We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
But the claw our way back into the belly
Of the sacred, sensual animal dance
The unhinged, unplugged, cat out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms
Of our hands and feet dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
But the wring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance.
The slap he apology from our posture dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see, monkey do dance
One two dance like you
One two three, dance like me dance
But the grave robber, tomb stalker
Tearing scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our soul dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the nice, invisible, self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
Shaman shaking ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings, return our wings
Sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into
The luminous skin of love dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
But the meeting of the trinity: the body, breath and beat dance
The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I?
Yes you may take ten giant leaps dance
The olly olly oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance.

We have come to be danced
Where the kingdoms collide
In the cathedral of flesh
To burn back into the light
To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
To root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced! We have come."

~ by Jewel Mathieson

...and Japan has been lovin' us right back!!!

This place is incredible. The people are really special. They don't have the role-play 'I'M SO COOL' or if they do they're aware that it's just a role and they're willing to drop it in a second to be silly and play!!! i love it! we've had so much fun and the shows, all 7 of them, have been really incredible for us!

We arrived on thursday afternoon and went straight to work building and decorating the structures. Our container was 2 or 3 days late arriving so the building team had had several days to explore Tokyo and had only been able to start building Thursday morning. Even so they had unloaded the container and by the time we arrived at 6pm most of the structures and the stage were well underway. We were blown away by what they had accomplished in one day. We joined in and finished up the day around 10pm (6am LA time bam!) We woke up early Friday morning and went straight back to work. The heat here is scorching and outrageous. I love it. I love to feel the toxins leaving my body, my skin and insides glowing from the cleaning. But when your working for hours and hours in the hot sun... it's challenging!!!

I am so proud of all the performers and my mom (who flew from Canada to experience japan with us) who jumped off that plane and worked straight through 2 days of insane heat and jet lag. They busted their asses right along side the incredible building team and the small army of amazing Japanese workers that joined us. The whole experience was wild. The lovely DangerPants who was our team coordinator did a great job keeping it all flowing.

Then came Saturday morning 10 am and our first dress rehearsal on stage... we ran the show twice... worked out the bugs... and i observed the performers in some sort of state of extreme exhaustion... we still had 4 shows booked that day... yiks! We dragged ourselves back to the dressing room to begin the ceremony of dawning our regalia and getting our AdamArt face and body paint for the first show set for 2pm.

Somehow, like a miracle, we all found the energy, the people came and the show was magic. Water flying, the crowd laughing and playing with us... so great to see people waking up and coming alive!

We had major competition that first day Avril Levin, Gwen Stephanie (we watched the show from side stage) The Black Eyed Peas... Even so our 4pm show was still great and we drew a crowd but by 6pm our area was a ghost town... we're tucked away in a corner and hard to find and with all the competition, as well as 6pm is dinner time... we cancelled our show and finally had a short minute to breath and walk around the festival. We ended up having dinner in the dinning hall with The Black Eyed Peas (they were all super cool), listening to ridiculous banter compliments of Jesselynn/Janeanne. We all laughed at the insanity of it all.

Our final show Saturday night with the boy's amazing lighting and water flying everywhere and the people laughing and screaming felt like it shot us straight through the cosmic porthole. We had finally arrived in Japan. The love affair between us and this country of beautiful souls is on.....

SUNDAY

Our second and last performance day... we arrive at the venue at 11am... which is of course 7pm yesterday LA time... yeah work that one out!!! We all sit down together Shrine, Onisha, Dana, Linda, Bryan, Rajiv, Aurora Lisa, Aaron, Jupitor, Linda, Tyler (yes we snafud him again!!!) and we device a plan to make signs in japanese saying WATERSHOW and CIRCUS, mow the pathway down to our water village with a pair of scissors, decorate everything in sight and take down more of the fence blocking our area... (Josh, Jesse and Aaron had already removed a portion of the fence blocking the entrance to our area so the crowds could more easily stream in... the Japanese are VERY polite and follow decorum here so walking out of place or jumping a fence just doesn't happen). We quickly moved into action as a team infusing some love and energy up there by the walk way in hopes that more people would see that there was magic to found just down the little hill by the river where we were....! IT WORKED!!!! They started streaming in like mad. It was such conformation that the universe always matches our energy flow. If you give anything that little extra push, the universe gives right back ten fold.

Patricio, Jupitor, Y2 and Aaron rocked out the best music all weekend. Luring them in with pop music and then switching it up unexpectedly with some deep breaks and other LA musical wonders. After every show we danced for a good hour, spraying water everywhere and bringing the crowd up on stage (but not before they took their shoes off :) Dede was the rockstar with the water gun riling up the crowds again and again Jesse treated them more like plants that needed watering and that was funny too ;p My mom worked so hard and even joined us on stage as a rigger for the water head pieces. It was really special for me to have her there...

Everybody showed up, threw down and towed the line for an amazing future for our entire community here in Japan. Even our Japanese intrupretor Kaz (who is amazing) worked his butt off building and then shook his booty dancing all weekend!!!) I can tell you i don't think they have seen the likes of a crowd of maniacs quite like us before but i have a feeling they'll be looking forward to seeing us again... i for one, hope to spend a lot more time here. i just love these people. The way the talk, receive each other and are so honorable about everything. It's really beautiful to be around.

Tomorrow we load the container, then it's 6 days of touring the country, some street performing and temple explorations... hot springs, a 1000 year old Samurai celebration... who knows... where ever the wind blows this gang of 19 light warriors.......

i am exhausted. for days now i have been in this state... but so joyful that i just want to keep going. finally yesterday i collapsed at Rich and Paul's while recording... just feel off the side of the earth, or rather slide off.... i have spent the whole day till now in bed, in and out of sleep. and in the midst of it all i had a very lucid dream... i was crossing the road, santa monica and westwood i believe, i was being lead by an angel... and suddenly there was traffic heading straight for us, i panicked for one second then the car passed right through my body and i realized i was dead... oh goddess i'm dead!?! ok. i'm dead....... i'm ok with that i have no fear, only curiosity but immediately i wondered if i had left behind a message, had i said what i really wanted to say, had my actions been pure.... had i acted in love and grace? or fear? if i had one more chance to say something to the people that i love what would it be.... huge thoughts i know but i'm in a dream state where all things are possible...

i immediately knew that i want to say to you that the time has come for us to take care of each other... to build community. to build networks. to reveal our strengths. to see and understand each others weaknesses and to still stand in honor of each others strengths. can we do that? can we work together?

"It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community-- a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the earth."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

you are my community. what is your contribution? do you know? the aboriginals of australia and many other parts of the earth encourage their people to effortlessly ease into the position, skill, profession, job, responsibility that best suits them in the moment... what pulls you? what moves you? what are you good at? it is your job and yours alone to discover your contribution. if you have one, turn off your TV. let's begin....

TOGETHER WE RISE.

i have been thinking alot about the consumption of corporate animals by the enlightened people of our tribe. it saddens me. i see it as deep domestication that provides a kind of false comfort that is hard to shed. i wonder if my spiritual brothers and sisters could follow the thread from the chicken factory to the slaughter house, see the inhuman, devastating cruelty and dirty conditions, would you ever consider it okay, even for a second, to partake in that business?

"While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?"
~George Bernard Shaw

i really like to let people flow as they flow, freely finding our way... and i always appreciate when someone calls me on my shit... so i'm calling you all out on this one... WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? CONTRIBUTE TO? PERPETUATE? tell me....? you know i grew up on a farm, in mid-northern canada and there weren't a whole lot of peeps around, i was a loner, and the animals became my best friends... i can tell you with absolute certainty, they feel... a lot. pain, jealously... and mostly love. they have enormous capacity for love. especially pigs. it is their extreme fear that shuts them down and makes us think they are stupid or unfeeling.... interesting how that is true in humans too.... hum.... we are not so different. they are great teacher for us. their instincts make them fearful of us. especially meat eaters, yes they can tell by the smell of your skin if you consume flesh or not. imagine the fear....

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being."
~ Mahatma Gandhi, statesman and philosopher

something to think about... if nothing else... ponder the word DISCIPLINE

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."
~Thomas Edison, inventor

and lastly i would want you all to know that i love you, you are love, we are one. WE ARE ONE. there is no place in universal physics where you stop and i begin... we are one. i love me and in loving me i love you. i love you and in loving you i love me. we are one.

TOGETHER WE RISE. what are you going to do....

you can start by meeting us at LIB lightninginabottle.org it will be epic. worlds will shift. bonds will develope, community will grow..... you are needed..... your contribution is vital.

in love,
dream
oxo

Last night i had my own little water show... I have been pushing myself beyond the beyond... it has been in joy... i love what i do, i love the people who surround me, i love the journey... the lessons, the mayhem... i love it. and now i must learn to pace myself within it... but how, when you are so in love, do you stop yourself or slow yourself down? love spurs and inspires, invigorates, moves, creates.... i have the most blessed life because i have created it. my life is blessed because i am always willing to do the work, to inspire, invigorate, move, create, take the next step forward... i'm always willing to 'GET IN IT' i don't watch from the side lines or warm the bench... i'm in the game, i'm playing... ALWAYS. sooooooo what does that mean? it means different things at different times, that i'm sure of... last night i can tell you that it meant something a little strange... i have pushed myself to such exhaustion that i wet the bed, yes. i actually peed in my bed in my sleep... how does a grown-up do such a thing? i haven't peed the bed since i was probably 2 or 3 years old. i was so dead asleep, so wiped out and exhausted, i was wirling in some deep deep dream state where it seemed ok, i think i was on the playa... i love to pee out doors, who doesn't.... so i just went for it, right in my bed, deep asleep. great. luckly i was wrapped up in my duvets and my mattress stayed dry... but seriously, this is a sign from the gods... or more accurately my tiny little blatter, i must learn to pace myself... clearly... to take care of my vessel, get rest, and i am learning... well at least i'm aware that i need to learn, STEP 1! and moving on from that.... i'm learning to make all moves in joy, to release the habit to move into fear.... to release the habit to move into a victim role... i am female and i have been trained to be the victim, the martyr, to act a little weak, care take... yes... that is our training.... i am retraining.... calling in the light.... i am a light worker.... so when i fall back to the domestication of my life it makes me sad. pulls me down... i am grateful for this community of light workers who stand as mirrors to my greatness, reminding me of the light... how lucky are we.... this weekend at Coachella, day one and two on the field, all the stress and pressure and there is Tyler calling me 'come back to the light, come back to the light' YES! i think i will... thank you Tyler, you are such a gem. how to lead a great force and still remain soft and in grace.... i am learning. i learned that i need a stage manager who does not perform and loves to coordinate, that would be the greatest gift to this movement... i am learning that i can say yes to all things that come my way... YES... and that i need to remember, i must know deep in my soul, in every moment that divine order is at play... AT PLAY! we are at play. i can be light on wings of crystal love.... always. i can. i do. i am. and i will try to grow up in it, to be light in it and create an envirnment in it for me where i don't end up peeing the bed anymore....

in joy,

dream

p.s. Lightning in a Bottle is the only place to be May 11th, 12th and 13th.... lightninginabottle.org get your tickets now!!!! i'll see you there, and don't remind me that i peed the bed ok... i'm a little sensitive....