Center Camp is 671 miles away

This year, I'm camping with a new Burning Man camp. Our infrastructure is solid, dude. It's a Seattle-based camp and it is 671 miles away from Center Camp, somewhere at like 3:15 and zzzzzzz. In other words, I'm staying in the Default World this year but that doesn't mean that I'm not "Going to Burning Man." For me, Burning Man is a dusty place full of some of my favorite people, amazing art  and many evenings of dancing, stars, and laughter. It is also a state of mind that this year I will cultivate in the Default World. So, I'm doing (almost) all of the things that I would do to get ready for Burning Man: new costumes, gifts, prepping food, prepping to be off the grid for 10 days, planning to see art and planning to let the moments take me where they may.

This year, instead of waking up at dawn, dressing in white and riding my bike to the temple to meditate, I'll wake at dawn, dress in white, take a ferry to Whidbey Island, and ride my bike to the Earth Sanctuary to meditate. Instead of riding my bike out to deep playa to look at art, I'll bus and bike downtown to SAM and the sculpture park to look at art. Instead of taking a day to set up my hexayurt, my temporary home for the week, I'll take a day to prep the garden for next spring's veggie seeds. Saturday night, instead of joining the 60,000 other citizens of Black Rock City to watch The Man burn, I'll join a couple dozen friends at Golden Gardens to watch [something yet to be determined] burn.

I'll disconnect from Facebook, twitter, email...I'll use the phone to make plans to see friends. Or maybe I'll just head out on my bike and see who I run into. I'll make music, I'll go to a couple parties, I'll meditate and write A LOT. I will imagine what my ideal world looks like and live it for a week, try it on for size and see what I can bring home from the playa with me.