All I Need is my Bicycle, Part 0: Prequel

Sorry I'm a bit late with my blog! By the time you're reading this I've already left on a great adventure, riding a bicycle from Whistler, just north of Vancouver, to my hometown of Toronto, a 4400 km distance across the TransCanada Highway.

The Okanagan Valley, BC

I decided to go on a cycle touring adventure at this time for several reasons. The seed was planted years ago through traveling and meeting amazing humans combining cycle touring and traveling to exotic countries. One such human travels with a drone and laptop and makes amazing videos through Ratbag Nomads. Another memorable human did it to raise money for cancer research through Cycling 4 Cancer.

The cascade of events this year that led me to my own adventure kicked off with the pandemic. The pandemic turned a one-month layover in a friend's rural community into a three month stay there in a tiny camper van.

A beautiful rural community I got to be a part of - Vancouver Island, BC

 

This rural community is filled with, in my opinion, the most amazing collection of humans in this part of the world, filling me with so much love and connection. But there's no long term space for me, so in considering my own future, I felt now was the time for adventure before I committed long term to such a community in the future.

Besides, I was out of work due to the pandemic, I couldn't leave the country, and I hadn't seen my family since early 2019. So why not cycle halfway across the country to see them, right? If I needed any more validation, a friend of the community's really wanted in. I offered him my space and he offered me his touring bike - it was a perfect swap!

This is my entire life right now

 

The way this adventure fell into place also fell snugly into the narrative of my life of the past several years - being open hearted, following my intuition and finding synchronicity. Besides the cascade of events that led me here, the internal motivation for my adventure is to spread love, hope and inspiration in a time the world needs it the most.

On an individual level the pandemic has been a good news story. Over the past several years I have called in an abundance of love and connection, and it culminated in landing in the rural community, allowing that love and connection to blossom even more.

This adventure is not powered by thunder thighs or a focus on cardio. Yes, I do tons of hiking and so my fitness was already in a good place. But I truly feel that this adventure is powered by love. Everything I do is powered by the love I've cultivated in myself and in connection with others, and the purpose of it is to spread that love to those who need it, parlaying that into hope and inspiration.

Having a good time in Banff National Park, AB

 

With that I hope you stay tuned in, and receive love, hope and inspiration from my journey. More blogs and photos to come! In the meantime you can follow me on IG @my2barefeet or add me on FB (profile here)

Cultivating The Infinite

We live in a modern culture that is afraid of death. We are afraid to think about it and deal with it. Instead of confronting it we fetishize immortality and glamorize hedonism - indulge as much as you can before you die! Live your passion!

2012, Cappadocia, Turkey - during my big 10-month Euro trip

2013, Dead Horse Canyon, Utah

One of those indulgences and passions is travelling. Social media has catalyzed the glamorization of such lifestyles and even enabled Instagram starlings to live off #vanlife. We "like" posts about people who travel their whole lives and think that's the dream, that they are supremely happy. We work so hard and save up lots of money so we also can retire and travel for the rest of our lives.

From the confines of a cubicle, travelling can easily seem like a permanent escape. This is exactly what I thought when I quit my office job and started living like a nomad. For a number of years it was amazing. I felt free as a bird, close to paradise and far from trouble, everyday bringing fresh and new experiences.

Now I can say I have travelled a lot. And I'm not saying it to brag. I try to be humble and grateful for all of the travelling I've done in my life. I've been labelled by some as the "world traveller," or someone who's "seen the world." I'm saying this because I can tell you from experience that, yes, it does get boring.

2014 India & Nepal trip

2015 Grenoble, France - hiking the foothills of the Alps

Everything does. But with most things it's hard to notice because you can put them down and go back to them any time you want, such as playing a sport or a musical instrument. When you're travelling you could be on the road for months without a break. Imagining playing a guitar literally for months like this.

After awhile I started to notice I was getting diminishing returns from travelling. All the temples, however from different cultures, started to look the same. Same as the cities. I was slowly getting less enjoyment from every new museum, every hostel, every traveller and foreigner I met. I felt my learning and growing slowing down, I felt myself stagnating. What originally felt like an infinite world was shrinking, becoming more finite. Experiences that were so thrilling before started feeling superficial, barely tickling the surface of my soul.

Travelling became boring.

It was only years later that I realized the essential truth of this internal shift - I had reached a turning point in my life. I became fulfilled by travelling, so that travelling could no longer fulfil me. Travelling was once infinite to me, then I travelled so much I became it, and it filled me with the infinite.

Travelling illuminated the infinite within myself.

2016 Picking morels in the Yukon

2017 Macchu Picchu, Peru

They say home is where the heart is. Travelling filled my heart up. One day it filled it up so much that it overflowed. I realized that was the whole point of it all, to fill my heart up so it's overflowing all on its own. That's what home is, an open and full heart. Only with this realization could I start tapping the infinite potential illuminated within myself, to be able to fill other people's hearts up.

Then I saw not just my own infinite potential, but that of those around me who have gone on a similar journey, exploring their own passions whether it be travelling or some form of creativity, and have found home in their heart. I saw the infinite potential of our connection, each of us learning, growing and working together everyday.

Then I saw the infinite potential of land. With the right people, we could tend to land in a way that supports not just us, but the people around us. We can grow food, create art and healing spaces, pouring our abundant heart out to the greater community.

2018 Sailing Canada's west coast with a hardened group of adventurers

2019 Burning Man, which reinforced in me to give without the expectation of receiving

All of these realizations brought my journey full circle. Travelling was once infinite to me, but it only illuminated the infinite within myself, the people and the land around me. Travelling taught me to eventually stop and stay in one place, to immerse deeply and cultivate my own infinite.

2020 Finding my community

Enlightenment - a worthy goal, but one never to expect to reach

Every individual human has some form of spirituality. Their spirituality serves as their vision which informs every aspect of their life.

This vision works, in a hierarchical sense, from the top down. It starts with a grand design, which provides a framework which explains life. Working alongside that grand design is an ultimate goal, which describes how to live in that framework, including some things one should strive for. From there it trickles down to eventually inform one's smallest thoughts and actions from moment to moment.

For many their grand design adheres to a spiritual dogma, or religion, which consists of a deity, or multiple deities, who in turn lay out the ultimate goals for its followers. For those not adhering to any dogma, their grand design tends to consist simply of the universe, or cosmos. For those who don't fit into either of the above categories, their grand design usually falls under science, or atheism (though many atheists unknowingly fall under the dogma of science).

In India and Nepal I was awed by its monasteries and temples

Here is my own spirituality. I ascribe my grand design to the universe. My ultimate goal as an individual is enlightenment. To me, to be enlightened is to love unconditionally, be the best person I can be, to be completely present in every moment.

To attain unconditional love I must walk and master five paths, each ascribing to an aspect of my human condition. Those five paths refer to attachment, expectations, judgement, awareness and acceptance.

Attachment is an aspect rooted deeply in Buddhism. The idea behind it is that we develop attachment to external objects that bring us joy, but when those things are no longer around, we experience negative emotions such as sadness, anger and envy. If I can overcome my attachment I won't suffer when such objects are not in my presence.

Expectations. Similar to attachment, we develop expectations for specific outcomes around external objects or events. When those outcomes fall short of our expectations we experience sadness, anger and disappointment. If I can let go of my expectations I won't be disappointed by unsatisfying outcomes.

Judgement is an ancient mechanism, used as gossip, which worked in smaller more closed societies to moderate behaviour. It also helps us form our own identity, by helping us figure out where and how we fit within our society. However, judgement limits our beliefs and leads to premature conclusions towards ourselves and others. It creates contempt and oppression, and just plain hurts. If I can eliminate judgement, I can let go of limiting beliefs about myself and others, as well as avoid hurting others.

Awareness. In order to transcend attachment, expectations and judgement, we need to become fully self aware, to notice every little thought and action especially regarding the above three. Choosing the opposite would be living in ignorance is bliss. This truly does work for some, but most of us are choosing this in denial. If I attain full awareness I will recognize my past and present patterns and behaviours, and the way they impact others around me. I will no longer see my mistakes as negative events to judge myself by but as learning opportunities to integrate, as mere bumps to navigate along my five paths.

Meditation is a way to build awareness and unconditional love

Acceptance. Once we attain full awareness we are able to accept all things as they are. When I accept things as they are, I'm no longer holding on to my past because I've come to terms with it. I see how everything in it including my traumas shaped who I am today. And there is no worrying about my future, because I will see how the present moment will shape it, and I am ready to embrace it when it comes. I can be truly present.

These are the five paths I walk to becoming enlightened, to attain unconditional love, a love so pure that it accepts every thing without judgement, that gives purely out of compassion without expecting anything in return. It allows us to adapt to and accept change, to let go of things we cannot control, to fully be with the flow.

As I mentioned earlier, the ultimate goal in my life is enlightenment. However, I practice the five paths even with respect to this. Thus, I have no attachment to this goal, nor expectations to reach it, and I accept and will not judge my own limitations in reaching it.

Not only that, and it seems contradictory at first, but I accept that it is human to experience these aspects. They come from the ego, which is a part of who I am... I am human, thus I have attachments and expectations, I judge, I lapse in awareness and I do not accept all things as they are. To transcend these things is to transcend my own ego and thus my own humanity, which is near impossible. In fact only the Buddha and a very few select others have transcended these five paths, attained unconditional love and become enlightened.

Thus, my more realistic ultimate goal looks like this:

Enlightenment is a worthy goal, but one never to expect to reach.

My own spirituality is strongly inspired by nature

Another mantra I live by is everything in moderation. If I can manage and maintain a healthy balance of a moderate level of each of the five aspects, I will consider my journey a success.

Enlightenment also doesn't have to be an end goal. As long as I am doing my best and being present, then I am practicing enlightenment.

When I break it down, I realize that there are as many spiritualities as there are individuals of the human species, and they come in many forms. One's spirituality can adhere to a dogma, or it can cherry pick from many different ones. One set of ultimate goals that I found very useful in forming my own spirituality is in a book called The Four Agreements, which outlines four simple but powerful actions to practice. Another is in an ancient science called Ayurveda.

So what's your spirituality? What are your ultimate goals in life, and what are the paths you walk in order to reach them? Can any of the paths I walk bring clarity to your own?

Best of luck in your journey.

Life is a beautiful journey

This Crisis Calls for a Real Community Movement

Living off the land and in community is the most harmonious way to live with each other and Mother Earth

I have been having lots of conversations with friends recently about community, which motivated me to write this blog.

I have been very fortunate on my own journey in that, in the process of creating a meaningful life for myself, I have unconsciously stumbled upon and experienced real community. But I've worked hard to create the life I have now, and hard work also creates good luck, and so I feel I have both been pulled to and earned the community I have found.

The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, threatening to unravel the fabric that the international community has worked so hard to create, is catalyzing a revolution that has been in the making for decades. This is not a one off event - this is a wake up call that if humanity doesn't change its relationship with Mother Earth she will push back with larger, more disastrous events in different forms, whether that be rising sea levels, famine or hurricanes.

And with the global fabric being threatened, those long distance connections unravelling, humanity needs to shorten those connections. I'm not at all suggesting that we halt technological progress, sever global connections and go back to living like Stone Age homo erectus. I'm suggesting that in the process of globalizing our culture, we as a species have forgotten how to live local, and forgotten that that is the most harmonious way to live with Mother Earth. Yes, we are moving forward with a digital globalized world, but it is also imperative to restore and reincorporate aspects of living in more ancient time-tested ways to restore our balance with gaia.

This is where community comes in. Community is local. It is sustainable and harmonious with Mother Earth. But it is so much more. Community provides more meaning and deeper sense of fulfilment and happiness in members' lives. And in these times, it provides greater resilience against disastrous events.

I wish I could say more about the communities I have found, but at this point I can only speak in more general terms: in these communities, the land is subdivided and legally structured so that ownership is divided fairly equally. The land has access to freshwater and large gardens. And the wholesome folk who call it home are made up of generalists - builders, food growers, artists, musicians and healers. All in all, possibly the most magical and inspiring group of people in this part of the world which I have been roaming on and off for the past 5 years.

And the story that brought them together is similar to my own story of finding them - one of individuals working hard to create a meaningful life for themselves, and in the process unleashing a series of fortunate events, one could say coincidences, culminating in finding each other in the right moment under the right circumstances for the community to come together.

Hopefully my story continues to intertwine with theirs. I feel extremely blessed that I just arrived at said community yesterday, and I can't imagine being anywhere else to ride out this crisis.

One of the many lessons I've learned along my search for community is that it's a really, really long and difficult road, a daunting lifelong process. It takes a lot of inner work, setting your ego aside to make compromises, time, energy and money investment and lots of mistakes and obstacles. A lot of friends talk about it, and wish they could find a magic bullet solution to finding a community, but the truth is only 1% of people will ever magically stumble across the community of their dreams.

The community I described above physically came together on the land last year, but from the stories I heard, its conception could go back years, possibly decades in the making. It started with friendships in the distant past that built up trust and connection, setting intentions and having discussions about community. That trust and connection eventually solidified into a strong unshakable core with a strong vision that can't be unravelled by adversity or watered down by outside individuals.

One of my dearest friends here began her own search for community with strong intention 10 years ago! Her search began touring established intentional communities in tropical countries, and eventually brought her back home to a newer but more local and viable longer term solution.

So if you want to start a community, set a strong intention and vision, then start having conversations with friends that you want to have as part of your community. That simple act will get the ball rolling, and after years, maybe decades, of hard work creating a meaningful life for yourself, solidifying that strong unshakable core with future members, you will achieve your goal of starting a community. Co-owning land, growing food, educating and inspiring the greater community around you. Living harmoniously with Mother Earth.

If this is too daunting of a task, start manifesting community in smaller ways. During this pandemic, our lack of resilience is glaring - local businesses and artisans' livelihoods are threatened. It's a likely outcome from this pandemic that corporations will consolidate even more of their power, further threatening to undermine the strength of community. Buy local - buy from your friends who make art and jewellery instead of from Amazon, shop at local markets for local produce instead of for tropical fruits at a large grocery chain. Garden, learn about permaculture. Replace face book time with quality face to face time. Replace Netflix time with creating art and music, or nature time.

Years from now, when you look back, hopefully you will see coronavirus as a tipping point catalyzing changes that bring you towards community in your own life and, from a global perspective, see it as a tipping point catalyzing a real community movement.

Can't wait to get our garden going!

Watch Your Love Miles - The Catch About Flying

It's the holiday season, which is a very common time to fly to see loved ones. I was Skyping into a 2020 New Year's Day family gathering and my grandma told me, "I miss you. When are you going to come home?" Unfortunately for my family, I have decided to stop flying the rest of my life, if I can help it.

I first heard of the concept of love miles a few years ago. It is the concept of incurring mileage to see loved ones through flying.

At that point I had already started wondering about the carbon footprint of all our activities, even ones we don't talk about as much, such as flying and internet usage (apparently one Google search requires as much energy as boiling a cup of tea!). Then in mid-2019 I read how an average American couple took one round trip flight, and that one activity made up about half their annual carbon footprint.

Dec 2017 - the last time I flew, maybe ever

My family flew out to see me in Calgary in 2014

The point really hit home: flying is probably the most intensive carbon footprint activity we engage in.

It's nice that we've been given choices on how to live more sustainably by, say, turning the lights off, taking less showers (I haven't taken a proper shower in 4 months), eating more locally (I dumpster dive or "urban forage" when I can), eating less meat (I do this about once a week), or by alternative commuting (I rode my bike to school and work in 2019).

But we've not been told to reduce our worst individual carbon emitting activity of all - flying.

Why is this?

Maybe because flying has become so common in developed society that it has become ingrained in the culture. Maybe because those that fly are so used to it, they're no longer able to give it up, or admit to their environmental impact. Maybe because it is extremely profitable for the airline industry and all collateral industries.

Flying is seen as a luxurious activity that makes traveling the world, accomplish business and going to weddings and family reunions accessible like never before. People brag about their flying around the water cooler. "Guess what I did for the holidays? I flew to Bali!" People are similarly guilt tripped into not flying out to visit their friends and family. "Why didn't you come to my wedding?"

It's true. I have missed most of my friends weddings. And I have not been home in about one year now, after driving one week halfway across my vast country of Canada, from Toronto to British Columbia.

Do I feel guilty about this? I can't help but feel a little. But I keep looking at the bigger picture and can no longer justify flying in my life.

I've been very fortunate to travel a lot

Probably my favourite picture from my Peru travel

I have been very fortunate - looking at the big picture of my friends and family, I've done more traveling than most of them ever will. Looking at the global picture, I'm fortunate just to be able to step on a plane once. But now that I carry the awareness of the impact of flying, I can't step on a plane knowing that that one flight I take will contribute significantly to my carbon footprint, in an era when climate change is wreaking havoc on our environment.

My previous flight was in 2017 and I hope it can be my last. I've since adapted beautifully to my pledge - I've had several amazing road trips around Canada. Road trips are an amazing way to travel - a much lower carbon footprint, while engaging in slow travel, a movement to reclaim a more immersive way of traveling by avoiding flying and country hopping. And I do still plan on long distance traveling - my last great journey will be to hitchhike a sailboat to Eurasia, cross overland to the other side, then hitch a sailboat back to North America. After that I think I'll be ready to settle down, hopefully tend to land and foster community.

Please understand this is my own decision. Please don't judge me, and understand I'm not judging you. I'm not asking you to stop flying like me and hitchhike sailboats. I'm simply sharing my story to spread the awareness of the impacts of our actions. If we all had awareness of every single one of our actions and its impact on the bigger picture, I think we'd be doing a lot of things differently. Awareness can be a burden but it's also a responsibility and duty incumbent upon us in this day and age, where our decisions have a global impact, all the way from flying to buying an avocado at the grocery store.

Just like the rhetoric and culture have slowly changed over several generations regarding cigarettes, and more recently, over eating meat, the same thing I'm sure will happen someday regarding flying. Perhaps in the future, people will be guilt tripped into flying instead of the other way around.

(PS. I have also read that flying as a technology will take a very long time to make a leap to becoming sustainable. Gravity is a huge force to overcome)

Giving and Receiving is Not Just for the Holidays

As the Christmas holidays are nearly behind us, I've done a lot of reflecting on the act of giving and receiving and the psychology behind it.

As a non-participant in consumer-driven events, I used to wonder if I was just being selfish and cheap. But now I see that this is not true - instead I make giving a regular practice, and not one motivated only by holidays, centred around money.

This year has been an amazing year for both of these things. I feel like I've given a lot selflessly - little bits to a lot of people, and a lot to a small number of people. I've also received a ton of love and support from new friends, also selflessly and without conditions.

Giving

I've shared a lot of my creations with friends selflessly. I've made and shared a lot of homemade beer, kombucha and ginger beer. In the course of going to massage school, I've given a lot of massages to friends, especially those with aches and pains. Besides these things, I have a pretty eclectic collection I amassed through diverse means of bartering, dumpster diving and creating that I share, such as plant medicine creations and crystals, as well as emotional support and wisdom. Behind it all is not money, but time and thought.

Offering massage at a music festival

I love making beer, and sharing it

I made and mailed this drawing for a very inspiring friend

Sharing my dumpster diving treasures

I've also come into contact with a few people this year that I've connected really well with and concentrated my giving to, causing them to express their immense gratitude while making them uncomfortable.

This year I've taken my giving to a new level. I credit this to my newfound level of self worth and self love. I also credit it to the incredible amount in which I've received.

Receiving

I have also received a lot, whether it's from big experiences such as Burning Man, or intimate interactions with friends. But none more profound than receiving accommodation in a time of transition and uncertainty.

I took a 1.5 month summer road trip and returned to a job, only to learn that there was no more work left for me. I called up some friends, and they let me stay with them in their home without expectations of money or timeline. I returned my gratitude by helping them out around the house, spending time with their kid. I ended up spending one month with them, immersing myself into their lives and their magical community, feeling big love and belonging, growing into a family together.

This magical child's magical parents gave me accommodation in a time of need

We had an energy exchange based on intuition and lots of communication. I checked in with them throughout the month, and they were always happy with the arrangement. Still, receiving so much unconditional generosity from my friends was hard at times, because I feared I was interfering, sponging, or I was unworthy of their help.

Reclaiming the Culture of Giving and Receiving

Feeling like we're interfering, or feeling unworthy.

These are major psychological barriers we face as individuals to receiving help. Sadly, these thoughts are norms of our modern society, which is one centred around materialism and individualism, and helps to drive behaviours that funnel our money up the social and economic hierarchy. Our society has taught us that everything we need can be attained by the dollar, and that receiving help means we're weak. And that we should not give to the weak because they are just sponging off of society.

And even though our society is viewed as modern and developed, we are programmed to have a mindset of scarcity - never enough. Never enough money, never enough things. We are never enough. This leads us to feeling unworthy of help. "Why should anyone help me? I don't deserve it." With this mindset, we cannot even begin to contemplate the idea of giving to others.

The time has come to reclaim our feeling of unworthiness. I have been lucky enough to receive kindness starting years back, when I was just taking my first steps of my spiritual awakening. This inspired and enabled me the opportunity to work on my inner self. I did this by focusing on creating, not consuming.

Consuming fills a black hole of unworthiness.

Creating got me in touch with my inner self, and gave me a channel of self expression, elevating my self worth. Once my self worth increased, I became more and more confident in sharing my gifts, and developed feelings of worthiness that allowed me to receive, creating a virtuous circle of giving and receiving. By creating, giving and receiving I rejected the feeling of scarcity and now embrace a mindset of abundance.

Through giving and receiving I have manifested feelings of community and interconnectedness, and feel part of the burgeoning revolution to reverse environmental destruction and survive as a species.

With all this in mind, giving and receiving is like a dance. It requires vulnerability and empathy. The giver needs to be ready to give without expectations, and the receiver must be ready to receive with humility and gratitude.

On my icy road trip Jan 2019 from Toronto to Vancouver, I received sanctuary from friends the entire way

I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes that has really sunk in for me over the past year. It comes from the modern yet timeless classic novel and film Into the Wild and originates from the diary and mind of Chris McCandless, a counter-culture hero. He wrote:

Happiness is only real when shared.

Ultimately we all want to be happy - the fastest way there is not hoarding one's abundance, but sharing it with others.

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Give (and receive) with all your heart!

Chris McCandless, whom the movie Into the Wild is based

Burning Man - A Carbon Footprint Dilemma?

During this year's Burning Man I went to an event held by the Playasophy camp, which holds philosophical discussions.

As serious as an event like this sounds for Burning Man, the event was completely packed, and the two facilitators had a great sense of humour. They took on a fun challenge of taking shots of rum whenever a certain keyword was spoken out loud. The talk had barely gotten past the introduction when the two facilitators were already super drunk!

Myself, Kieran and Andy at Burning Man!

In spite of the good humour, as a deep thinker myself, I was looking forward to what the discussion would bring. It was centred around the fact Burning Man is an event with a large carbon footprint. A lot of consumption occurs pre-event and during, resulting in a lot of waste, plus a lot of fossil fuels burned for travel, depending on how far you're coming from and your mode of transportation. Plus, there is a lot of fire - things set on fire, art cars spitting fire, fire spinning - which doesn't help.

So does its carbon footprint make Burning Man an environmental burden?

Burning Man (BM) has some unique ways of dealing with its environmental impact. For physical waste, there is a trash fence, a continuous fence that surrounds and closes in the entire festival grounds, lined with a mesh that catches any garbage that falls to the ground and is swept away by the unrelenting desert winds. There's a term here for garbage that's on the ground - it's called moop. Hardcore BMers pick up moop before it gets blown away. As vast as BM is, I only ventured to the edge of the grounds one time to check out the fence, and didn't see much moop.

Photo Credit: journal.burningman.org

Overall, there's not a lot of garbage potential here anyway, which is part of BM's intention. It is embedded in their 10 Principles. I won't go through all of them, but the relevant ones here are:

Gifting
Decommodification
Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace is the most obvious and straightforward principle for minimizing consumption and waste. Similar to backcountry camping, the mantra is "pack in, pack out." There are no garbage cans here.

Gifting and Decommodification, however, represent a radical shift away from our conventional economy and consumption habits. There is no need for money at BM, with the exception of buying ice to keep food cold. Nothing is branded. Upon entry into BM everything is free. There are places that serve food, bars that serve alcohol and play music, fun activities to sign up for, and of course a lot of art, and all of it is free. BM focuses on creating experiences generally without the need for consumption.

During my time at BM I went to a tie-dye workshop, a flow art workshops (poi and staff), several expert talks, a silent speed dating event, and a communal shower called the Foam Dome, to name a few things. In terms of materials consumed, a camp across from me served free coffee and wine, a bike repair shop provided some free parts, and I received some free food and alcohol as well.

For a 7-day event in the harsh desert, I had a ton of amazing experiences and human connections, while barely consuming anything.

With that said, a lot of material consumption is required to enjoy BM, it just happens in the preparation. There is a lot to pack - food for 7 days (you should not count only on free food), camping amenities for the harsh desert, and festival clothing, decorations and artistic creations. Finally, there is the transportation to and from Black Rock City, where BM takes place.

It is not uncommon for BM goers to fly in from another country, rent an RV, buy bikes, camping chairs and whatever else they need, then afterwards discard it all illegally before going home. Fortunately for me, I shared a road trip to BM with my friend in his vehicle, bringing most of what we needed from home - overall I think we had a reasonable carbon footprint.

Despite the carbon footprint that an individual creates to go to and experience BM, I truly believe that overall BM has an overall positive impact on the world that is intangible and cannot be statistically measured in an isolated way. And if you really wanted to isolate and analyze carbon footprint, it's probably not as bad as it appears on the surface.

Burning Man for me was all about transformation. While I know that a lot of people go to BM to party and escape their daily life, I believe the majority of people leave BM transformed. Personally, I left with a greater awareness of myself and my impact on the world, and developed a stronger sense of a global community. I feel more compelled to create art and share and inspire others to do the same. Instead of engaging in consumptive behaviours which are inherently more destructive for the environment.

In spite of all BM has to offer, in the end it's all about human connection

I left with my cup filled with love, ready to go back to my community and pass it on to others. For many, this means coming together for art, healing, and growing food - all local and sustainable initiatives the world needs more of.

In fact, I personally don't feel the need to go back to BM next year, or even the one after that. As a first timer, I experienced the event more as a consumer, but I felt I got what I needed out of it, and am filled with the inspiration and energy to go home and transform myself, and only feel ready to go back to BM as a contributor, once I reach a point in my life where I can make a meaningful contribution. There's not a whole lot of music festivals I can say that about.

Besides, if I didn't go to BM, what would I have done instead? There's a good chance I would have spent money on meaningless things, purchased food shipped from a far flung tropical country, or just sat in my room watching movies to fill a bottomless void inside me.

Instead I was at BM creating memories and long lasting happiness that far endures anything a new smartphone, or an entertaining movie can provide. With this purpose in mind Burning Man can be seen as a starting point for a revolution, starting with individual transformation, leading to social and environmental change on a large scale that far outstrips its carbon footprint.