When Life Got Weird

and the music played the band.....

I'm sitting here, thinking and feeling. It's not as much a rumination more of a collection of heart felt musings that span over time. Thinking back to times when life had a certain flavor. I knew the flavor and it flowed with sweetness. The music never stopped. Rivers, lakes, oceans, nature, mountains, trees, music, dancing, community, fun, adventure, joy, laughter, exploration, excitement and before me the open road symbolic of the journey unfolding to the unknown next adventure.

With it was also the challenges, growth, learning, growing pains, heart ache and loss. All of it! And... it was ALL beautiful like a blooming Begonia. There was magic, mystery, connection, and synchronicity. There was a collection of moments and many parallel timelines and I knew the passageways to and through them all.

As a traveler, I know the way. Come with me, will you?

Eventually time contorted, roads dead ended, the plants began wilting, the forests were uprooting due to some strange disease, and the community became distant. The music faded. The members of the band transitioned. The lovers separated. The rivers dried up. The dancer ceased to move and the paintbrush sat next to a blank canvas.

The music was never supposed to stop.

All that could be heard was the sound of the screeching light rail train, sirens, humans having mental health challenges yelling at the sky, fighting off unseen entities, traffic, and the noise from a loud world. The vibration of modern tech drowned out the fiddler in the backyard, the squirrel in the tree chipping nuts, and the soil speaks soft yet has been muted by stupid dust.

"No one noticed, but the band is all packed and gone" -The Grateful Dead

The trees spoke and they spoke loud. So loud, they renamed me. The plants spoke and they guided me. My body translated the frequency of certain music. When a musician or band finds it, they get it, and that... it's divine, it's like the language of trees, it makes sense. It informs and directly speaks to the divine source code within. It's not fernetic. It's organized. It's beyond words what I describe. Even though I am not a musician, my body translates it and communicates that language through movement. It's raw. It's direct. It's nothing other than source code. If you know it, you know it, if you don't, you don't and I have likely lost you. Which is just fine, getting lost may be the way you find your way. Grow for it!

Distraction is the name of the game. Countless lost souls wandering. Not all who wander are lost has taken on a whole new meaning. Checked out. Face in the phone giving power away to a new age twinkle vampire called Artificial that has become the common friend, support network, advice giver, information provider, and go to resource for anything and everything. I have been shocked at how many people share with me how this new friend is providing them with relationship and life advice, companionship, creative guidance, dietary help, medical guidance, and even helping them identify how they feel, or what they are thinking about something. Whoa... check in time, are you maintaining your sovereignty here? Or are you giving your power away?

Remember: Stay cognizant of who/what you outsource your power to.

Slow down. Check in. What on earth are you doing? Yes, it's been a wild ride, but let me remind you, this is EARTH. The NATURE Planet. Remember the air, the water, the rivers, the lakes, the trees, when was the last time you felt the sun? When was the last time your barefeet touched the grass? When was the last time you swam skin to water no suit?

Don't lose yourself here.

Unless, you are already too far gone, then... fare thee well!

Life is like a roller coaster; fun for those who like fast drops and quick swirls. For

those however that like to keep their stomach in it's rightful place, that kind of thrill is not pleasant. This, however is like when you think you are on a roller coaster and realize that you have flown out of the cart and have been free falling for days while holding hands with a clown while a rabbit eating a hot dog driving a motorcycle passes by on a cloud next to a cat holding a Sunflower.....

At some point, you will land. Unless you caught a rocket into space, Gravity will get you. As someone who traveled far out, I will share that the rubber band snap back is painful. The Anchor is within your natural divinity, it is within you and it can not be outsourced. The further you go, the more solid your anchor needs to be.

Outsourcing vs Insourcing

The meaning of artificial is something made my humans to mimic something natural. BUT... it's not NATURAl. It uses immense natural resources to maintain itself (did I mention the rivers dried up?). Yet, again, it's not natural. Outsourcing something you are not capable of, makes sense. Getting help to get unstuck when you are stuck also makes sense. We all have natural talents and skills as well as weaknesses. Many have learned that playing up their strengths and outsourcing their weaknesses has brought them great success and helped them overcome blocks, limits and challenges. So be it! I get it. However, outsourcing what you can do or what is accessible within you, to get to a fast answer, bypass the work (whatever the reason) is going to backfire. It promotes laziness. The muscle will atrophy and when the system glitches and the device drops out and you try to rely on your natural abilities yet can't muster up the energy, motivation, or focus to CREATE, welcome to the snap back. OUCH!

Flat Lined: Too much outsourcing and your divine sacred spiritual heart flatlined. Bored, uninspired, unmotivated, not able to create without your crutch. Looking at too much articifical you forgot how to discern truth. Relied too much on external sources you forgot how to come to your own decisions. What is left? Longing. Remembrance. And... hopefully, a defibrillator.

You have been walking through a barren land and your waking up to truth. How long have you been without water my friend? Eventually the craving for real life connection and the feeling of the sun will overcome you. Longing for the taste of fresh picked sun grown fruit from a tree, you find yourself thinking back to the time before you went down the rabbit hole with your temptress friend Artificial that led you to goofy, glitchy weird nooks and crannies. Perhaps you start to feel a little stripped down and dried out. Perhaps you now begin to remember the fire. Perhaps you now feel something stir within.

BEATHE: YES....LIFE GOT WEIRD! For now....it occurs to you, what a long strange trip it's been. -Grateful Dead

1. Feel your feet on the earth and remember where you are.

2. Look around and notice the barren landscape.

Yes, you remember it so lush. Where have the flowers gone?

My friend, you ventured so far into artificial-ville, you forgot what real flowers look and smell like.

Let's bring this HOME!

Before you a dried up river bed, a blank canvas weathered from years of negligence, an old rusty bus with a dried out tank, a hardened paintbrush and one single fiddle with the strings still in tact.

From within the hollowed cracks, something stirs. One single tear falls down your cheek to the earth as you begin to remember. The wind blows the bow string and your bones begin to vibrate.

You begin to move played by the song. As your feet glide the earth, choppy at first, you notice the fiddler's foot tapping. An old grey haired man with a long beard like a garden gnome sitting on a mushroom smiles at you. Where did he come from? Well, he has been here all along. The Music Never Stopped! The band appears like a mirage in a desert scene as the music gets louder. The smell of Magnolias fills the air. The bus turns technicolor. The river flows pure and the paintbrush now lubricated with a palette of colors beckons you.

Looking at the canvas you see the image of one single Rose and you know, in that moment that all along - it must have been the roses!

It's time to play, it's time to dance, it's time to insource your ability to create from that organic divine intelligence within that has been breathing you all along in order to set yourself free. Do not get sucked in!

Somewhere within you lives that memory. Find it. As a child, the Roses spoke to me. Ouside the front door of the house was a small courtyard with grass and brick pillars. Around it were a series of Rose Bushes. My first creative sacred spiritual entrepreneurial endeavor was not a lemonade stand, rather it was Rose Bubble Water. I remember working on a remedy to capture the smell of the roses and make an essence. That, go find it. You know it. It's there. That moment, when divine source code spoke and you listened.

WORDS of Fire Wisdom: The tool you work with requires intention, embodiement, presence, and skill. As someone who dances with fire, to weild the tools I work with requires a responsibility to be mindful, in reverence, to honor safe sacred space, and to stay in full emobodied capacity of my divine source organic true self. If I give my power away to the fire, it then holds the power to consume me. When one goes too far out, there is a point of no return. Learn to honor the structure from which you expand and contract from. In fact, your expansion requires a foundation to grow from. Learn to respect the tools you work with. Remember to exercise your creative mucles and dance your muse. Fire, like most tools, has the potential to transform and heal as well as deconstruct. I teach my students to be thoughtful and considerate. Some people are terrified and traumatized by fire. Do not force fire into someone's face if they are afraid of it. Be respectful and considerate of those around you and your environment. Also, the fuel vapor that is burned off from the vapor is toxic. The responsibility is recognizing and honoring the dangers and damages that come along with a chosen path. As a fire dancer, I have had to take epic care of myself physically to offset the years of fuel ingestion. Whatever you choose to dabble in, know the damage and dangers associated with it.

This is how you maintain your sovereignty and sweetness while exploring a whole new, weird world.

Thank you for joining me on this journey, fully written by me zero artificial assistance. As an organic, true frequency divine source being who keeps on TRUCKIN, grateful for the music and that I have kept on dancing.

If you are starting to feel the urge to connect in real life and longing for connection in a good way, reply to this with the word Connect IRL. I am creating a unique opportunity to connect and create.

With LOVE, InJoy

Sequoia Raven Moon