Comments on: Sweet serendipity

By: Darrance

Darrance — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:45:50 +0000

That’s a well-toghuht-out answer to a challenging question

By: StillSearching

StillSearching — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:45:02 +0000

I came to the playa searching for myself under all the layers of programming and illusions. It was my first year, but my boyfriend had been before… I did all the preparation, devoured every word I could find online. Storys, Tips, Tricks, Precautions… We packed up our car and drove 14 hours, arrived in a dust storm so the greeters rushed us through, no bell for me… but the minute I stepped outside I got a face full of playa. We set up camp in a white out at night, tent poles broke, people got hurt, but we were there finally…

As the week went on I felt disconnected from the people… i enjoyed them, talked to some, but couldnt open up. I didnt realize that internally I was building up so much pressure I was about to break. I thought I was just tired.

We went to the temple the night before it burned and I lost my boyfriend. I searched for an hour before giving up. His bike was gone so I sat down in a small pillar under the stairs and read the words of all the burners who had sat there before me. I wanted so badly to know myself enough to be able to release like that, to know why I was there, what I wanted. i thought I knew, but I was still so lost. And it was in that moment of feeling lost that a woman sat down next to me… She had the kindest eyes Id ever seen, the sparkled with love. She could see deeper into my soul than I could, and she knew. She knew I felt alone, that I felt lost, that I was searching for myself and wasnt finding it… She knew more about me than i though possible. Every word she spoke lit up a part of my soul I could reach alone. She said that she was with a camp of healers, that she did readings and talked with people… She told me to come find her the next day, she wanted to help me. She said there was something special inside of me and she wanted me to see it. I wrote her location on my hand in a sharpie and said Id find her.

I found my way back to camp and as I laid down in bed thinking of that woman, my boyfriend came into camp with tears in his eyes. It was as if we had been apart a thousand years. We laughed and cried and fell asleep in each others arms. And the next day I went off on my own to find that woman because I knew she had something to teach me. I searched that intersection for hours, asking every camp if they knew of her. I never found her that day…

A year later I am writing this almost done with my schooling to become a healer myself. I still feel lost sometimes, but Ive realized that what she had to teach me was that sparkle in her eyes. She saw the light in me when I was lost in the dark. All I needed was for someone to see me and she did. Ill never forget that woman, or the sparkle in her eyes. And when I feel lost I remember that moment when she found me, and I find myself again.

I hope to run into her again this year, to thank her for that moment. For now, I thank the playa for providing what I needed <3

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By: Lordsburg

Lordsburg — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:18:14 +0000

Remember that time you woke up from a wild dream that made absolutely no sense but you immediately closed your eyes and tried desperately to fall back into it. Well, that’s the only way I know how to describe Burning Man. I’ve stumbled with my best friends through dusty dark tent alleys only to find my self waking up to pillow mountains covered with florescent lighting where total strangers dressed as Adam and Eve offered me ice cold liqueur drinks. Your first reaction when a stranger hands you a drink is to pull out your roofies testing kit and start evaluating. But hey, it’s burning man, you can trust strangers, right? If you can’t, just consider the roofies a present from the radical gifting society that makes up BRC. Fortunately or Unfortunately, my drink was not roofie-fied. I cheersed Eve and hopped the next giant rubber duck to THE END of the playa where I stayed up all night with two beautiful burners who I’ll probably never meet again.

I don’t know how I made it back to camp that night but I felt at home as I slept beneath the stars with the playa against my back.

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By: abgirlee

abgirlee — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:49:15 +0000

This was my second year at Burning Man. Last year was truly a life altering experience. I had waited 10 years for the the opportunity to go and it was worth every day of the wait. This year I made the decision to go only 7 days before the event. I had spent the last 7 months dealing with extremely serious health and personal issues and I wasn’t sure if I was healthy enough to even make it back from a week in the desert alive, but I could feel the Playa pulling me home…I just HAD to go. To be honest, when I left on Sunday to drive to BM I truly believed I would be returned to my parents in a body bag, but at that point, I didn’t care. Burning Man is home…not such a bad place to go and never return from.

Once I made the decision to go, the way everything in my life just began lining up in perfect harmony for this trip to be possible was unbelievable. The next day, which was the Sunday before the Burn, I found a ticket on Craigslist that I was able to buy that afternoon from a wonderful young lady who had a friend gift her one at the last minute so I was able to purchase mine from her at an amount lower than what she paid face value for. This was such a blessing due to the fact I was using the last $250 I had to my name to pay for the ticket.

Within the next 3 days I found a ride with a group of people by posting for a rideshare on a local burners yahoo group website and 4 days later we were off to the Burn! The lady I rode to Burning Man with was a total stranger, but we seemed to have so much in common and we had a wonderful time talking the entire time and arrived at the Burn on Monday afternoon with our caravan without any incidents or problems.

Then, on Wednesday, the third day of the burn, (after having sworn off men mere weeks before because of all the craziness they caused me in the last several years of my life) I met the man of my dreams. The total stranger I had ridden to the Burn with was camping with a WONDERFUL group of people and this man happened to be camping with them also. Had I not ridden to the Burn with her, I would have not been at that camp at all because I was camping with a different group, and I never would have met this amazing man who has changed my life so dramatically. Talk about serendipity.

I went to Burning Man this year planning to not come back alive and instead I came home with a few things I hadn’t experienced in so long I couldn’t even remember nor did I believe I would again. Joy, love, peace and HOPE.

Burning Man changed my life again this year. Burning Man saved my life this year.

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By: Jrod

Jrod — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:05:07 +0000

Serendipity, Hmmm
This year was my first burn and I was looking to let loose before I started the corporate world. I came into BM to experience BM and that was it, I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend or hookup, nothing I just wanted to enjoy BM. Needless to say that didn’t happen I met this girl the first day, which nothing happened but we ended up meeting back up a few days latter. Since our moment on the playa we were inseparable the rest of the week. My group of guys that I rode with turned out to be a bunch of selfish assholes. So I eventually ditch them and their quarter million dollar RV. To spend the rest of my time at BM in a tent with this girl I just met. Amongst all the drama between my camp and her rides ditching her TWICE! I eventually ended up renting a car in Reno and driving her and me to Arizona. Where we spent the whole next week together and are still together to this day. I don’t know what my future holds with this wonderful woman that I met at BM but all I can see is happiness and that’s a huge deal for her and me. So yes this was a serendipitous experience! Despite all the bad that happened I met some great people and that’s what I focus on, thank you for making my first burn an experience of a lifetime, and to you girlee thank you for making my experience a life changing one.

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By: Samsa

Samsa — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:01:31 +0000

I have had some amazing playadipitous moments since attending in 2005….meeting the right people in the right place, stumbling onto artists that I didnt plan to see but loved even more, places where relationships formed, strong spiritual connections and adventures, a beautiful wormhole of giving and receiving….so many great stories to tell.
I went to BRC for my fifth round and thought I had it nailed down. I put effort into the theme camp, created a really fun sunrise party with a friend that delighted others, helped people out, gave stuff away, received, did all these things right but forgot about being spontaneous and just getting on foot and staying away from the rave camps and go enjoy some freakin art and burbs. I thought I had it nailed, and I didnt. I stood there in wonderment and disbelief for much too long, attention deficit disorder breakdown, I would meet someone and then arrange for a later date in the eve that never panned out (just go with the flow, do it now!) So many anti serendipitous moments for me this year, I did so much ‘wrong’ for myself in many ways.

There was one really stand out moment though, my art buddy took me to the butterfly moth female like sculpture. I took photos of him as he climbed it. At one point, at the top in the bowl, a young man played some amazing silver trumpet. The mix of his creativity and the art piece made that piece so amazing. It wasnt the same without trumpet man playing in it. An art car drove by playing Abracadabra and the trumpeteer played along with the song perfectly. I got to witness that. Now when I see pics of the butterfly bowl, I think, neeener neener, I saw that thing at its best ;)

So even though I drove away from BRC dissapointed in myself this year, the lessons and inspiration I have for my next one are teaming and bubbling with goodness……even on a bruised year, one can be transformed Playa style once again, in a whole new unexpected way….thus morphing your dreams once again, completely affected by the experience, yearning to open more doors and search for more clues of how to be Super Me, Actually.
I gotta be that trumpeteer in the bowl more often.

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By: Just So Sluttty Magillacutty

Just So Sluttty Magillacutty — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:57:59 +0000

My first time was 2007, last minute no organization, car packed to the hilt for just one person. My boyfreind wasnt having it once he saw the dirt coming out of the car 8 months after the burn he vowed never to go…. So this year he went! He is normally VERY, shy even with his own family… NOT No More, I was the gracious host and led him and his nephew around for the first 1.5 days then kept asking them “where is the camp?” after a while they got their bearings. I said I was going out for a while and would be back later…. I didnt see them for two days, I came back they were gone. They came back, we were supposed to have a party at our place the “Sham-wow Luau”, they were so “happy” they couldnt even stand up. They had been to the “Jump of Death” and got arm bands and many drinks. I had envisioned was that big wood ramp I saw earlier in the day that became a faux ski ramp, but no it was a 8 inch high series of bike jumps. They got into the party and walked up to complete strangers and offered drinks and socialized for almot 6 hours before finally passing out. Now understand that neither of them speak much english. Both are from Spain, one less than a year ago, so this was stretch for both of them.

One the way home they both said they will keep coming as long as they are able to. But next year with an RV. The tents and dust were a bit much they thought.
It only took a month to put away all the camping gear, and dirt is still oozing out of their SUV. The playa has that effect on people, changes neat freaks into Playa angels. Thank you ethos!

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By: Jason Rasmussen

Jason Rasmussen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:22:04 +0000

I experienced an incredible moment of sweet serendipity on the playa at Burning Man this year. My close friend Dayn Schulman of Santa Cruz (Rest in Peace) inspired and pushed hard for me to go to my first Burn in 2004. We had an awesome time. He was a wild man and one of his nicknames was “Scully Powers”. Sadly, He ran into a difficult head space and took his own life a few years later after the 2004 Burn we did together.
2009 was the first time I was able to return to the playa since I live on Kauai and it is difficult to pull off. I believe it was Friday at sunset this year, I was in front of the large Brass Tax Boombox theme camp fashioned soundsystem near Nexus, a huge oversized Boombox with speaker stacks and dj booth built in.
I saw the sun setting behind the upper corner of the Boombox where a red light and the POWER button was located. I decided to take a picture with the sun in the back drop going down and the POWER light on in the foreground. when I looked at how it turned out, to my amazement the semi truck parked in the back of the Boombox read “SCULLY” perfectly aligning with the POWER to read SCULLY POWER with the sun setting to the left. I was blown away…It gave me the most extended and nice feeling goose bumps and I was so happy knowing that Dayn was there by my side, proud to see me back at Burning Man, giving me a serendipitous reminder that his spirit carries on strong… I Love You Dayn… Thank You Burning Man

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By: Tesla

Tesla — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:28:46 +0000

There’s so many wonderful things that have happened to me on the playa, but here’s one of my favorites from this year:

On Wednesday I woke up on a couch in the Lamplighter’s Lounge, starved and dehydrated (I was a bad Burner this year!), and while I was trying to psyche myself up for the walk back to my faraway camp, man in a purple kilt and toga sat down next to me and we started talking. Eventually I mentioned my killer case of playa foot and other woes, and he offered to give me some lotion/vinegar/miscellaneous wonderful things at his tent. I washed off my feet, which was heavenly in and of itself, and he even gave me a new pair of socks! Afterward, he fed me green chili stew and lasagna, totally kicking my ass with awesomeness in the process.

We ran into one another a lot that week (He was a Lamplighter, and I was hanging out there a lot as I have many friends in that camp), and finally on Saturday night we went out. We did some dancing, drank in front of a fake fireplace at Monticello, discussed Molly Ringwald and the finer points of pop culture, then went back to Lamplighter’s and sat on a couch on their second-story deck, making out and watching the sun rise.

Oh, and he was in a purple kilt again, with a top hat with matching purple LED wire trim. The next day I realized that was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, and I needed it in more ways than one. The playa provides =)

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By: ShLoren

ShLoren — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:07:28 +0000

A search for my brother led me to the thunderdome, where i crossed paths with a girl who i had been crushing on for years but rarely saw. admitting mutual feelings for one another for the first time (which, back home, violated social barriers), we quickly became playa partners. we spent the rest of the event together, and now share our lives with one another.

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