From the Department of Abundance
On Labor Day, I got back home from an 11 day trip to Black Rock City, home of Burning Man, and though we Burners like to Welcome each other Home, in truth, my home is in San Francisco with my sweetie Alycia and Enzo and Trixy the Dog, and Anya when she is back in town from college.
And, I do truly feel at home out there too. There is a way in which a part of my heart does live in BRC, and yet, for me home is a state of mind, not a place.
It was a week of miraculous wonder, and laughter that made my belly sore, and everlasting hugs, and deliciously deep conversations, and magical connections and moments of synchronicity that in my younger and smaller days I would have thought were just coincidence.
It’s very easy for me to get stuck in a narrow and limiting view of reality.
I was raised a scientific materialist, and then hardened in the numbing crucible of law school. There is a part of me that is so scared of being a chump and a dupe, the old part of me that is suspicious of kindness and good fortune, the part of me that doubts and thinks that cynicism and skepticism and worrying will keep me safe, the part that is always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Thankfully, I have learned to love that part of me, along with the other parts that I wish were different, like the part that tells me I am not good enough and that I need to please everyone and say yes even when I know I don’t have the time and space, and the part of me that tells me I am alone and a freak and that nothing I do really can ever make a difference in this vast world.
That part of me I will call Scarcity, because it lives in a reality tunnel that assumes that there is not enough, not enough food, or love, or room for trust and compassion.
Scarcity is that part of me that rests on a belief that life is a zero-sum game and I need to be ever-vigilant.
The biggest and best reason that I keep returning to Burning Man is because of the people, the ones who burn so bright and so beautifully, and who love me and accept me even when I crash the truck or lose a ticket or forget the super important thing I was supposed to bring. They accept me and hold me when I am ready to give up, and when I feel lonely in a crowd and just want to hide.
I love our family of Bees and Burners and Artists and Radiant Souls so much. I am profoundly grateful and I never ever take this community for granted.
And, the second big reason I put so much effort into my 21st trip to the playa is that out there I can pierce my shadow of Scarcity.
Out there I am able to see, again, that the truth of life is that there is more than enough for all of us, that the only thing that holds us back is our fear and our programming that there is not enough to go around, our patterned story that struggle and strife and war and hate are what will keep us safe.
Yet the truth is there is no safety.
This life is profoundly unsafe and temporary.
Just as Black Rock City arises from the dust and within a few weeks disappears again without a trace, just as the Man stands so tall and proud and regally as an Axis Mundi for the world of imagination and love that is BRC and then burns to ashes in a moments, and just as the beautiful circle of our camp and our city will never ever exist again in the same way, I am reminded and inspired, again, to celebrate this moment, this breath, this opening again and again to the truth of Abundance.
My heart is blown open, again, and I am raw and tender, and I have tears in my eyes as I write this because I am so happy and so grateful and so sad this years’ manifestation is complete.
And I am above all filled with hope and optimism.
Despite all the evidence out there, we are indeed Good Monkeys.
We humans can build and create and connect and share and love and support each other in the most challenging of situations. We can be here for each other through it all, and we can celebrate and we can rejoice and give thanks.
This is our gift, this is our opportunity, and above all this is our birthright.
I love you all so much, my friends, my family, my bees, my brothers and sisters.
Please find the place where you too can feel the abundance of life, where you can be held and caressed and loved, where you can share the miraculous Gift that is YOU!
You ARE the Gift! We ARE the Gift!
And We are Infinite and We are Eternal and We are Powerful Beyond Measure.
Burn Every Day my dear ones.
Burn Bright and Hot and with as much Love and Hope as you can muster.
There is not a moment to waste.
Dave Klaus
King Bee, Fire-Tender
