Michael and I venture into the oaken forest that houses Shangri La musik festival for a four day weekend wonderland in Harmony Park Minnesota. We are going off the grid to get our wild sides under control before we set our sights west. We rolled into the muddy park in our dusty white Chevy Express tailing our caravan of pirate and gypsy friends. Jagged wooden fence spires guard an oak Eden. Welcome home.

It feels like I was just here, standing at the edge of an open field with Bambi, slow hooping, finger picking taut strings and snapping freeze frames with my nikon and my memory’s inner eye. Last time I was racing towards the finish line. This time, this life, I’m just breaking the surface. Emerging from the depths to breathe this new promise, this new journey.

The camp is so quiet before the throng of kindred travelers settle within the woods. So many thoughts and emotions feeding a whirlwind in my subconscious. I’m here, yet so deeply indulged in a past and foreign mindset – mind bend – mind test.

So come, rise from weariness. For the darkness holds adventure that day can merely shadow.

Burst through shining green glades into understanding. Heavy thoughts and thrums yet this feels so light. So much love.

My senses are so full and brimming I can’t begin to predict where we may land. In the lands of curiouser and curiouser we have arrived and set up shop for a weekend of wonders.

Breathe in. Breathe out. All this life, beating down and throwing curve balls into the wind- expecting precision while propagating chaos.

An order to things and a disorder to bridge the gap. It’s cooling down under crisp pines. Fresh minds, rest, reset, reload, ignite. Welcome home.

Not to mention we got to see an A-list line-up of amazing musik: our lovely festival hosts Wookiefoot, as well as Nahko Medicine for the People, I Like You, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, Useful Jenkins, Dustin Thomas, Heatbox, Mike Love, Tubby Love and Amber Riley, and countless other jammers in the Ohm Dome, on three different stages and throughout camp.

Four magical nights in the woods. “Bump and Grind” dance bandits and “power of yes” flash mobs…”Power of yes flash mobs you ask?” Well you see, our last night at the pirate encampment we were minding our own booty when a tall, bald, blue robed man appeared from the shadows asking if we had faith in the power of “yes.”

As he preached to our bewildered flock, we were silently ambushed from all sides of the woods by other believers in blue, singing boldly “To the power of Yes!” Then slowly fading out and whispering their way back into the forest. I just don’t have any words to really explain what happened there in the woods that night…

Wandering hippies gave boyscout advice on our fire pit and warned us of festival dangers… #Broken glowsticks are a no-no. (Something about water contamination, fish food, people food- then doom and ultimate destruction of the human race.)

Outside the gates, wood walls cannot contain melodies vibrating through the earth and rippling with the wind through green and golden fields. Songs spreading through particles and seeds to communities, Harmony.

Harmonize- align our voices with the needs of our people, our planet- for she cries out in need of protection. So many voices gathered here to hear and be heard. To spread the movement and initiative we need to guarantee a brighter future for our children’s children’s children.

To protect the rivers, mountains, lakes, forests, oceans and animals we must know ourselves and know our worth. To trust that our individual light matters in the face of the brightest sun. And our combined hope brighter than the Northern lights and a trillion stars.

Michael and I have been weaving our way into the fight…but where to start? So much to learn yet so much to give and it all starts now.We are hungry for a fight so we’ll travel on and fight hunger. A musik movement to raise funds for soup kitchens and basic needs in all the major cities we come across in our adventure.

Musik is love. We are family. (And pirates arghhh!) Gathered to celebrate our health and homes on this beautiful earth. Dancing barefoot days and barefoot nights. Neon lights in the trees and shadows behind glowing tapestries. Hoots and howls emanate from the woods well into the predawn hours- those resilient humans baring their animal instincts to sing and dance in the dark and become nocturnal creatures, unwilling to greet the sunrise.

As quickly as the techni-color camp erected, were tents and campers swept and shut, zipped and locked and the dreamers finally awoken. And. Here. We. Go. To the Wild Wild West. Awhooooo!