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Tag: Burning Man

Why Do Anything Hard Ever?

Published on September 8, 2025

The start of Burning Man was rough.

There were record breaking wind storms that wreaked havoc, and in many cases, completely ruined people’s camp and art installation setups.

There were rain storms that turned the ground into a feeling of cement mix and halted all travel in any direction for hours and hours on end.

And because of the above, there were unprecedented delays that left burners stranded in the entry line, in their vehicles, for in some cases, 21+ hours—and this was after having driven 6, 8, 12 hours to get into that line.

Burners had to build camp not once—which is already labor intensive and taxing enough as is—but twice because of the above mentioned ordeals, on very little sleep, all well before anything of the event itself could be experienced.

…So, why the heck do it?

Because during those record breaking wind storms, people came together to fight back.

During the periods of prolonged rain, people went out of their way to gift those who were struggling.

When the camp had to be torn down, the team not only did that, but built it back up better and stronger than before.

…Why do anything hard?

Because nothing worthwhile comes easily.

If Burning Man was “plug-and-play” and all people had to do was show up to five star campsites and well paved roads… to perfect weather via seamless flows… without any obstacle or issue or concern…

…Then there wouldn’t be any coming together, no triumph, no victory, no down-and-dirty, no reward.

So much of what makes the reward so rewarding is the challenge and adversity that had to be overcome along the way.

Setting Your Uncompromised Soul Free

Published on September 5, 2025

While at Burning Man, a campmate made a comment that resonated deeply with me. She said, “I’m very selfish when it comes to Burning Man. I’m happy to introduce, give people the 101, and even travel with friends to and from the burn. But, while there? I need to be completely free. This isn’t just building, gifting, and dancing—there’s a spiritual component for me. And like any spiritual journey in life—I need to follow my uncompromised soul.”

This goes back to one of the points I made in yesterday’s post: Do more alone… together requires compromise and while there’s nothing wrong with that, there IS something wrong with never following your uncompromised soul.

My first year at Burning Man, I went completely alone and knew nobody there. Since then, my soul has found and connected with so much of what it needed. From workshops and classes to art and expression, from trial and tribulation to triumph and celebration, from one-off conversations to deep and long lasting connections… there are spiritual happenings that can only happen when your soul is given that uncompromised freedom.

Again, this isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with compromise. Sharing time and experiences with others also feeds the soul in equally nourishing ways. It’s simply a reminder to balance shared, compromised experiences with solo, uncompromised ones—not just at Burning Man, but in whatever ways your soul needs in everyday life.

The Magic Of Meeting The Core Of A Person First

Published on September 3, 2025

At Burning Man, you don’t meet people from their social hierarchy position first… you meet them from their character position first.

…And this is no small difference.

In everyday life, we meet people in our neighborhoods (socio-economic position), we know pretty clearly where people stand in school (educational position), ask usually first what people do for a living and where they work (career position)—if we don’t know already…

And all of these aspects of our identity act as layers that surround the core of who we really are.

It isn’t until a person removes their professional persona; can eliminate from their mind any judgments or predispositions they have about different status indicators, educational backgrounds, political beliefs, and so on; and can meet another person honestly where they are… that the real magic of connection happens.

See, peeling back these layers of identity and trying to unlearn these conditioned judgements takes tremendous inner work.

But flipping the script and meeting people BEFORE any of this information is ever known… and building art, surviving harsh weather conditions, creating gifts and offering help to others, problem solving, and going out to have a good time with them…

Introduces you to the core person without any peeling back… without any unlearning…

…Are they helpful? Kind? Hard working? Loving? Patient? Fun?

…Or are they the opposite?

I know not everybody has gone to or will go to Burning Man to experience this.

But it’s worth reflecting on: how can I/we show up with a different intention that seeks to connect with the core of a person BEFORE we cover them up in layers of hierarchical social position?

Gone To Burning Man!

Published on August 24, 2025

From Saturday (8/23/25) to Tuesday (9/2/25), I’ll be off grid.

That means, you won’t get daily emails from me until I get back on grid on Wednesday (9/3/25)-ish.

Rest assured, I’ll still be writing daily—it’ll just take on a more primitive form.

And when I get back, I’ll share what words got stirred up during what I’m expecting to be a wild, curious, mysterious, serendipitous, and nothing-short-of-inspirational week.

Don’t know what Burning Man is? I can barely explain it. But, this video does a pretty solid job.

Thank you to each of you for your ongoing support. I look forward to reconnecting when I get back. ♥

P.s. If you’re feeling generous, you can send a little love via coffee here. This trip will definitely require copious amounts of caffeine. Cheers 🙂

Angels In Life

Published on May 21, 2025

I’m a part of a 30 person camp who all share the experience and responsibility of Burning Man each year.

One of the camp members called me the other day with an ask.

She was explaining to me that her and her husband had spent some time with one of the older camp members and that he was, essentially, losing himself. He was becoming erratic, nonsensical, and unable to maintain a conversation… that he was no longer the person she had met some 30+ years before.

The ask was if I would be willing to drive him and his RV to the burn and then back again afterward. She explained that he was one of the people whose life was dramatically changed by Burning Man and she knew he wouldn’t be able to make the trip on his own anymore… and wanted to do everything she could to get him back for at least one final burn.

I hope one day… when I’m older, erratic, non-sensical, unable to maintain a conversation, and by all intents and purposes—losing myself… I have people in my life who look out for me in the same way. Who stay with me for long weekends… who know me better than I’m able to express at that aged time… who are willing to go above and beyond to get me to one last burn.

People like these are the angels of our lives.

And the funny thing about getting angels in our life… is that you usually get them by being one in other peoples’ lives.

“Less Comparing; More Dancing”

Published on September 8, 2024

…That was the message I settled on after taking a 90 minute, Meet Your Higher Self Workshop at Burning Man.

The workshop started with guided group discussions around Higher Self and what that even means. We shared ideas, did visualizations, talked about our greatest dreams, our greatest fears, and discussed how each of us are messengers who, by embodying all that is our Higher Self, get to communicate a specific message to the world.

And the ultimate prompt that lead to my above message was, “What’s the message that you’re carrying into the world?”

By “less comparing” I mean do everything in your power to reduce the amount of time you spend exposing yourself to people, places, and things that exacerbate your instinct to judge and make you dwell on all that’s better in others and worse in yourself. Particularly, less media featuring distorted perceptions of beauty, success, and happiness—and less time with people and in places where comparison is hyper prevalent.

By “more dancing” I don’t necessarily mean just more dancing—although dancing is one of the closest examples I could think of to express this next sentiment. What I ultimately mean is more time spent in moments of uninhibited self-expression. Uninhibited as in ego-less; without a care for what others think; done purely for the sake of celebrating a moment of being alive. And for me, spontaneous dancing is the complete embodiment of that. And it’s something we need more of it in this world.

This is the message I hope to carry into the world.

Now I pass the question off to you… What’s your message?

The Frustrated Eye

Published on September 7, 2024

While I was away at Burning Man, my email service provider (who sends out these daily emails) retired their services.

…Of course.

And so when I got back, not only did I have to unpack, reintegrate into daily living, and make sense of the other-worldly experience that was/is Burning Man… but I also had to find a new email service provider, migrate all of my subscribers over to them, redraft all of my email templates and rss feed settings from scratch, rebuild all of my email capture forms and popups, and create new automation flows.

…Not exactly good timing when there’s a million other things to do after coming back from vacation.

But, with that challenge came an opportunity that I had been procrastinating for a long time.

My old email service provider wasn’t really keeping themselves up-to-date with the times. They had a service that worked, kept it minimal, and trucked forward for almost 10 years without changing much along the way.

And while it worked just fine for me, it was definitely time for a refresh.

And that’s what coming home to this challenge gave me the opportunity to do… refresh what I had been stubbornly refusing to do for so long.

Worth thinking about for yourself: what challenge are you facing in your life and where’s the opportunity in that challenge?

In the heat of the moment it can feel like there absolutely isn’t one—and the only presiding thoughts and emotions are all geared towards “the bad” and the inconveniences of the circumstance.

…But with a calm and collected mind, you just might find there’s more to your life’s challenges than what meets the frustrated eye.