There I was, packing up the house to move again. I had just moved into a beautiful home a few months prior, but the universe had different plans. I admit that I spent months fighting it out of fear, but this time I was ready to surrender and flow with the water. A set of circumstances were weaving in my life that felt so surreal that I couldn't ignore them. I was off to Burning Man.
Rewind to the months leading up to this moment, I had just taken a job building a startup incubator and was setting up my nest at home. I would spend my mornings meditating on the front porch in total serenity and surrender to the universe's will. Over time, I started to notice a bird’s nest being built in the corner of the porch. I watched the bird lay its eggs and watched the babies grow. The day I moved out of that house to embark on a nomadic journey, I noticed that the birds had learned to fly. They no longer need their nest anymore. We were two birds of a feather.
I found myself wandering along the dusty streets of Black Rock City, Nevada. At Burning Man, you don't make plans. Plans find you. There is no cell service. No calendars. Its one week of total survival mode in the hot desert. You build a city from the ground up with 69,999 other people. It isn't just a city of huts. You end up building massive art installations, campsites, and infrastructure. Needless to say, you end up running into a lot of people you know. How? Maybe we are drawn together through energy and universal connection- I don't know. As the dust is flying into my nose, I uncover my mask and see a friend on her way to a shamanic spirit animal ceremony. I decide to tag along and find myself giving gratefulness to the fire, water, wind, and earth facing the universal cardinal directions. I uncover that my spirit animal is a hawk. A graceful, flowing, focused, direct bird. A bird known for partnership and determination. The following day, I passed by a spiritual reader and asked for a reading. The first thing she saw was a bird. She said it was time to leave my nest. To fly. I couldn't help but see the bird from my front porch come into view. I had just began my nomadic journey. And I knew it was aligned. I was ready. I took my wings that day and became that Hawk. Together, we became two birds of a feather.
I left Burning Man that week with confidence. I was finally ready to do this. To jump into the unknown and follow this calling. Was I really about to become nomadic? Yes. And I was no longer scared. It was time. I had my wings. I knew where I was going. And why I was going. First stop: Barcelona.