3 weeks from now, I'll make the 10-hour trek back to Black Rock Desert, where each year the Burning Man Festival becomes home to many. The most important detail I could communicate about this 8 day experience is how it removes everything you think is real and somehow makes you whole again. It’s the ultimate re-birth of your inner-child.
Since the last year's burn, which was my first, I spent the 2016-year debating the involvement of today's culture. I began to wonder, does the curiosity of our existence only stretch as far as the eye can see, what the ear can hear, or what the wallet can buy?
The need to control others, excessive materialism, and social status are a few subjects that seem to claim the popularity vote in our current culture. And sadly, without hesitation, we fall in line, vulnerable to the hand-me-down belief system that’s been bestowed upon us.
Ones fulfillment of inner thirst should never be blinded by these unsuspecting misconceptions of happiness. Crafted by the hands of our influencers and ancestors, I find the majority are tuned in to this unconscious behavior.
I too, have found myself caught up in the hypnotic wave of “should do’s”, making choices that abide by such influence. It’s as if I'm some sort of marionette to society, where my insecure emotional strings are subjugated by these illusions. And like clockwork, I haphazardly abide to its commands, pleasing the status quo.
Chasing it for many years, I became a slave to its impression. However, the moment I had my first bite, the sour taste of a lesson tingled my taste buds. Did it feed me to the extent I believed it would? No. Not even close. The emptiness it provided left a dyer hunger for something more.
Most will carry these ethics until their very last days and unfortunately, will never truly be in tuned with their inner self. Luckily, there’s a new movement taking light within humanity, where the human spirit is starting to question the fidelity of “what is”. Igniting a desire for something with true substance, profound, one might say.
For me, I believe this is why Burning Man has become a part of my life. It has uncovered the next evolution toward my inner search for happiness, awakening an uncanny desire to know more. Not only about myself but also of this experience called life and my purpose here.
It provides an energy that’s so enlightening that nothing can interfere with its presence. That when I dance on the dusty, crackled Playa ground of Black Rock City, I know I am free. Free of the reality that’s been exposed to me through the physicality, or mental perceptions of others.
No longer will they claim ownership over my spirit and dictate what should make me happy. No longer will they tell me who I am. And no longer will they dim my inner light, robbing me of my most vulnerable and innocent layers! I am free. I. AM. FREE!
With Love,
Elisha Lillianna