Shambhala music festival has been my yearly escape for quite a few years now (I’m gonna say 6). It’s nearly a week long, camping in the forest next to some big ass stages and loud music. There are people high on everything you can think of, dressed up in costumes, naked, dancing, celebrating. It’s absolute chaos. But it’s well organized, safe, and I love it. I find peace within it. It seems like a lot of people do. It’s hard to explain, but the air there is electric. The mood is contagious. Even though we all spend our completely separate lives doing whatever completely different things we all do, when people come to Shambhala (for the most part), the environment changes them, even for a few days, into happy, peaceful hippies. It’s absolutely beautiful.
This is my new year. The middle of the summer is my birthday, and it used to be the divider between grades, so this time of year has always felt that way to me. This has always been my new year.
From tomorrow until next Monday I’ll have barely any cellphone service, definitely no internet access, and probably some chemicals flowing through my system, though I’ll admit, I’m not really the type of person who ‘parties’ very hard. This ‘retreat’ gives me the most of both socialization (there are people everywhere, friends, friends of friends, stranger friends) and contemplation, because inside the solitude of my tent, and even with the distant beat of four or five different stages at nearly 24 hours of the day, my mind is rarely so calm and clear.
Shambhala is a vibrant, and I’ll admit, sometimes overwhelming display of the human spirit. People there are rarely afraid to talk to strangers, they’ll make eye contact, we don’t know what it is, but when we’re there, we all understand it (anyone who’s ever done mushrooms or acid knows that feeling…), even if that understanding is sometimes fleeting, forever striving for it allows each new experience to teach me something. And shambhala is an experience I look forward to every year.
peace. be back on monday :)
and while I’m away don’t be scared to share any of these video’s and posts with your friends.
