to live, to share the world.  The gifts and experience of all can be shared in such unique ways when everyone is living nearby.  I miss this while I’m in Colorado, but, I am following a powerful path of my own, that takes me into the unknown, motivating me, and crafting a life, that manifests opportunity and change at each turn.

I’m flying back to Oregon now, for the second half, which will involve some new souls (my brother and Sophia) as well as some new adventures .  I just spent a week in Alabama working on some amazing JWST stuff, and dang, what a crazy transition, but truly motivating in a different way.  However, now I’m back to the Pacific North West to continue on the path through Oregon, on to Montana and back to Colorado.

Pictures from the last part of the adventure!

I feel like high school was like running through a beautiful garden with my eyes closed.  I don’t have any idea what wonderful opportunities I might have missed!  All other parts of my life have been conscious, intentional, but high school, I skipped.  What did I miss?  What connections were possible, what explorations could have happened?  Who knows, but I’d like to find out.

Anyway, in case I don’t make it.  I sent this little note to the reunion coordinators.  It’s kind of odd writing up “a blurb about what I’ve been up to.”  here we go.

Exploring, adventuring, learning, teaching, helping
 
I’m working to start an intentional community, figure out a way to sustainably travel the world, seem to end up in costume about once a week, sleep less, hug more, and looking forward to the continued upswing of life as each year continues to top the last.
 
My blog if you want to follow my adventures: LarkInFlight.com
 
And a couple key projects going on:
 
 Space Science:I’m finishing up 6 years of work on JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) as an Optical Engineer.  This is a baddass project creating the replacement for the Hubble, allowing me to explore the duality of light between hard science, and the unknown bits and pieces of the universe.
 
Rescue: I’m in my 4th year doing technical rescue (dive, swiftwater, ropes, search, extrication, etc) with Boulder Emergency Squad.  As the Assistant Chief I’m learning how to run a 40 person volunteer rescue team, while helping people stay alive when their body is laid on the boundary between this world and the next. 
 
Community: I help organize a bimonthly speaking event (Ignite Boulder) similar to TED giving the opportunity for 5 min, poignant presentations focused on social good, technology, humor, and community.  The last one had 1400 attendees, two bands, and not enough free beer.
 
Fun: Boulder Colorado is full on for adventure. Rocks, Rivers, Mountains, Snow.  It’s hard to focus on anything mentioned above when nature is saying “come play!”