Morning Rituals

I’ve been working on forming my Morning Rituals for 2011. Haven’t figured out the best order yet, but here’s pretty much what I do every morning when I wake up:

Make my bed.

Touch my toes  & twist ten times (per the counsel of my Ayurvedic doctor).

Brush my teeth.

Make Roastaroma tea (my caffeine-free coffee substitute; add hemp milk & cinnamon).

Writing: Three Morning Pages Exercise from The Artist’s Way, Appreciation List, How I’d spend $1,000 if I had to spend $1,000 per day.

Meditation: Guided Meditation from Abraham-Hick’s Getting into the Vortex, Blissitations by Alexandra Jaye Johnson, silent meditation for 15 minutes (with my Just Sit Android app), Money Chant.

Toe Yoga.

30 Minutes of running (training for my first half marathon in May) or walking.

Listen to a Philosopher’s Notes while eating breakfast (fruit & nuts).

Review my Budget/Money Energy List and my “Live Free and Clear” snowball list (I’ve sworn not to use the d**t word).

As you can imagine, I have to get up pretty early to get all this done before 9:30am (luckily I don’t have to be to work til 10amish). I haven’t quite fixed a wake-up time yet – I’ve been getting up whenever my body wants to wake up, which (this week) has ranged between 4:43am and 6:23 am. (I haven’t been getting to bed as consistently early as I would like to).

Today I shook things up a little. I decided to start my morning at the beach.

I found a free spot a block from the beach. Thank you, parking gods!

It was sunny and gorgeous. Not too cold, not too breezy.

I did my meditations and my writing exercises.

I realized that the sound of waves crashing is almost indistinguishable from the sound of thunder rolling.

A ladybug landed on me and stayed awhile:

Which reminded me that I wrote a blog post about the symbolism of Ladybugs on my other blog, amicamore.com, about 6 months ago. According to lore, I should be meeting my true love in about 2 months (if the ladybug did its job; and assuming the ladybug didn’t take a plane instead of flying all the way. Which she may have, so it’s possible I’ve already met him. Or maybe it’s the same ladybug coming back to tell me that *I* am my own true love…).

As I concluded in that blog, either way it doesn’t really matter, since I’m over here, enjoying myself.

Let It Go, Let It Flow...

Row Row Row Your Boat

Gently Down The Stream…

Merrily, Merrily Merrily, Merrily

Life Is But A Dream.

 

 

Burning Woman: A Birgin’s Experience

I’ll start with admitting that it’s impossible to really describe the all-senses, non-stop assault experience of Burning Man.

As Campbell/Kant said, “The best things can’t be told because they transcend thought. The second best are misunderstood, because those are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which can’t be thought about. The third best are what we talk about.”

So, you’re getting third best here.

First off, I’ve never laughed so much in my life.

Secondly, and more importantly, I met someone amazing at Burning Man – myself.

Best moment? Too many. Maybe dancing on a mutant vehicle/art car/boat overlooking the Playa just after the Burn, above a sea of colorful, blinking, undulating lights…or seeing a Double Rainbow the first day, after which everyone ran through the muddy streets screaming, “What does it MEEEEEEEEEEEAN?????”…or our shenanigans with a mannequin head that we found and named Ana and painted a beard on…or the amazing conversation I had on Tuesday night with some dimpled guy named Dean who saw right through me, ripped me apart, made me cry (in a good, cathartic way), then told me I’d have a son named Tyler…or looking out over the horizon from the Death Star mutant vehicle and being unable to tell where the sky ended and the earth began, so it seemed that the rainbow of crazy lights were floating through the darkness of the universe…or dancing with complete abandon with my newfound friends and my amazing housemate inside the giant dome at Root Society…or riding out to the Temple in a dust storm and coming across a line of huge wind chimes as a huge white monster emerged from the dust…or watching the much-anticipated sun rise with thousands of other people clad all in white…or snaking our way up to the edge of the Burn on a human wave of barely-controlled mayhem, risking third degree burns, incineration by fireworks, and death.

Burning Man at night.

Dancing after the Burn

My roommate/travel buddy & I in our dust gear.

The Man at sunrise.

There was much dancing!

Upon returning, I found myself afraid to watch TV and risk diluting my memories. Burning Man was like a dream – surreal, fantastical, much of it utter nonsense. Like the man with the megaphone singing dolphin songs. There were so many unique moments, it was impossible to retain all of them. People there were playful, enjoying themselves, living life. When we left and got back to Reno, everyone we saw seemed so bored, dull & lifeless in comparison.

Walking through the hotel lobby, I realized how much I’d enjoyed not being advertised to AT ALL for an entire week. I also enjoyed not having to think about money. No calculating, no feelings of lack, no negotiating as to whether I could afford this or that or whether it was worth it. I also loved not turning on my cell phone for a week, and the undivided attention you get from people (and the undivided conversations you can have) when no one’s texting or answering a call or checking Facebook. Driving home, cars looked like mutant vehicles – a happy smiling ambulance, a sinister red-eyed semi staring us down. Getting home I only wanted to talk to the people who were there with me, because I didn’t want to have to make feeble attempts at describing the fun craziness of it all.

Before I left, people told me Burning Man would be a life-changing experience. The second day in, when I had one of the strangest and most intense conversations of my life with a beautiful, laser-eyed Australian, I thought maybe they were right. But now I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s going to change my life; I have to live my life and see if it’s changed. I suppose it has changed in that I had the experience; I understand what Burning Man is; I’ve seen the awesomeness of the thousands of lights that have been dragged out into the middle of the desert at night, burning of their own accord, off the grid. I’ve witnessed true magic, beautiful insanity, and joy and love and kindness, and the incredibly creative spirit of humans, manifested in physical reality.

I’d say Burning Man is part summer camp, part manic Electric Light Parade on crack, part circus, part Mad Max beyond Thunderdome, part Woodstock, part rave, part art festival, part Renaissance Faire, part Moulin Rouge. (It’s got a bunch of other sides too – spiritual, yogic, vegetarian, bacon loving, sexual, etc).

I was continuously amazed that all of the art and structures and camps and lights and food and booze and sound systems and shade structures and costumes and decorations had been dragged out there JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE WANTED TO – not to make money, not because it was their job, not because it was expected of them. Pure creation, pure manifestation.

One of the things someone built just because they wanted to.

Another one of those things.

However, surprisingly, I never felt overwhelmed. Burning Man was pretty much what I expected it would be – thousands of giant, sexually mature children, playing and laughing and running around and doing whatever the hell they felt like doing. But then, I did a ton of research before I went out – amassed packing lists, watched videos, read blogs, interrogated everyone I met who’d been to Burning Man. I’m a planner, and planning a trip, for me, is at least half the fun.

I was amazed at how everything always worked out perfectly.There were so many magical moments and strange synchronicities. During the crazy week, I lost only one thing – a necklace, which was probably the one (out of 8) that a psychic told me was oppressing me about 15 minutes before I lost it.

In a totally flat, talc-y space of multiple miles, surrounded by 51,000 people, I frequently ran into people I knew, often right after I asked the Universe for a sign. When I followed my intuition, it would lead me somewhere I’d been wanting to go – case in point, following an urge to check out a statue I’d seen from a distance one morning at 7am after meditating out by the Temple as the sun rose, I ended up in front of the HeeBeeGeeBee Camp, whose address wasn’t listed in the Burning Man directory and for which I’d been searching for 4 days. An acroyoga class had just commenced as I pulled my bike up to the rack. My acroyoga partner ended up being a gentle giant named Pan, who happened to be a masseuse…talk about a perfect morning.

I was baffled that more people didn’t get hurt or die out there. One of the main tenants of Burning Man is radical self-reliance (the other is radical self-expression). On the self-reliance side, there are PLENTY of opportunities to mess yourself up – huge spinning metal lattice globes that could easily slice off all your fingers, structures that reach stories off the ground that you can climb, whenever and however you want to, with no ropes or safety nets or lifeguards. It reminded me of driving in Italy – it seems totally chaotic and dangerous, but it also seems like this causes people to be MORE attentive and mindful – thus, few rules, less order, but at the same time fewer accidents and injuries.

You can see my tiny shadow perched at the highest point of this 40-foot honeycomb structure.

What did I learn? Here’s a short list (and I know many of these are cliches, but when I say learn, I mean that I experienced the truth of these statements, and got to live them):

Let go.
All things are transient.
Nothing lasts.
Be yourself.
Express yourself.
Everything and everyone is you / a reflection of you.
Laughter is the best thing.
Trust the Universe, it will provide for you.
You are loved and supported.
Everyone is a friend you haven’t met yet.
Trust your instincts and intuition.
You are stronger than you think you are.
Snocones and Root Beer Floats are incredible inventions.

I’d say that Burning Man is for anyone who loves adventure; anyone who can appreciate art and beauty; anyone who can take care of themselves; anyone who can deal with dust, extreme heat and extreme cold (the cold was much worse than the heat this year, as far as I’m concerned…but then again, our camp had 1,200 gallons of water and big frigid misting fans); anyone searching for a place to move beyond their fears; and anyone who loves people, and/or who hates what normal society stands for and how it conditions us.

Burning Man gives you a huge dusty free space to shed (or burn) your conditioned limitations and habits and modes of being, to express yourself as you want to, and be accepted for whatever that is.

Black Rock City from above. I was randomly/magically able to fly over it in a private jet.

Before

After

(*note – This is the first of a series! I will post more detailed accounts of my Burning Man experiences, so subscribe or stay tuned! Posts go up every Wednesday at 11:11am).

Climbing higher.

Oh, man. What a weekend! What a month! So many things to write about… I wish I had more time to write. As in, I wish I had a ton of money and could sit around all day and write. Hopefully I will someday. Where’s that rich hubby? 😉 KIDDING. I’m working on writing and getting paid for it…

Regardless, I have been making progress in my goal to creating more time in my life for writing. Not drinking alcohol (no going out and getting drunk) or caffeine (can’t go out and stay up late using caffeine to keep me up or to artificially “wake” myself up in the morning) has helped that. As was true of last time I did no booze/no caffeine, I miss coffee more. Oh, I miss having a nice glass of wine or a beer while I’m out with friends, or if we have a dinner party like we did on Friday night. But it’s ok, probably because, like I said, not wasting time with intoxicants is enabling me to spend more time on writing (and hiking and cooking and yoga…and my other focuses for 2010). Also, I simply haven’t felt like going out dancing. I know there have been a bunch of good djs around this past week, but when it comes down to it, I don’t want to go out. I’d rather stay home (in my beautiful room or living room or dining room) and work on all these awesome projects I have going on. I think I’ve danced enough hours away over the past 13 years…I think I can take a break. Maybe I’m getting “old,” or my priorities are shifting – ok wait, that’s not a maybe; that’s a fact. And actually I DID get to dance in the yoga class I go to on Saturday mornings at Yoga Bhakti Shala. Govindas is the most awesome yoga instructor ever (hmm him and Colin Kim), and this past Saturday we danced and shook and jumped and shouted and HUGGED. I think I got about 16 hugs in class, and probably about 4 more later that day. Hugging actually has a bunch of psychological and physiological benefits. I told that to some friends that I went hiking with today, so we had a hug fest, and I think I got another 10 or so hugs. HUG IT OUT!

So: I really want to write about my and Katy’s New Mexico trip…I’ve got photos too. Kick-ass photos. Of llamas and chili peppers and skulls.

But I also want to write about my awesome weekend. It encapsulated pretty much everything I love – a dinner party, meditation, yoga, dancing, talking with friends, laughing with friends, Indian food, writing, Flight of the Conchords, The Office, 30 Rock, the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, dates (the fruit, not the other kind), hiking, more laughing, taking pictures, climbing rocks, climbing trees, wearing my Vibrams, a waterfall, collaging, cooking, eating an artichoke, driving around on a gorgeous day with the top down, blueberry corncakes, introducing friends to new music and a new nommy restaurant, talking about Don Miguel Ruiz, more laughing… Ok, there are more things that I love, but that’s a damn lot for one weekend!

Rock climbing...

If I had four more hours in this day I’d write more, but I only have one and a quarter, and I still need to make dinner (sauteed swiss chard from the farmer’s market and wake up early enough to fit in a jog and more writing before work. I hope your weekend brought you as much happiness as mine did!