Dear Everyone,
38 hours till lift off. Black Rock City bound! It’s so close I can taste it. Actually I can literally taste it as the clouds of dust shake out of my unwashed rainbow gear. The preparation is well under way but a D&M (deep and meaningful conversation) recently got me thinking ahead. To when the man lies in ashes and the wagons turn around.
When leaving Burning Man each year most of us, while sleep deprived and emotionally exhausted, are also supercharged with a deep connection. A connection to our community, and what it is to be a part of one, and also connected with a deeper part of ourselves. A part that unfortunately we often struggle to keep around. That for me is a huge reason why I keep going back. I desire that yearly reminder of what it feels like to be unconditionally loved and unconditionally loving towards each person you come across. The temple burn gets far less press than the man. Rightly so, this party in the desert was first created and is first recognized as just that: A party. The temple, however, is an opportunity to evolve. We spend the week placing mementos, writing notes, and dropping baggage in the temple. Sunday night we then burn the thing to the ground. A friend of mine a few years back hated this idea. “It’s so beautiful. How could we possibly build something so wonderful just to set it on fire?” True. It’s fucking crazy when you think about it physically. But as temples generally are built for spiritual purposes we’ll delve further. The temple has to be just exactly as big and grand and intricate as it is because it has to hold all of our shit and suffering and personal hells in it. A place so full of pain and old stories and incredible loved ones that we’ve lost has to be magnificent and important. And then we have to burn that shit to the ground. It is our cleansing. It is our forgiving of the world for its moments of cruelty. It is our release from all things that keep us from being our highest selves. So what do you burn?
As always I hold space for my two closest grandparents, legendary counselors and my supreme examples of pure love. I burn my grief for them and raise to a level where I can still feel them with me, a place where I know they are not gone, and never will be. This year my step-mothers Mom has also passed. So I burn the sadness that has followed and I imagine her with her husband, playing cards, happy and young again, jumping into the lake behind their heavenly cabin in Wisconsin.
I burn heartache. The months in my past spent aching over my first love. I let him go completely. In the ashes I find an opening for new love and a readiness to be a part of an elevated and healthy relationship. One where we are both pushed beyond what we once thought possible in support, inspiration and unconditional love.
I burn unworthiness. I am worthy. I deserve and accept the very best in life.
I burn poverty and any thought related to being in want. As that goes up in flames, I welcome infinite abundance and know that it is my birth right. WE are energy, all things are energy, we create flow by bringing our thoughts to the gratitude of having flow. I burn stagnation. I create evolution.
These are things I am burning down for myself. But more importantly I am burning them down for each of you. By removing my own blockages, letting go of my suffering and baggage, and connecting to my highest self whenever possible I am creating a better world for us all to live in. A world more in tune with love and community.
I am burning it all down for you, and I’m hoping you burn it all down for me too.
Light, love, fire and ashes and dust,
Quinn
The Great Rucksack Revolution 