Simply Bonnaroo - - This post haved 0 comments

There's a music festival for every taste and every counter culture in America and Europe. Smaller festivals can average 5000 people while larger festivals attract 100000 or more. I've visited a few festivals but none of them compare to the one and only Bonnaroo. This year I volunteered for a few days on the farm and got to experience the magic first hand.

This year's headliners were great. LCD Soundystem, Pearl Jam, and Dead & Co. I felt butterflys when I found out the lineup, and read through names of great musicians. Some I knew and some I knew I would grow to love. 

I knew that I wanted to volunteer this year so my husband and I signed up as soon as the applications came out. I signed up for Festival Activities Croo so that we would be able to interact with other Bonnaroovians. We were assigned to the Roo Run and Slip N Slide. Both were excellent jobs that I would love to be involved with again next year. Slip N Slide was definitely the most fun, we got to stay cool, play with the Roo kids, and even be close enough to catch artists in The Other Tent. 

Camping at Bonnaroo is amazing no matter if you are in the GA or Volunteer camp grounds. I've been on both sides of the fence, and I can definitely say the volunteers party a lot harder. A lot of volunteers return year after year and it is a close group, even if you are a first timer. I met up with an amazing group from around the country thanks to Facebook and social media. It was such a surreal feeling to automatically be so close to these cool kids. We all came from different corners of the country, even this one beautiful Canadian lass. But we all had music in common and a desire to live life to the fullest. We showed eachother our party techniques, worked to build a camp together, shared our supplies and looked out for eachother when we were down for the count. That's a love you don't get at other festivals. A community only Bonnaroo offers. I'm truly blessed to have met such a great new fest fam. And I can't wait to travel with them again.

Panorama of the field before Dead & Co

But back to the music. My top two showes this year were the headliners Pearl Jam and Dead & Co. I've dreamed of seeing both of them since I was a kid, something only Bonnaroo can deliver. Pearl Jam rocked, they rocked hard. Apparently it was Eddie's daughters birthday. Hubby and I showed up with a few other friends, but they left to see another set, and that gave up the opportunity to dash up toward the center front. Another beautiful thing about Roo and other festivals is that you can get so close to your favorite artists. With a little patience and timing, you can be on the rail for nearly any set. The Dead & Co show was a spiritual experience. I loved the show but the people were producing this vibrating energy of love during it that attracted me more than the performers on stage. I met some beautiful souls in that field that night. And saw some spectacular sights, but what happens at Roo stays at Roo and those stories are only for our fest fam. 

I will return to Bonnaroo again. Maybe in 2017 but I still have to see where my travels take me. While Roo will always feel like a place of peaceful self expression, I know there is more to see and do in this wonderful world. I use Bonnaroo as an inspiration for everything I do in my life now. And it has put a fire in me to travel and meet people and bring as much happiness and peace to this world as I can. I hope you get the chance to experience that magic of Bonnaroo for yourself! 

Political Expression And Evolving As A Planet - - This post haved 0 comments

Our nation has evolved in so many ways over the course of the last few hundred years. In history class we learned vague, pre-approved, lessons about what made our country great. We were told that America was founded for everyone (a great melting pot) and then slavery was legalized and allowed to take place. We are told that we have strong military, capable of defending us from every "insurgent" in the Middle East, but we would only do that if we felt "threatened". Yet time and time again we've been the aggressors without cause. And of course, only biased news and information is reported. All insinuations that America is less than perfect are quickly swept under the rug and we are force fed and idealistic picture of how we are the great hero's of the world.

We all have our opinions. We are constantly gauging partial truths and trying to somehow tie them into our own experiences and morals. We want things to be clear cut (black and white) but experiences are different for everyone. We can't possibly judge truth on our own experiences and it still remain true for anyone other than ourselves. To me, that's why laws never seem quite right, there is no satisfying the masses because there is no correct way to satisfy everyone. Everyone wants something a little different. 

Now, there are some clear winners and clear losers when we acknowledge the handful of things that truly binds all human beings. Pain, Love, Respect, Hunger, and Humanity. If we are not striving to improve (or at least not to worsen) the current situation, then something is not right. We shouldn't make things worse for others. The current ideals of racism (or any -ism) come from the same fears and generalizations of racists centuries ago. For example, take "Mexican" out of any anti-Mexican rhetoric and insert it with "African" or "African-American" and our modern eyes and hearts would quickly identify racism.That, to me, is where I draw the line of political expression. Opposing views on the economy, abortion, the environment, etc are fair game. As long as we are pushing for the positive evolution of all people around the globe, and not devaluing human lives based off fear or misconceptions (aka racism), then by all means feel passionate about your opinion. 

For the past twenty years we have seen a push towards a more accepting country. We are working together, in unity, to fight back against oppressors (politicians and civilians alike). To finally be free to be who we are without persecution. I want the world to realize that every group has extremists who think violence and manipulation are effective tools to gain attention to their cause. But these extremists are the vocal minority.

The majority of people are realizing that we have a standard to uphold. If we want to be this unique melting pot of cultures we have to work together and embrace our differences. We should learn from one another. Not dismiss cultural or social differences because we do not think they apply to us. We are one race, the human race. Let's express ourselves in ways that promotes the good of all humanity and evolve as a planet. 

Free Love in Modern Society - - This post haved 0 comments

Free love is beautiful. It's natural and wonderful to be intimate with others. Emotionally and physically. Love is a feeling that only the luckiest get to understand. It is complicated and multifaceted  There are different types of love all of which are glorious in their own right. You can love a friend, a parent, a pet, and especially a significant other.

Free love has gotten a bad rap in the past few decades. The idea is that men and women are over sexed and are sleeping with everything possible. Gross and perverted ideas of free love and being propagated left and right from anti-peace organizations. These ideas are singular and misguided. Of course there are people that want to experience ultimately, unlimited sexuality. They take their sexual destiny into their own hands and embrace it fully. These ideals may seem extreme, but there is beauty in sexuality and power in sexual freedom.

“Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and
natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a
period as I can; to change that love every day if I please, and with
that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to
interfere."

—	Victoria Woodhull

The idea of free love is beginning to be redefined. An awakening is happening and we are beginning to open our hearts to the rest of the world. We are accepting and learning to respect the differences in others. Free love is based on the ideals of ultimate acceptance and the desire for oneness with people in our lives. The free love movement isn't about having sex with everyone, but finding the ability to love others with open hearts and open minds.

Flashback Friday | Meditation - - This post haved 0 comments

Happy Friday readers. This weeks edition is dedicated to the power of meditation. When we meditate we block our all of our worries and begin to connect to our spirits and the universe. Meditation is cleansing, it is the saturation of your physical body with the pure emptiness of spiritual consciousness. 

Deep meditation takes time to learn, it is a skill. It is not an easy task to disconnect from the physical world. With all the distractions that life has to offer it is only human to stray from our spiritual paths. Meditation helps us reconnect and ultimately realize the answers to our deepest questions.

“A Buddhist monk once taught that the mind is like a cup of water. When you hold the cup of water, the water is not still. If you try to still the cup in your hands, it take great difficulty and effort (physical and mental) to still the water in the cup, if even possible. This cup represents our mind, our mind is largely not still throughout the day much like the water in the cup (mental faculties within the mind). You can never still the mind if you hold on to it, only then will you realize that there is a way to still the water in the cup. Only when you learn to let go of the mind and its faculties, will you understand that the water in the cup is only completely still when you put it down. When you grasp, hold on to, or attach yourself to the mind, your mind is not still. Put the cup down, still the mind.”

Have a great weekend and take some time to meditate. 

If you know the original sources to any of these pictures, leave a note in the comments section.

Four More Years - - This post haved 0 comments

I can't say that I'm surprised by the results of the election, we all knew what direction this nation was heading in. The night of the election I went to bed while we were in the midst of Romney nation. I dreamed about red states and blue states all night. I couldn't wait to see the final decision the next morning.

I woke up early to see the results and my soul literally started singing. It gives you a warm feeling to know that we are looking at politics differently these days. We want someone in office that can acknowledge our freedoms and still nurture our nation. We are coming into a new era, where people are learning that there is more to life than the value of a dollar.

This election was monumental for the fact that we have proven to the world that we are looking forward to a new America. One with minimal government impact on our lives. We still respect the power of authority, but we want to see a change in the way our government is ran. No more blatant disrespect of the middle class, taking away funding to educate our children, or dictating the private lives of American citizens. We want to reduce the ego of our nation and it's leaders. We want to strip away the brutality our "power" has forced onto less fortunate nations. We want to see harmony and a economy that supports itself, that doesn't rely on foreign oil and outsourced jobs. We want our air to be pure and our cars to put off less emissions.

No man, no face, or singular belief system will solve the issues this country has to overcome. We put too much power in the hands of one man and his "carefully selected" associates. These few people will never be able to satisfy the desires of every individual in this country and around the world. But there is hope. That every individual will make the right decisions for the own self and their own family. We need a government to assist in our attempts at happiness, but not a government that dictates our happiness.

When it comes to the economy and the conservative ideals of striking it rich, we need to relax and understand how the economy actually works. I'm not an economist, but I know that not everyone can be wealthy. We all must work to create our own destiny. There is no magical switch that the President can flip to transform our economy into a Utopian model of supply and demand.  Improving our supply and demand model is the only way we will improve our society. We have to stop spending money we do not have, stop relying on credit companies and learn the value of saving what we earn. We also have to realize that money is not the source of our happiness. True, it is better to cry in a Mercedes than in a cardboard box. But, we have to reduce our addiction to consumption and only take our fair share from the pool of stuff. We currently consume more than we can produce, which is the entire reason for importation of goods and deportation of jobs.

At the end of the day I am proud to see that we have reelected a President that has proven his loyalty to our country and the future of our country. That includes everyone, not just the wealthy. We are on our way to brighter days. Not everyone will be happy in the moment but life will move on. We will naturally evolve into a better, wiser nation. There has to be a certain optimism, we must have faith in our country and work together to succeed in making America great again.

Flashback Friday : Adornments In Her Hair - - This post haved 0 comments

It's Friday and it's time for a Flashback. Here are some of the best pictures I've found around the net for hippies that wear flowers in their hair. It is a traditional hippie thing to do, adorn yourself with flowers and other sprigs of nature.

Have a good weekend Hippies! Peace and Love