Vacation, Day 7

 This day gets it’s own post. This was definitely one of my favorite days of the entire vacation. Like, for reals. People, long lost friends, relationships and love and soul fulfillment are the important stuff that filled this day.

I have this friend. Holy moly, I think we’ve probably been friends now more than 30 years. When I was a supreme and very good fag hag, he was one of my besties. When I was a teenage mom, he’s one of the few friends who stayed by my side, cared, babysat, and man did we have fun and crazy times together! I haven’t seen him in more than 20 years and because we were doing this trip, I contacted him and he was totally down to meet us! So, off we headed to Pioneertown:

This is an “Old West” type town that’s been used for movie sets for a long time. It was slightly kitschy and neat. We walked around a bit, but of course, the pinnacle of this day was getting to see and spend time with my friend Joe and his awesome Husband, Al:

I adore having friends who it seems no matter how long it’s been since you were together or socialized, it all comes flooding back. You laugh, you cry, it’s like you were never apart, but then you had to have been because there’s SO MUCH to catch up on! We spent hours talking. We told our waitress at the BBQ place in Pioneertown we hoped she didn’t mind, but she was super cool with it. The BBQ was super good, and the company was amazing. Life is so interesting, how you can NOT see people for so much time, and then be able to share the struggles and strife that happens in life. And it all teaches you something.

Here’s a picture of the town, one of the storefronts:

My heart was full, on this day. At the very end, I had a moment of panic, as I thought that our next engagement, we were going to be late for, and I would have been super sad if we had missed that….

I am sure I have posted and talked in here before about being a Black Rock Ranger. At Burning Man, those of us who choose to be rangers are the non-violent mediators that exist between participants of the event (of which we also count ourselves) and organized law enforcement. I am super lucky and know that this is borne of my privilege, but in the context I have worked with them, I have always experienced law enforcement as helpful collaborators, though I know many others have had many different experiences. As much as they are striving for diversity, Burning Man is still a relatively lily white community, so this makes sense.

At any rate, a million years ago and a lot of water under the bridge ago, I was able to work with a beautiful woman who’s ranger name is “Rockit”. In particular, I had a very stressful interaction with a participant, and when I returned to HQ, there was Rockit, to ask me if I was okay, after that interaction. She’s always had a special place in my heart. Her and her sisters bought and have restored one of the most amazing wooden domes that exists. It’s called The Integratron. Go and read about it, visit if you can. This place is one of a kind in so very many ways! I’d never been, and they used to hold Ranger Training there, so I contacted her and asked if we might be able to visit. This beautiful soul comped us tickets to a sound bath. THAT is why I was upset, if we had missed it. I had mis-read the information that came with the tickers and thought the event started later than it did. It turned out, the earlier opening time was optional, but i’d had the time right for the bath. Here’s the dome, around dusk:

This is the amazing human who hosted us:

Now, this dome is acoustic perfection. Here’s what it looks like inside:

There is a place, you can stand, in the middle of the dome, and when you say or sing anything, you hear yourself as an echo chamber, but it’s like your sound vibrates with the universe in your solar plexus. I cannot describe the feeling, but it’s definitely divine and fun to play with. Saying “OM” in this space is truly magical.

Seeing lives also go full circle is also amazing. Rockit’s kids now run the Integratron, but she came to say hello. I got to meet her adult son, her nephew, all of whom were also beautiful souls and so gracious and loving.

Here was the dome at night, after the sound bath:

I had been to a sound bath before, in Reno, but this was definitely a different level. There are seven chakras right? So, most that I have participated in, had been with seven singing bowls. The folks at the Integratron have collect 23 (!!!!!!) different singing bowls and spend a lot of time figuring out what sounds awesome together, and what provides the most healing. Octaves and varying things for the other bowls that make the end result something that’s almost literally out of this world. I highly recommend this experience. I know this sounds woo woo, all I can so is go, be open to the FEELING of experiencing this, and then tell me you are unmoved, I dare you…..

And as we are leaving, I head to the restroom and find the fairy altar…

Perfection….