Are you familiar with the analogy that life progress is rarely a straight line, hopefully not a circle, but hopefully an upward spiral? Where you will re-encounter the same situations, life circumstances, events, blessings and tragedies over and over in your life, but with a heightened level of awareness and growth, therefore re-encountering these lessons from a different perspective, with hopefully more wisdom then the last encounter. This phenomenon certainly makes itself very apparent every year I return to Black Rock City. I'd love to claim that the growth has been there every single year to allow me to view this experience from a higher vantage point, but that would be a lie - the journey over the last 8 or 9 years since my first burn has had some crazy turns and shaky winds, but the journey has been beautiful and I feel so content with where this crazy path has ultimately ended up at the current time. It's truly a gift to watch life unfold if it's lived without holding anything back. To simultaneously watch Burning Man evolve in apparently the same crazy spiral - not always upwards - but ultimately following it's own path, has been interesting as well. I feel that this year, our life paths have intersected at a very interesting place - a place that both reflects my personal growth thus far, as well as makes evident where much more of my personal growth can come from. Wherever my life path may intersect with burning man again, I am extremely grateful for the growth it has brought me up to this point as a human being, for opening my eyes to what society can look like if we really want to, and hence helping me achieve the positive outlook on society that is needed in order to enact change and feel compelled to give back. Thank you burning man for the all of the lessons of this social experiment thus far. 🕉