My Blog

burning man, here I come!

elsbrico — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:56:40 GMT

I have been chillin' in Seattle for a couple weeks now and it has been super grounding and nice for me to chill in one place after all those amazing festivals. I went to some awesome hot springs on the Olympic Peninsula and soaked with some friends, and in general have reconnected with a lot of my core family in Seattle, and it's been great! Today I helped pack the truck for my camp at Burning Man, and they are headed tomorrow to set up the Sustainabillaville camp. It is super exciting to know that in less than a week, I'll be in the desert mashing it out at one of the world's most far-out events, with some of the most beautiful people in the world! My camp is gonna be at 9 o'clock and Jungle, and we're gonna have a super amazing three story structure set up with couches on top and hammocks throughout, and it's gonna be decorated as if it were a forest. We will be serving Mate and cookies all week out of our solar ovens (hopefully the dust storms subside!) I know I'll run into everyone I'm meant to, but if you wanted to, I'd love to know where other peeps are camping, and other awesome places to check out and learn and evolve and party and dance!!! Awesome, well I'm so looking forward to playing in the desert with whoever is gonna be there, and feel free to call me anytime, especially if you're headed to Power to the Peaceful after, or Earthdance, or Symbiosis! I'm riding in a converted school bus with a bunch of homies, and I'd love to caravan, so hit me up! peace and love, elric 206-330-8137

Happy Full Moon!

elsbrico — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:37:42 GMT

Hey y'all, I just went to this awesome drum circle in the redwoods in Marin County and afterwards me and some new friends climbed a hill and sat soaking up the full moon energy! It is a beautiful night, perfect for another update to reach all you beautiful people all over the world! I think the last I left you I was headed to High Sierra. The drive was beautiful and it took me through unexpected mountains and along beautiful streams and rivers, one of which I stopped and swam in and ate some of the seasons first blackberries. When I got to High Sierra, there was a bit of time spent waiting around for a VIP wristband from a friend of a friend of Soulive's that ended up falling through because the bassist met a girl... it worked out though cause there turned out to be a position available to stay after for two days and help clean the place up with Clean Vibes (www.cleanvibes.com). The festival was awesome and I camped out with some really cool peeps from Bellingham who I randomly fell in with. With my vendor connections I was able to eat free all weekend and I got hooked up with unlimited Acai smoothies! The lineup was so awesome too and I got turned on to so many bands I'd never heard of. Some of the top performances were: Soulive late night, Xavier Rudd, Brett Dennen, Devil Makes Three, Toubab Krewe, the Mammals, Panjea, Lynx, 56 Hope Road, Les Claypool, Bassnectar, Albino, ALO and the New Mastersounds. It was really cool how they layed it out...most bands played more than once, so if you missed a performance you could catch it the next day, or if you really liked something you could see it again. And the late night shows were pretty epic, even though it sucked how they charged extra even for volunteers! But yeah the Les Claypool show I saw late night was one of the best rock shows I've ever seen!!! After cleaning the place up with a crew of fun people, I headed up to Seattle and the graces of the heavens helped me get there safely! It was kind of funny cause I thought my van was breaking down as I entered Seattle, but it turned out I was just out of gas!! I kicked it in Seattle for a couple days connecting with whoever was around, which was nice, but way too brief. I left my van and drove down to the Oregon Country Fair with Kassi and Mariah and we set up a nice camp at Darling Family Reunion. The rest of the crew showed up later that night, and we had an awesome weekend of fun in the woods! We had some epic camp meals and fairy costumes and glitter! I was able to sneak into the fair at night, which was so awesome! It is way less crowded and there are sweet little jam sessions happening all over. On Sunday night I stayed in all night and did a sauna at like two in the morning. It was so awesome!! The saunas there are incredibly built to hold like 400 people, with enough showers for a ton of clean hippies (showers are all out in the open, like they should be!) I met this awesome girl while I was sitting at the fire naked after a few sweats and we ended up cuddling all night. Quite a fun way to end the fair, even though it made me miss my ride to the hot springs with Teri. The next day, after a quick visit with Danaan, I caught an early morning Greyhound out of Eugene and went through Portland, Boise, Salt Lake City, and landed in Glenwood Springs, Colorodo. That was the closest the bus got to where I wanted to go, which was Dreamtime festival, so I wrote a sign and hitched very easily, catching a ride with some folks who were also heading to Dreamtime, so it worked out perfectly! I got there early and got my tent setup and my hammock and got to relax a bit before helping my dear friend Zoe set up the Soul Mate Bar and Lounge. We turned the space into a lovely chill space which turned out to be the place to be all weekend! Our stage had an open mic every day and dj's at night, with lots of awesome bands in between. The days started early with yoga and workshops on healing and meditation and dreaming and eating raw and awaking compassionate awareness and setting up solar power and hoop dancing and dij playing and creative movement and so much more! The workshop coordinator was an intern from Chicago who did it up and loaded the schedule with all sorts of interesting stuff! Then there was the music. It was so amazing!! The opening ceremony was held by some Aztec dancers/drummers and we opened the space for healing and magic, and nature responded by giving us a full on double rainbow!! (check out the latest pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsbrico) I worked three shifts at the Mate Bar to pay for my ticket, and it was so much fun! One of my shifts was from 12-4 AM and there were two amazing dj's, so all I did was dance my ass off behind the counter and serve people Yerba Mate and Kombucha and chocolate to keep them going! And all the people I worked with were so awesome. We called each other "soul mates" cause we were on the 'soul mate crew', it was cute! I guess the deal is that Zoe, who put the Mate bar together, invited all her dear friends to come work it, and so it was such a family! I met a lot of people that were already somehow connected to me through someone else. A lot of links in the chain were solidified. Some of the best performances here were: My Tea Kind, Lion Vibes, Adam Apollo, Lunar Fire, Buddha Bomb, Euforquestra, Liquid Fire Mantra (some of the best fire dancing I've ever seen!), Adam Joel, Osiris Indriya, Kan-nal (Dreamtime is kind of their thing so they were so full of energy!), Organic Time Machine, Lynx vs. Mechanic (awesome beatboxing chic with and amazing dj), and a bunch of friends singing and drumming together! It was an incredibly charged event, and the energy on the land at that time was so powerful. It seemed to me that we were keeping storms at bay, because it was threatening to rain so many times and just went around us and provided us with shade and cool winds (normally it gets super hot). Another highlight of the weekend was this awesome yoga class I did on Sunday after my only all-nighter. On Monday I got up and walked around the whole place trying to find someone going to Seattle, and the only person I could find had his car packed with all his stuff cause he was moving so there was no room for me. So I decided to take the next best option, which was a ride with this amazing group of people (some of them are in a band called Singing Bear and Aumnibus) who were headed to Fairfax (where my dad lives). They took their time, and we didn't leave until a thunderstorm forced us to in the late afternoon, and even then, we only went about 20 miles to this dude's valley, where we kicked it all night jamming out. I was with some very amazing individuals, most of them travelers like myself, and we all connected so well! When we left Dreamtime, we stuffed 11 of us into two vehicles, which was so ridiculous. Two of them got picked up at that dude's valley, and so there were nine of us in two cars. One car jetted out to Salt Lake City the next morning, and my car took our time and stopped at the Arches in Utah for an amazing detour. We were there right as a thunderstorm was coming through, and in fact stood among the arches as lightning practically hit them and shot vibrations of thunder instantly throughout the surrounding canyons. It was so frickin' incredible, words don't do it justice. We drove through the night and got to Salt Lake late. We spent the next day hanging out at this house in Salt Lake, getting bodywork from this dude who was dishing it out all weekend at Dreamtime and who somehow had the energy to continue. We got a late start leaving Salt Lake after a lovely picnic at Wild Oats, and we drove through the night and arrived at dawn at this amazing lake in Western Nevada called Pyramid Lake. We went for an early morning swim out to this pyramid that had hot springs in it and soaked for a minute! It was pretty epic. After a sunrise breakfast, we continued on and stopped in Reno for some coffee and a quick slot machine, and then entered into the beauty of California. It's crazy how there is such a drastic change coming from Nevada to California. It seemed that right at the border there started to be trees and abundant growth happening everywhere. I love California! We dropped a rider off in Grass Valley and then did the final stretch to Fairfax, arriving mid-afternoon, three days after leaving Dreamtime! Such an unforgettable journey! So many amazing lessons learned from our group dynamics, discussion/communication issues, etc. And as it turns out, the folks I got a ride from are connected with Stephanie, who some of you may remember from Pragtri/Seattle. So now I'm kickin' it with some awesome family in Fairfax, and I had my dad's house to myself for a day before I picked him up at the airport last night. I was able to see a friend in Oakland who is going through some shifts right now, and tomorrow (today) I'm going down to Santa Cruz to see my mom's new place and see my sister before she heads to New York City for college! So many shifts are happening everywhere and I am always floating in and out of all these amazing places. It's kind of trippy how many places I've been this summer and how fluid my life has become. Everything flows so perfectly, and I feel like I am so connected to the universe and I'm just acting out exactly what needs to happen. I like to think that wherever I go I am influencing people with my laughter and smiles and helping ease stress and show people the fluidity of existence. It is really amazing how many lives I am a part of these days. When I was at Dreamtime, I somehow manifested a hookup for Reggae Rising (www.reggaerising.com) which is where I'm headed next weekend in Northern Cali. And as far as I know, I'm catching a ride up to Seattle after that and I'll have some time to just chill and ground out a little bit before Burning Man, which is in like three weeks or something like that. I feel like that's gonna be the climax of it all! So yeah, there it is. My life continues to flow and my experiences continue to help me grow and I keep meeting all sorts of beautiful people, ever expanding my net of connection. Praise be to the most high who makes it all possible and who keeps me in good health through all these crazy journeys! Keep me posted on all the happenings wherever you all find yourselves and let's keep raising the vibration on this earth so that the universe knows we want to be here!!! Give thanks -- peace and love, elric

Harmony Festival

elsbrico — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 08:20:20 GMT

I just wanted to say that last weekend's Harmony Festival was one of the best festivals I've ever been to! It felt so good to come back from Thailand and jump right into serving up raw food and dancing to some awesome performances in Santa Rosa!! That's the way life should always be (or at least I wish it could be!!) I saw some good friends who I didn't realize were gonna be there! Victor was there, Ashley Apple showed up, Hans was there, Stephanie graced us with her presence, and some friends I didn't realize I had or who had somehow heard of me! And of course the crew I'm working with at Lydia's contains some of the most beautiful people in attendance! In between helping prepare shakes and sushi and pizza and tacos and meditteranean plates and salads and serving up raw desserts and beverages to a very enthusiastic nonstop flow of delightful customers, I managed to get away to go and dance to some awesome music (even though our booth was right next to the main stage so any acts on that stage could be danced to while we worked!!) Among my favorites for the weekend were: the Roots, Erykah Badu, Shimshai, STS9 (I loved the laptop jams I don't care what anyone says that shit was tight as fuck!!), Aphrodesia, SambaDa, Kinky, Taj Mahal, Umphrey's McGee, Common, Shpongle, and many others that I can't remember. It was so fun cause we had two booths, one big one during the day next to the main stage and another in the nighttime arena (which I didn't work) where we could kick it and relax if we got tired of dancing at night! I met so many amazing people and shared some awesome laughs with lots of people. I want to thank anyone reading this who contributed their awesome energy to that magical weekend. Looking forward to a summer filled with growth and fulfillment and laughter and joy and play and work and magic peace and love, elric

last days in Thailand

elsbrico — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 07:49:49 GMT

Hey y'all, So the course finished up, and everyone in it felt rewarded and pumped to take the knowledge and manifest situations for practice. We learned about so many different aspects of sustainable living, all of which come under the vast umbrella of permaculture. We learned about the basics: water, soil, landform, altering landform to bring more water into the land (earthworks), mushrooms and how they are the ties between every living ecosystem, trees, and many other fields, all of which could be explored for years with virtually limitless in-depth knowledge to be gained. We talked about natural building, a field I felt very connected with, especially since I recently built a 'green' house. We spent some time on compost and compost tea, which can restore a trashed soil to one that is teeming with organisms. We learned about microclimates, and saw one example of a dude in Austria who discovered he had a microclimate next to some boulders (that absorbed heat) and was able to grow oranges. We spent some time on food forests, which aim at mimicking the way forests function in the wild, and tweaking that to create more yields, with very little maintanence. We covered the zones of use, starting at your house (zone 0) and going to the untouched, left-to-nature areas (zone 4) with a gradual build up of maintanence required and the proximity to put the zones depending on how often you need to tend them. A zone 1 area would be your kitchen garden. Food forests are zone 3. We learned where permaculture came from (Australia), how it's grown, what kind of network exists for us back home and everywhere in the world, and saw many examples of permaculture setups around the world. Many of these came about before the word permaculture existed. This word and movement came about to encompass everything and bring unity so that people could share ideas more easily. We had an awesome field trip to a farm that this Thai guy inherited and converted to organic; shortly after he became self-sufficient. He grows everything he needs to eat and has enough to feed people who come to his meditation retreats and ayervedic medicine courses. He was so inspiring! And he had no idea about permaculture, he just figured it out! The same day, we visited the King's Project, which is educating Thai people about organic gardening, composting, mushroom cultivation, and many other aspects of sustainability. It turns out the king of Thailand is a huge proponent for sustainability, and has made it a goal for Thailand to become sustainable. They also give out free organic starts, so we loaded up and went back to the farm, where we spent some time doing hands on implementation of our newly acquired skills. We planted some food forest beginnings and some beauty buffers along the road (which also have edible and medicinal funtions, of course!) It was so cool to be at this farm, and see the way things get started. The panya project (www.panyaproject.org) has been going for less than a year. Their goal is to be a self-sufficiant education center for permaculture and natural building. The people who live there are so welcoming. They made us all feel like family! I encourage all of you to check out the site and attend a course if you are at all interested in sustainability and the tropics (it applies to the temperate zone as well). On the last day of the course, we had a party (required for every course!) and we all performed something in a talent show. I beatboxed for Christian (the man in charge) who had written a love poem. It went off very well! Other people sang songs, performed skits, firedanced, one guy read a powerful quote from chief Seattle, and we put on a gameshow for the cooks (two amazing Thai women) where they had to guess what fruit we fed them while they were blindfolded. The prize was a wheelbarrow full of durian, which they thankfully shared with everyone the next day (probably the most durian i've ever eaten!! durian pudding, durian pancakes and straight up durian all day). After the talent show we turned it into a dance party, and we danced until long into the night. It was one of the best parties I've ever been to! I stayed an extra day to help put in some more plants and get some hands on, and then on the 1st me and Eden headed to Pai. I reconnected with Willow and a few other people I had been friends with during my stay there last trip. We visited an organic farm I didn't know about before, (Tessa stayed there and told me about it) and were once again totally awed by what the Thai people are capable of. This guy also inherited his land from many generations of family farmers, and decided to go organic. He is self-sufficient and very happy! And once again, he unknowingly practices permaculture! He gave us a wonderful tour of his land, which has a handful of bungalows that he build, each one themed off a different hill tribe from around the area. One of the bungalows is built slightly over his pond, so you can jump into it from the deck! He made these ingenious bamboo showers that conceal the pipes so it seems like the shower is coming from a log. And he used mostly reclaimed wood or wood from his own land for everything. He even build himself a grain mill and a kiln to make steel objects. So incredible! We hung out in Pai for a brief two days and came to Chiang Mai yesterday, in time for the Sunday market. Today Eden headed to Laos and I rented a motorbike and zipped around to do a little shopping and get my train ticket to Bangkok (the trains here are so comfortable!) I ate lunch at this delicious organic veggie restaurant that is run by the neighbor farm to Panya, Pun Pun ( http://www.punpunthailand.org/). They grow most of the food for the restaurant and promote biodiversity with their seed-saving operation. The restaurant is in a big temple complex and had a very nice atmosphere. This trip has been so awesome! Much more than I expected has come out of it, and I've once again realized how much I love the tropics and Thailand specifically. This country is so laid back and friendly. There is a lot to be learned here. I spend one more day here in Chiang Mai and then I head to Bangkok to catch my flight (I succesfully avoided spending a night in Bangkok!) I feel so satisfied and happy with life! And I'm ready to see where the river of life takes me next. -- peace and love, elric WE drift through life, our bodies always changing along with everything else around us; accept this change and be one with the flow...

thailand sustainable?

elsbrico — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:31:25 GMT

I have been really enjoying the mix between living a Thai lifestyle but being around Farang's who are integrated into the country. It's interesting that not many Thais are taking advantage of these awesome yoga retreat centers and alternative ways of farming (at least not yet) that I'm experiencing on this trip. It seems most are just into making as much money as possible with the least amount of work. They often prefer to burn their fields in between crops (very bad for the soil) rather than rotate crops and introduce compost into the soil. Of course there are some who instinctively know that this isn't the right way to do things. My Permaculture group had a class trip today and we visited this awesome Thai guy who has been living/farming sustainably for ten years! He started out organic cause his father had grown with chemicals and had bad allergic reactions so he switched to organic and made sire his son understood how organically growing food is the way to go. It was an awesome setup, and he was such a radiant/kind person! He has things going so smoothly and sustainably that he only has to work on the gardens for like 4 hours a day, and then he can focus his time on reading and meditating, which he also hosts in the form of meditation retreats and Ayervedic medicine courses. He was saying that his friends and neighbors are interested in the way he's doing things, but they are too focused on making money rather than being sustainable. After that awesome experience, we hopped in our song-teuw (the driver is another cool Thai guy who's a friend of Panya's) and went to a market for lunch. We had packed sticky rice, which we ate with some nam prick (spicy veggie/chili concoction) and some other delicious spicy Thai food (all served in plastic bags of course). It was funny, 15 farangs munchin' down on some Thai market food next to where a bunch of taxi drivers hang out. They looked at us funny the whole time and made jokes with our driver! Then we checked out one of the Kings' projects. The king of Thailand is way into sustainability and has made it a national policy to head in that direction, so he set up all of these outlet centers to educate the Thai people about all aspects of organic gardening. The one we visited focused specifically on organic gardening, different compost techniques and mushroom cultivation (and fish farming and frog farming, which I wasn't really into). The project also gives out free starts for all sorts of plants, food, ornamental and functional (all for free, funded by the people!) It was a pretty sweet place as well, very cool to see that the Thai people have this resource and are being influenced by their king (who they all respect deeply) to become more sustainable.

Thailand!

elsbrico — Sat, 05 May 2007 05:07:40 GMT

So I made it back to Thailand again! I tried to escape the winter again, but couldn't manage to save the money by then, so I ended up waiting till now. It's all for the best, cause I've had so many amazing experiences these past six months! But here I am, on Koh Phangan in Southern Thailand, enjoying a bungalow on the beach for $6 a night and a motorbike and two yoga classes a day at this amazing tantric yoga school here. It's pretty awesome! And it's mango season, so I'm not only enjoying delicious juicy mangoes, but also tons of coconuts and pineapples and durians and bananas! It's fuckin' sweet! One of my good friends, Ashley Apple, who I actually met last time I was in Thailand, is at this yoga school (www.agamayoga.com) and she has been here for like 8 months, so that tells you something of how amazing it is here. She has a house overlooking the ocean and she pays less than $300 a month! Anyway, I'm here for another week or so and then I'm heading to the north to study permaculture on this farm that a friend of mine is part owner of (www.panyaproject.org). After that I'll be certified in permaculture design and I'll be able to go anywhere in the world and help people set up sustainable gardens. I'm stoked! After that I fly back to San Francisco (a short trip I know) and I'll be working for Lydia's Lovin' Foods (www.lydiasorganics.com) at the Health and Harmony Festival (Erykah Badu and the Roots are headlining) and Sierra Nevada World Music Festival (lots of good bands)! I'm super stoked about life right now! And I hope you are too! Hit me up with some news on your end if you feel like it and I'll be seeing you soon! Peace and Love, Elric

spontaneous foot rub

elsbrico — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:30:43 GMT

I love when a group of people can share such an intimate moment as a group foot rub session! I was hanging out with some friends and we enjoyed a fabulous dinner, which contained a burger (roasted portabella), salad (feshly picked kale with tofu, walnuts, tomatoes, etc.), fries (Indian curry potatoes), and a shake (fresh young coconut milk). It was an absolutely fabulous dinner, which we followed up with a very lovely little session in my friend Jake's chill out room. We all felt so comfortable with each other that we started massaging each other's feet, and soon all six of us were massaging either one or two people's feet! It was so awesome! Let the boundaries be broken and may everyone feel comfortable enough to spontaneously massage a foot!

a year away from Thailand

elsbrico — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:28:12 GMT

It was almost exactly a year ago that I returned from an epic 4 month journey to Thailand. I feel like that year has been the most transforming and amazingly eye-opening year I could ever have! I spent so much time traveling to new places and experiencing new things and hardly any time returning to past patterns and remaining stagnant in life. I had time to reconnect with my family in Cali, Seattle, the Midwest, and Colorado, where I experienced my first Rainbow Gathering, and a family I always needed and will always be a part of. I got to spend so much time living outside the so-called 'normal' existence that most Americans engage in (or disengage in), and actually live on the land and understand community and sharing and harmony. Understand unconditional love, over and over again. Reaffirm my ability/responsibility to hug strangers. Then a smooth transition back to 'reality' via the Oregon Country Fair...a visit with a brotherly cousin in Idaho (don't ask), and I landed back in Seattle in late July, right on my father's birthday actually. I was so close to settling back down in Seattle, and I even got a 9-5 job (actually 7-4, but...) at Full Circle Farm boxing the CSA boxes, but it just wasn't feeling right! The thing that made me realize I wasn't ready to settle yet was another Rainbow Gathering, this time in Washington state, where I once again perceived the need to be mobile, so instead of locking into a lease with some friends, I bought a van, and soon quite the repetitive job on the assembly line to go to Power to the Peaceful and Earthdance with my good friends Tessa and Jean-Luc, who are themselves on very extended journeys right now in New Zealand. After leaving Seattle this time, a big part of me wanted to stay on the road and check out northern cali, which happened to manifest itself as staying with my friend Dave in Arcata. This transition also happened in part because of this one Rainbow goddess named Brezi who convinced me that I needed to be on the road. However, I soon realized that I wasn't leaving Arcata, and was actually rather enjoying living out of my van in a chill northern california town on the coast. I was being exposed rather highly to a regular dose of raw food, especially raw chocolate, and it was doing me a lot of good! And I fell into a rather sweet job building a 'green' house, which still allowed me the freedom to go to the bay area whenever I wanted and take trips to Seattle. So I decided to learn a thing or two about green building and build some muscles and make some money, which I subsequently spent on dank food and trips to see friends up and down the coast. After a few months, I met a really cool girl who shared my van with me, as well as her house, where I met some of my best friends in Arcata, Dawn and Kevin. This was the peak of my van existence! Around Christmas, that girl Julia and my good friend Dave both left, moving back to their respective homes. So I was left with a pretty lonely existence in Arcata with nothing more than a good job to come back to. This forced me to reach out and expose myself to the community, which then embraced me and made me realize how cool Arcata really is! I soon realized, however, that I was really starting to miss my crew in Seattle. I began to think about Seattle as a home again. And so I started making plans to go back to visit. I simultaneously made plans to go to Thailand again to study permaculture, and an old high school buddy Ben decided to plan to join me. I saved up a bunch of money, and left Arcata on my birthday, Feb 20. I stopped through Portland and visited another good friend named David, and then I went to a ten day Vipassana meditation retreat and explored the inner workings of my mind (more about that later). After ten days of silently meditating, I was so high on life! I rolled back into Seattle and into the perfect life I have going for me there, and I have now spent almost a month enjoying weekly family dinner potlucks/drum circles, going to shows, biking around this beautiful city, and exploring new relationships and friendships with new and long lasting people in my life. It has been truly amazing and exactly perfect for what I need every day. It's that feeling of family that is so strong here. I feel so comfortable and well-taken care of and I therefore can reciprocate and share the love and nurturing with everyone as we flow through this beautiful existence together. So here I am, with a ticket to Thailand, and a van parked outside that has become a trusty home, and lots of good friends and a whole new life that has just manifested itself freely, uncovering all sorts of possibilities for what I can do in this community/city. I feel like Seattle is so ready to take the lead as a major sustainability project. People are waking up at an alarming rate. I have debated not even going to Thailand and staying here and continuing with the momentum I have going, but I feel like this trip to Thailand will be a good closure to this phase of travel and a nice little dip into the world of permaculture, which will in turn manifest the ability to sprout roots wherever I go. Not that I can't do that already... but empowerment definitely doesn't hurt! So to all those who feel like traveling is exactly what you need to do, do it! For those who feel like they really don't want to go anywhere and instead want to be a part of a specific community and do a specific role to better themselves and those around them, fuckin' do it man! There are so many good things to get out of everything you do, and besides, everything happens for a reason! At any given moment, we are doing exactly what we should be doing, unless you are regretting what you're doing. Anyway, I'm rambling, but thanks for hearing me out. It felt good to articulate what I was thinking and put it out there for feedback, inspiration, sharing, love, intention.

Vipassana

elsbrico — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:27:10 GMT

I recently did my first Vipassana meditation retreat. It has been something that I've been meaning to do, and I've had countless friends and random strangers telling me how beneficial it was for them, so I finally found the time to do it. I think the last little push was a talk I had with my dad, and he was asking me what I planned on doing on my 21st birthday. I had been planning on going to Seattle and partying with all my good friends up there. When I told him this (me and my dad can talk about this kind of stuff openly, thank god), he said that it would be a shame to be drunk on my 21st birthday, because that is when my soul fully submerges into my body (my dad's a Waldorf teacher, and he has all this theory and philosophy that he derived from years of study, mostly Rudolf Steiner stuff). He told me that on his 21st, he was meditating and he noticed a rather phenomenal change happen inside himself. So I started thinking about alternatives to partying, and the thought of vipassana came up. I looked up the course schedule for the retreat center in Washington, so I could do it on my way up to Seattle, and discovered that a course started the day after my birthday. I signed up for the course and found myself regretting it a few days into the ten days of silence! I at first had such a hard time keeping my mind from wandering around, and sitting still for more than 10 hours a day, but soon I got into a rhythm and began to love the quiet and the routine. You wake up at 4 am to a bell (unless you sleep through it, which I did several times) and you are supposed to be meditating by 4:30 in your room or in the meditation hall. At 6:30 you eat breakfast, which was actually really bomb oatmeal and toast and fruit (not organic, but it's free so you can't complain). Then you have an hour and a half to walk in the walking areas (which are segregated, so men never interact with women) and think about how bored you are. At 8 AM you are in the meditation hall for the first group sitting of the day. That lasts an hour and then you stretch for 5 minutes and are given the instructions for the day. Then you can meditate in the hall or in your room for another 2 hours before lunch. The lunches were the highlight of the day! An all volunteer server crew cooked up the bombest veg meals. They even made special vegan desserts! After a two hour break from meditating, you begin again at 1 PM. At 2:30 you are back in the hall for the 2nd group sitting of the day, after which you are given more instructions. More meditation, and then at 5 PM you have tea and fruit (no dinner). By 6 you are again in the meditation hall for the 3rd group sitting. Then you get to chill out and watch a movie! This movie is S.N. Goenka talking about what it is you're probably going through and why you are feeling this way. He tells humorous stories about life in India and how vipassana has helped so many people and the origin (Buddha). Those videos are actually one of the main things that kept me going besides the lunches! After the nightly discourse, which lasts about an hour and a half, you have another short group sit in the hall and then at 9 PM you retire for the evening, and lights are out by 9:30. I tell you, I was thinking about leaving for most of the time I was there, but going through with it and facing myself with no shield was probably the best thing I've ever done. No joke. Everyone should try a vipassana course once in their life. On the 6th day I was so close to actually packing my stuff up and leaving, so I talked to the assistant teacher, who somehow convinced me to stay. On that day it snowed and covered the Earth with 6 inches of beautiful whiteness to blanket me in. On the 7th day I made a snow man and had a lot of fun doing it! On the 9th day I couldn't wait till the 10th day... On the 10th day we were allowed to talk and the first thing anyone said in my dorm was, "did you build that snowman?!" After 9 days of silently living in such close courters with 6 other guys in my room, I felt like I knew them! And then we got to connect on the vocal level and we exchanged so many awesome stories and realizations and transformations. By the end I was so content with sitting still for an hour and meditating, where as before I could hardly meditate, let alone sit in the same position meditating. When I got out on the morning of the 11th day, I felt so damn high on life! I gave rides back to Seattle to two servers and the female manager. It felt so good to be back in the world and back in Seattle especially! That night I went to the first family dinner I'd been to in like 6 months, and had the best time ever! The drum circle we had was the most amazing music I had ever heard! The sense of being back in a community of friends and interacting with everyone and laughing and talking and sharing and beatboxing is so amazing! I've tried to do the recommended one hour sitting twice a day, and for the first few weeks I was pretty good about it, but I've noticed it has slipped from a priority to something I'll do if others are sitting or if there's nothing better to do. Overall though I feel like the retreat really helped me to know how to sit and meditate when I need to and I feel like I learned to recognize when I really should be sitting and letting things be as they are without reacting to anything. No craving or aversion. That's the key. Anyone who wants to learn more about Vipassana, check out: www.dhamma.org "May all beings be happy, peaceful, liberated." S.N. Goenka

Rainy snowy warm hot springs

elsbrico — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:41:19 GMT

On Friday me and my friend Wally hiked up a mountain through 3 feet of snow that we weren't prepared for (I had tennis shoes on), and the reward that we were hiking for ended up being some 'warm' springs! We had both been there before (not in the snow) and it had been nice and hot, but I guess through the winter months it isn't as hot. We still got a nice soak in, and enjoyed a lovely salad, and then we put on our soaked clothes (did I mention it was raining the whole time?!) and hiked/slid down the mountain. It was all good though. Got some nice exercise, and I had a very rewarding set of warm dry clothes waiting at my van, as well as the makings for some ginger tea, which we brewed up and enjoyed as we listened to the rain on the roof of my van.

rain

elsbrico — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:40:43 GMT

so it started raining everywhere. people don't seem to be ready, even though we had a long ass summer! i'm ready... i've been living in my van for the past couple months, and right now i keep it in arcata, so that's my home as of late. yesterday morning, the rain woke me up, and damn was it nice! i love the sound of the rain on my roof. i always have. it's possibly the best way to wake up. i just layed there for a bit and then went for a lovely walk through redwood park and sparked a little mary j. oh so nice! anyway, thought i'd share a little positive rain kudos lovin y'all! elric

late night musing

elsbrico — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 09:08:41 GMT

hey, i was kickin it at moonstone beach and i remembered that time that we gave you a ride home, and it turned out you lived right next to my friend josh! i'm sort of living in arcata, at least for the time being. my summer was so much fun! i went and visited family of the blood type and of the rainbow tribe and it was beautiful, especially discovering all the freaky people who make the beauty of the world! colorodo was so awesome, i wanna go back, and hit up new mexico too! the problem is i want to do so much other stuff too, it's like what should i focus my attention and intention on? you know...like i really was thinking about settling back down in seattle but because of a long series of events starting with whatever i want it to, i decided to buy a van and live in it and be mobile. i turned down an opportunity to live in a tight house with awesome buddies of mine, and i quite a farm job, cause all i was doing was boxing csa boxes, which was really boring. i want to be free flowin right now. plus i got a volunteer hookup for earthdance, so i didn't want to pass that up. and i'm very glad i didn't! it was so fuckin awesome to be a part of it and experience one of the best music festivals out there in that way. i worked kitchen crew, which was right behind main stage, so i could hear the music while i was prepping. and i worked whenever i wanted, and everyone was puffin all the time with no worries. it was magical weekend full of new music experiences and spiritual charging and peaceful reguvenation. especially after hitting up power to the peaceful the weekend before! both were amazing and essential to my summer! and now i find myself here, after acid in the woods and all sorts of other adventures that i shared with other adventurers on this road of life. days go quickly and plans are hardly made and life flows perfectly, everything happening in syncronicity that baffles me sometimes. i run into people from rainbow all the time, from thailand sometimes, from all sorts of random places all the time! i love it today i half expected to see you at the beach! so anyway, happy equinox, i hope you are experiencing such abundance and happiness and peacefulness... journey on with blessings and bliss peace and love, elric