The Emergence - Please Rise

The debut album by my new music project The Emergence is about to be released!

This is a collaboration between David Wesson and I. David is a Boston based singer and an old friend.

Owen Beckmann of http://www.dwell-being.org/ has just handed in the final proofs of the artwork for the eco-wallets. They look amazing. You should definitely check out some of his other work. The man is a talent and you will be hearing more about him in the near future I am sure. The cover is above. Check out the inside of the album when you get one for a little surprise.

I have just given Sarah Register at The Lodge a few very minor notes on the CD reference that she gave me. She should be making these tweaks this week and then I will have the final mastered album in hand and ready to send out for duplication. Thanks again to Sarah and Heba. They have been a pleasure to work with. Sarah has the perfect combination of technical expertise and a truly musical ear that has really helped this album to sound as good as it can (considering that I mixed it ;).

Find The Emergence on Facebook or MySpace and become one of the first to become a fan or a friend. The sites just went up and will be getting filled out with details, photos and information on how to be one of the 1,000 people to receive a free copy of the new album once it is released. We will also begin posting music in the next week.

And go read Shantaram! (link to the right)

Green Business Competition Awards

Last night I attended Green Spaces Green Business Competition awards at Borough Hall in Brooklyn. This competition looked to promote emerging green businesses in New York that have the ability to revolutionize their industry by working with our ecological resources while creating economic opportunities. 70 companies with revenue under $10 million entered this years competition. 5 were chosen to present their business to the panel of judges (and the audience) last night. 3 winners were then selected.

1st place: Gotham Greens

Bringing New Yorkers local, sustainable produce grown in the heart of NYC

Gotham Greens' premium quality, pesticide-free vegetables and herbs will be grown in sterile rooftop greenhouses using clean, renewable energy and captured rainwater.

This company is now building their first 12,000 sq ft rooftop hydroponic garden in NYC. This facility will grow over 30 tons of premium quality, pesticide free vegetables each year for the NYC retail and restaurant market. They will be delivering extremely high quality vegetables the same day that they are picked. We're not talking about genetically modified week old food shipped halfway around the world. We're talking about something picked in your 'back yard' and potentially eaten the same day. They have been running a test site floating out in the river for the past three years and the response has apparently been incredibly enthusiastic, due largely to taste.

The environmental impact is also not to be ignored. Hydroponic farming consumes far less water than traditional dirt farming, as the water is recirculated continuously. They will also be capturing and utilizing rain water. The facility also uses solar panels for most or all of the energy requirements. Any excess energy generated will be fed back into the grid. Nutritionally, these crops have the potential to be far more nutrient dense than traditional crops, the vast majority of which are being grown in soil that is severely depleted, lacking many of the minerals necessary for a truly healthful crop to be grown.

So we're talking local, organic high quality vegetables all year round. Their presentation was very impressive and everything from their business plan to logistical operations to distribution all intensely researched and ready for production.

2nd place: Environmentally Conscious Organization Inc.

Environmentally friendly pizza boxes! This company has designed, patented and significantly marketed an environmentally friendly pizza box alternative sourced entirely from recycled cardboard. With over 3 billion pizza’s being consumed in this country each year and 70% of those requiring a box that is usually made from 60% recycled material we're talking about a great deal of avoided waste. The utility designed into the box also enables it to easily fit into a recycling bin 8” in diameter or greater, eliminates the need for serving plates and aluminum foil or plastic wrap for storage. Check out the video here:



3rd place: DBA

DBA is a New York based product development company focused on aesthetics, technical innovations and ecologically effective principals. Their first product is an 'eco-pen'. This pen is made from 98% industrially compostable materials. They're basically made out of potatos. We use an astronomical number of disposable pens each year. Their pen is a beautiful option that utilizes a unique ink which, unlike other pens on the market, is not petrochemical based. It is an almost food grade alternative that represents the majority of the innovation in their design.

I was at this event thanks to Sarah Pace of The Rabbit Mafia who catered the event with all locally sourced kickass hors d’œuvres. Good stuff.

Community Acupuncture

I just just got my first ever acupunture treatment from an old friend. Steve Kingsbury was my next door neighbor growing up. I've been friends with his son Brian since a few days after he was born (I was one at the time). Recently Brian was in NYC with his new band The Susan Constant playing a show at Arlene's Grocery. Great show. I recorded an album for Simple Discourse, the band that The Susan Constant grew out of, and Brian and I were in a band together in high school with Jason Rossman, the drummer for both bands . Over a beer before their set we talked about his fathers new business. Steve retired as a Bose exec and went back to school for accupuncture. He has sinced opened up his own practice, Ashland Community Acupuncture, right in downtown Ashland, MA.

I know a number of people who have gotten great results from acupuncture treatments. I have always been interested, but had never really had a reason to lay out $100+ other than curiosity. Here's where the community acupuncture model steps in. From Steve's site:

In our community acupuncture clinic the treatment room has four recliners arranged in a quiet, soothing space. Receiving treatment in a community setting has many benefits: it's easy for friends and family to come in for treatment together; many patients find it comforting; and a collective energy becomes established which actually makes individual treatments more powerful.

The real breakthrough in my mind is the sliding scale pricing:

Our fees are based on a sliding scale where you chose what to pay, anywhere from $15 to $35 per treatment. Research in the United States has shown that acupuncture is most effective when done frequently and regularly. Once a week is usually the minimum required to make progress, and twice weekly early in the treatment process can increase the success rate significantly. The goal of the sliding scale is to keep acupuncture affordable and allow you to come in often enough to get better and stay better.

And it works. I know because I went back a few days later for another treatment. And the second treatment in any week is only $10! This, to me, is the sign of a healer who truly wants to help people. Many acupunturists are hugely succesful treating far less patients for far more money. But here is a model which is designed to facilitate the individuals healing process.

One difference that I am aware of in this type of treatment is that you will largely be treated using the distal points as opposed to the local points. This means that most needles will be placed on your legs below your knees and on your arms below your elbows. These will address the flow of energy through the same meridians that would otherwise be treated, just not necessarily directly at the site of concern.

If you want to find a community acupuncture clinic near you: http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/clinics

What is a life well lived?

I got a very interesting Birthday Party invitation the other day. Erik set out a Pingg invite that started with the following:

You are invited to join a remarkable group of friends, creatives, and critical thinkers for a Sunday afternoon birthday gathering. We will tackle the question: What is a well-lived life? ...What does it look like? How is it lived?

Not a bad idea for a birthday party right?

Erik is a friend I know from FLOW meetings. He has recently started a new venture called DoubleHappiness an offshoot of which is GoodMeet. Basically, Erik is a creative consultant who works with customers to create events that stir the pot, add ingredients and hopefully help to create new recipes. This includes ideation, problem solving, focus group facilitation, brainstorming, interactive events etc. Goodmeet is the meeting arm of this company which focuses on creating functional and enjoyable meetings of all kinds.

Erik's birthday played with the Open Space Technology format to facilitate a group of strangers and friends to come together and, with relatively little instruction, self organe a series of activities focused on a particular topic. In this case, What is a Life Well Lived???



Each of the 14 attendees was asked to come prepared to faciliate a session (or three); speech, workshop, panel, activity, debate, pretty much anything on topic and within the space and technology provided. We each wrote a title for our session(s) on a piece of paper and then stuck this paper somewhere on a time line for the day. We each then signed up for sessions that interested us. From that point we simply self organized, usually into two groups, and tackled a couple of sessions at a time. There was a discussion on Entrepreneurship as Personal Growth, a debate on whether or not we should institute a draft, a meditation on love and happiness, Psychochronometry: the effects of aging on the perception of time, coloring, cake decorating, Creative Consumption, something called Bip Bop Pow and the Theory of Interdependence and a bunch of others that I am forgetting and/or we did not get to. I posed the question 'Is There Danger?' and we spent a few minutes discussing what danger is, how it is different for each of us and ways in which some of us may enjoy or feel a need for it.



There was a card game designed to put us in touch with our core values and intentions that involved everyone in the group writing human values on a large piece of paper, then each of us picking 15 of these to put on individual cards. Then, through a few rounds of ranking and elimination we eventually ended up with 5 cards. We then flipped these cards over and wrote a little something on the back. Mine ended up somewhat poetically. And thanks to a kickass and completely FREE image manipulation program I just found called GIMP you can see the front and back below (corrected for legibility).


So, I won't say that we came up with an answer. But I will say that I think all involved enjoyed the exploration. We came together, many of us as strangers, and left significantly closer due to a well organized and incredibly free flowing 4 hours that were able to be exactly what we all wanted and needed them to. No more, no less. As the guidelines professed:

• Whoever comes are the right people
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened.
• Whenever it starts is the right time.
• When it is over, it is over.

I look forward to seeing what Erik will be up to in the future. I, unfortunately, missed last nights Live Arts Collaboration Salon organized by Allison, another B-Day attendee, where he and 4 other artists from different disciplines met to each give a 20 minute presentation of their work and process with the hope of creating collaboration, conversation and connection. Check out The Performance Project @ University Settlement for more info. This is something I'd actually love to do in the future (future meaning after The Emergence album has been released).

Integrative Nutrition

I recently posted the following to the iNYCs forum, but the same applies to all who might be interested. Please feel free to reach out and ask questions or take me up on the free health history offer. It will take about an hour of your time.


I'll admit upfront that I have not read the new Integral Life Practice book, though I do have the original DVD kit and I have read much of Wilber's work.

Caveat aside.

Nutrition has always struck me as a gap in the Integral world.

I think that Joshua Rosenthal has stepped up to fill that void.

I am currently enrolled in his Institute for Integrative Nutrition and, after the first few weekends of class, thoroughly impressed with how integral his approach is. I highly recommend his book called, surprise, Integrative Nutrition. It is a thoroughly holistic approach to health, happiness and well being. One of the most basic ideas behind his work is the distinction between Primary Food and Secondary Food.

Primary Food = Career, Physical Activity, Relationships, Spirituality

Secondary Food = What you eat

I don't know if this strikes you as obvious or obtuse, but after years in the counseling world he noticed that there could be one group of people who ate absolute shit, yet thrived, and another who ate with a fervor that might be referred to as Orthorexia Nervosa, yet still struggled to feel good. The point was that nourishment does not only come from food, and in fact, secondary food can often have less of an effect on your health than primary food.

The Integrative Nutrition approach truly avoids dogma. It promotes bioindividuality, and prefers teaching how to think rather than what to think. It is incredibly free from prescription and embraces all diet types as true but partial. They go out of their way to give us two world leaders on two thoroughly contradictory dietary theories in the same weekend (Sally Fallon and Neal Barnard last weekend). This approach is more about empowering individuals to make a life time of choices (that will change over time) than it is about inviting another authority into your life who will pretend to know exactly what your body/mind needs. In breaking down the idea that someone else has it all figured out for you you free yourself to realize that your body has known all along, we just stopped listening.

The program is more about exposure to new ideas and experiences and developing an increased confidence and awareness of the body/mind/spirit than it is about adopting any one life style or diet. There are suggestions I will strongly advocate, but there is room for all paths along the way.

So, if anyone is looking for an integrally informed health counselor just let me know. I will be taking clients very soon and am currently offering free health history consultations to anyone who is interested in even considering.

For more information take a look at my new (and still under development) website at http://www.integratenutrition.com/

Covering Ground

Brendon snapping a sunset beach photo.

My most recent Facebook update read: Devin 's week of airports looks like LGA->SYR->BUF->LGA->RDU->ILM->ATL->LGA for Security and Reiki.

I've been traveling a bit lately for work. I've been in Dallas and Austin, Syracuse and Buffalo; threats of Georgia and Boston that will probably manifest in the near future. I'm in transition from being the Operations Manager for the Northeast Region to becoming something like National Accounts Manager for Tutela. I've decided that managing others in this industry is just not something I enjoy very much. I think that because my nature is to work very independently I have a hard time relating to others need to be micromanaged. So I'm not gonna put myself through it anymore. So far I'm enjoying the new role quite a bit.

I flew in to Syracuse on Tuesday, took the guy in charge of the facility there out for lunch, then walked his site with him designing a CCTV system that will cover every inch of his data center with cameras. Then I rented a car and drove to Buffalo to walk a few sites there and then fly back to NYC.

I took Friday and Mon-Tue off to go to North Carolina to visit Antoinette and get Reiki attunements. Antoinette is a Reiki master (along with masseuse and midwife in training). I flew in to Raleigh Friday evening. Owen, who will be doing the artwork for The Emergence album, picked me up at the airport and we got to grab some food and hang out for a few hours. Great to see him again. Then Alan swung by to pick me up. I finally got to meet his beautiful fiance Shelby and hear all about their whirlwind meeting, falling in love and then engagement. Looks like Mr. Genser will be in Cali by March. Mazel Tov

'Daddy', Jenny, Antoinette and I. Reiki crew 2009!

Then I got dropped off at Antoinette's friend Jenny's house where we spent the weekend learning Reiki; level 1 on Saturday followed by Level 2 on Sunday. I never would have guessed 6 years ago when I met Antoinette going to her house for meditations that I would end up learning Reiki. She's done a great job of cracking my head open and creating space for wonder and awe over the unknown to creep in alongside the science bit by bit over the years. Love you to death Antoinette. I miss you. We can't go this long without seeing each other again.

I really need to get more of my loved ones together, living in one place at some point.

After reiki Antoinette and I drove out to her place in Wilmington. It was cold, but we got to see a sunset and a sunrise at the beach and spend some long overdue quality time together.



We walked around a lake looking for (and finding) some blue herons and taking pics with Brendon and his father. I also got an AMAZING 2 hour massage from Antoinette right before heading to the airport. She spent the entire time on my back and my neck. That was much needed. I was sore for a couple of days, but used the pain to get in touch with my body in places that I obviously had been neglecting. Getting back into my daily practice over the past 4-5 weeks has really been a blessing for this and many other reasons.

So it seems that this is part of how I find balance these days. I work in corporate environments installing massive, networked security systems and I then I go and learn the healing art of reiki with my more spiritually aligned friends. Surely my path is taking more interesting turns every day. I'll put something up soon about Nutrition classes and where this seems to be taking me.

For now all is well in Williamsburg, chillin at home with Agape.

Sunrise at Wrightsville beach.

We're Never Gonna Survive Unless.....

As the album gathers musicians (see below) and production, Dave and I decided to spend our last few minutes in the 'studio' playing a few acoustic.



The Emergence - Crazy



I spent the week up in Boston for New Year's doing some recording and hanging with the Wesson's. Dave arranged for us to get into the Auditorium at the Rashi school in Newton, MA to run around like idiots making a bunch of noise. Dave recorded some new vocals.

Candice played some violin and sang.

Garo blessed us with his doumbek (he's the perfect kinda crazy).

Todd joined us to record some backing vocals and play some drums.


We spent New Year's at Sam's house with some beautiful people, even better food and Rock Band. We even had a little DaVerse reunion with Sam on cello, Candi on violin, me on guitar and Dave singing.

After that, I drove back to Brooklyn and had one hour to unload all my gear from my car and into my apartment, get my shit apart and back together enough to drive to the airport and spend the week in Dallas taking a class for work. I then came back Friday night and Saturday Tyler came over to record some banjo and Robb to record some bass. Then we went out to an art opening and the after party for a bit before retiring to Tyler's to make a little noise on an armadillo's back (Charango).

Now I have a mountain of editing to do and I couldn't be happier.

Still Emerging

Well, that was pretty fuckin cool. About 30 of us got a (supposedly) 1 and a 1/2 hour tour which then turned into a 3 and a 1/2 hour tour of Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors by the man himself. We started with his first ever tour of his decades long self portrait project and then progressed into the chapel and then through the rest of his newer works. The questions never stopped coming and he seemed to be really into the conversation. So we all gratefully allowed it to take its course.



Afterwards Dave and I played a few songs in the gallery.
Just being there, making noise, for some truly wonderful people was some kind of wonderful.
Actually made the whole towed car fiasco that followed well worth it.

The Emergence at COSM

Announcing a new Meetup for The NYC Ken Wilber Meetup Group!

What: Special Holiday Event @ CoSM w/ Alex Grey - Mon., 12/15

When: December 15, 2008 6:45 PM

Where: Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM)

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce that Alex Grey has generously offered to conduct a intimate, integrally informed tour of his gallery for iNYCs members, friends and family. Alex will cover such topics as: state experiences and art, subtle energy, and the use of psychedelics for spiritual exploration.

The tour will be followed by a brief Q & A with Alex.

After which “The Emergence”—iNYCs’ own Devin Martin and his friend David Wesson— will provide a participatory musical experience. Our evening will conclude with a holiday toast.

“David and I took on our current work as an experiment in integration,” Devin says. “The languages we use and the methods we engaged were hugely informed by and part of our Integral Life Practices.

“Recognizing that the road of duality, filled as it is with happiness, is necessarily also filled with all of its opposites, people such as Alex, who have ventured so fearlessly, like a shaman, into the limits of our own consciousness, with the intention of taking pictures and bringing them back for the rest of us, have been an inspiration and a guiding light.”



Check out Alex Grey on Integral Naked: http://in.integralinstitute.org/contributor.aspx?id=24
And his artwork also on IN here http://in.integralinstitute.org/avantgarde/art_alex10.shtml

As most of you know, CoSM is leaving Manhattan at the end of December. Alex and Allyson Grey will be creating a new chapel and retreat center about an hour north of NYC. So this may be our last chance to the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors as it stands today.

Special iNYCs fee for this event: $20.

*Registration Details*
Please arrive at 6:45pm so we can begin the tour promptly at 7pm!

Learn more here:
http://kenwilber.meetup.com/58/calendar/9275431

Editing

In an iNYCs email thread recently Randi posted about 'Solitude, intrapersonal communicaiton, ego and being'. She described her time spent alone in a room editing video and asked others to share their experiences. Here is my response based on my experiences working on music in my studio (she suggested I throw it on here):


















Randi

Making sound is all about communicating. Audio editing is part of the creative process for me. It is all about enticing the other and making the content accessible. Often times it is the most fruitful and adventurous part. It is often when I take artifacts that I have created and look at them as if I had never seen them before. It is a play of states and perspectives. It is an experiment in hearing anew over and over again. Often times it is a day spent romancing myself to arouse the muse. Sometimes there are day long stints of Alpha wave laser focus with little or no conscious thought. Sometimes it calls for drugs.

For me editing is in no way separate from writing and recording. All are happening at once. It is a fairly fluid process. Compared to you perhaps I am lucky in that the recording never necessarily has to stop. Sometimes I am working with a song that was written a good time before, other times there is nothing written and editing is the way my voice first takes form. I play with samples, with instruments, with friends, software and my mind. Sometimes it requires sitting in silence. Other times I get drunk and dance to what I've just done. All are part and parcel.

At times it is a collaborative effort with another musician and we can go from silence to song in a matter of hours. Other times something is written by myself and/or others and the process of getting to know the piece takes a year or more.


I'm currently planning on getting things organized and ready for some serious plane editing. I figure a flight to London is a great time to get some of the more tedious work (time correcting) done. Sometimes holding myself captive is the best way to force the focus.

My editing style is as destructive as possible. I prefer to commit to something as quickly as I can and move forward. This generates a sense of momentum and trust in what is happening and takes away a lot of the room for second guessing and redoing.

I use multiple programs that have different specialties. When I am stalled working in one I will move a song or parts of a song to the other. I bounce back and forth and am never sure till the end which one will produce the final product.

I consistently try muting or deleting the things that I have assumed are the core of the pieces to see what has been built around them and what is still relevant. What I am working on now is acoustic guitar and vocal driven electronic spiritual music. Everything is written with guitar and voice, but those original parts may or may not bare any resemblance to the finished product.

All of this is done as part of an expression of what the moments reveal as a communication to others. Of course none of this was part of the plan when I first picked up an instrument. But I have honed these skills for a reason. And I love it and it also drives me crazy at times. Right now I have no idea how I will get this project finished in anything resembling a timely manner. But I will. And I will be alone in a room for most of it. Feeling excited by and connected to others.

Election 2008 Survey

A CIT from Camp Bright Feathers sent me a list of questions for a school project. I answered as quickly as possible, trying not to pause between reading the question and typing my answer.

Q - What is your current age, and where did your ancestors come from?
A - 30 – I’m a German, Russian, Austrian Jew


Q - Who is your current employer, and what do you do?
A - Northeast Operations Manager for Tutela


Q - What economic class would you consider yourself to be?
Upper Middle


Q - What is your current level of education?
A - Some College


Q - Do you have plans for any additional education? If so, where/how much?
A - I am becoming a Health Counselor in the first half of 2009 with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition


Q - If you could change one thing about the government, what would it be?
A - The lack of a viable third party


Q - What is the most pressing topic that should be addressed by the new president in his first 100 days in office?
A - Domestic Economy


Q - Do you feel that the government made the correct decision to bail out Wall Street? Why/why not?
A - No. I believe we are perpetuating a culture of debt and the longer we wait to let certains things crumble the more it will hurt


Q - Do you think that the government should take responsibility for housing, or should it be the individual’s own responsibility? Why/why not?
A - I think that the either or nature of this question misses the point. We are all responsible; lack of proper regulation, irresponsible lending practices, uneducated borrowing, inflated markets, general lack of financial education in the school systems etc.


Q - Would you approve of a new healthcare plan, even if it turns out to be as complicated as Hillary Clinton’s? Why/why not?
A - This question is vague. I think that it is a bad idea to simply subsidize the current system. The system must change first. Individuals must take a larger responsibility for their health care; (preventative maintenance, choosing treatment, seeing the costs directly). When this happens capitalism will do its part to cut costs and improve quality (look at consumer electronics, Moore’s law etc). If this is happening or part of the plan I think we can start looking at government support.


Q - What are your life goals?
A - Happines, family, health, wealth, lots of sex


Q - What do you think John McCain was thinking when he nominated Sarah Palin as his running mate?
A - Tits solve everything (thanks Aileen)


Q - What do you think Barak Obama was thinking when he nominated Joe Biden as his running mate?
A - I’m too young


Q - Would you trust the next president regardless of party affiliation? Why?
A - I’m transpartisan. I look at individuals accordingly


Q - If definitive proof is shown that terrorists are operating out of Pakistan, would you support the expansion of military operations to take care of it?
A - What terrorists? What kind of operations? What kind of expansion? What does ‘take care of it involve’?


Q - Do you approve of the ‘Iraqinization’ of the war in Iraq?
A - No idea what you’re talking about


Q - Do you support unconditionally meeting with countries that are known to dislike the United States in an effort to re-open diplomatic ties?
A - Depends who is meeting, when, where, why etc. Personally, I’d love to meet new people from foreign countries. The president can not be so informal with his appointments, though certain members of his/her staff can be.


Q - If you could ask both candidates one question each, what would they be?
A - Obama – Can I have a job?

Q – McCain
A - What age do you expect to live to?

Q - Does the tax policy of the United States need to be completely re-written?
A - Yes. Make it simpler


Q - Where would you like to see the United States in 20 years? What would you change?
A - I would like to see the United States in the exact same geographic region. Energy independent. Out of debt. Open trade with all nations. Economically not much better off than any other nation. A world leader in new technology, philanthropy and wildlife conservation.

Integral Education - Seattle - Whidbey Island

I just returned from Whidbey Island, WA where I was attending the Integral Education Conference put on by Next Step Integral. About 60 people gathered from various spots on the globe to discuss education from an integral perspective. First I had to get there.

I got in to Seattle around 11:20am. David was supposed to meet me at the airport about an hour later flying in from Boston, but air travel sucks and he was delayed about 12 hours. Looks like I was on my own in the city.I went to Pikes Market where I may have seen some guys singing four part harmony in front of the first Starbucks, a bunch of hippy's, tourists, beggers and locals. I got a vegan chili dog at Cyber Dog Cafe. I went to see a matinee of Hancock, not bad, I like the twist, it's kinda sweet and Therone looks hot as hell. I didn't even realize she was in it. I bought the softest pair of jeans I have ever felt at Road apparel. They're made out of wood. Real nice salesman there has a daughter in Brooklyn. I asked him where I should hang out and he recommended a neighborhood called Belltown.

Since it was looking like David was not going to make it in time for our planned night out on the town I debated going to a Whole Foods to buy a bunch of enzymes I had been reading about on the plane and then heading back to the hotel, but decided to hit a bar on my lonesome for at least one beer to see what kind of trouble I could get into.

I sat down next to a construction worker named Rich. Great guy, and the perfect solution to my situation. Rich is the type of guy who will randomly buy a round of jello shots for the people in his vicinity and strikes up conversations with everyone. He lives in Belltown, and also seems to be a bit of a drinker. We started at Buddha Bar, moved to Rendezvous, then Alibi Room , then Sonya's . Many drunken hours full of conversation with a wide variety of locals later I took a cab back to the hotel where David was already asleep in bed.

The next morning we were on the ferry on heading over to Whidbey Island. It is a beautiful place and at this particular time it was full of amazing people.
We snuck away from the conference for a few hours to go to one of the state parks on the island and hike a few miles in a beautiful lush forest with an ancient cedar that is over 500 years old.

The conference was great. It was full of a rich mix of truly inspired individuals all eager to share their appreciation for the world with children and determined to get better at doing so every day. There were presentations and experiential exercises. We sang, danced, played frisbee and walked around a labyrinth. I met a great variety of educators young and old, each of whom taught me something about life.

David and I rented a guitar from a local music shop and got to play our new music for the first time in front of a couple of intimate groups of people in the beautiful sanctuary on site. A beautiful room with amazing sound. I'd love to record there some time.

No idea how this experience fits into my career goals, but I'm glad I went and would love the chance to return some time.