Well hey there blog reading peeps! I hope this post finds you happy and wonderful right now, wherever it may be that you are reading this.
It’s been really awesome how many people have said that they haven’t seen a post from me from June yet, and now we’re already a week into July! My response has been the same, “I’ve been having too much fun to write!” Which has been 100% true!
So much good has been happening in life, and it’s all come from experiences, and the people I’ve been experiencing with.
When I looked back on the month of June, I was almost disappointed with myself because I hadn’t written or posted on the “theme” for that month in the originally planned “12 Months of Sunshine” series I’ve been writing. I started this blog series in hopes to benefit myself and the way I live life, and also those around me that read it! But once I really thought about the point of the series (doing more good in the world, sharing more love, kindness, and sunshine, being better so your immediate world is better around you, living your best life, etc.) I realized that I had been experiencing and doing all of those things, but not everything had been shared or documented or written about... and I realized that was okay!
Side note confession: I have always enjoyed social media on a grand scale (to put it lightly ;) ) I am nearly obsessed with pictures and capturing moments and being able to look back at them later to remember the exact feelings/emotions in those given instances. Most times, I put those pictures in Instagram posts, Facebook status’, Snapchats, etc. It’s like I feel that I am inclined to share all the awesome things I’m doing with the rest of the world.
Side note realization: Due to recently heard sermons, lectures, and some personal self-analysis, I’ve realized that posting on social media about all of the great things I do, is just a way for me to feel "enough", to feel more liked, to feel like “62 people liked your post” and therefore, that means today, I matter!
….WRONG!
I’m realizing more and more as I journey through this year that taking photos or videos to save for me is one thing, and I can do that and have more things as personally mine; something that not everyone else needs to see or experience. Does this mean I’m not going to post things or share exciting wonderful parts of my life with others that care to see? Of course not. But I am trying to consciously disconnect more often than to stay connected.
Disconnecting from phones and social media allows us to connect with our present, real time, real life experiences and the people that are experiencing life with us. Thus, my focus on the last month has been experiencing more, and I have been certainly doing just that!
I’ve been thinking and questioning a lot of things lately about what I am living for and how I am living, and most of this questining started with my biggest experience of June: BONNAROO!
I’ve always wanted to go to a music festival, but never felt like spending the money, sometimes felt like I was getting too old, and usually just didn’t make it a priority for my year. But this years Bonnaroo trip changed all those thoughts forever.
If you’ve ever wondered if there is a better world out there where everyone is happy, everyone shares, everyone hi-fives and loves each other, everyone cares about literally everyone else, there is! And it exists inside of an annual music festival in Manchester, Tennesee called Bonnaroo. Words can’t come close to describing just how euphoric those sacred 4 days were, because it can only be understood if you were actually there.
Unbenonced to me until after I spontaneously agreed to go with a couple of girlfriends, the theme behind Bonnaroo is “radiate positivity.” Kinda amazingly coincidental since I write a blog about “sharing sunshine” with the world around you. They also have sayings like “stay true to Roo” or “your vibe attracts your tribe” and days like “hi-five Fridays!” I cant tell you how many times I saw someone randomly yell “Happy Roo!” with the biggest smile on their face, how many times crowds would randomly break out into songs...SINGING THEM ALL TOGETHER...how many times I saw someone offer to share blankets, food, or cold water with complete strangers, or how many strangers you would actually connect with and spark conversation with on a genuinely personal level! Many people think that these festivals are all about the drugs and the partying, and while this is definitely a part of what can go on at events like this, for me it was all about the energy shared and felt from the moment we got off the highway exit, to the moment we got back on to leave.
You’re greeted at the entrance gate with volunteers that welcome you with enthusiasm and excitement to check your cars for safety before pulling up ahead to get a happy welcome by other Bonnaroovians that are having a dance party and show you where to head for your campsite. Once at camp, you park that car, and pitch those tents; even if it is 3am!
We were fortunate enough to be a short walk from Center-Roo where all the music and magic happens, and to have had the most incredible neighbors!
I have honestly never felt more spiritually and soulfully connected to 7 strangers as I did to our campsite neighbors. We had a whole crew (or Croo as they say at Roo) of neighbors that had been coming to Bonnaroo anywhere from 3 to 11 years, plus a first time Bonnaroo Mom, Jill, who had brought her daughter and friends to the fest for their senior trip! We linked with these complete strangers from Day 1 and were nearly inseparable the rest of the fest!
Our show choices and music tastes matched, our unified love for vodka shots (during that weekend) was incomparable, and we were all just strangers looking to feel a love together than we’re used to feeling in our day to day realities.
When I tell you that the festival ended a month ago from this weekend, and we have been in a non-stop, everyday, group chat since we left, I truly mean that! We all bonded like I’ve never bonded with strangers before; deeply and perfectly.
Now, I prayed a lot about that weekend at Bonnaroo before it ever even happened, but I never knew God would make the weather, the music, the weekend, and the friends we met, both at camp and at random shows, better than we could’ve imagined; but gosh, He surely did.
I could write on and on and on about the ways that festival connected us then and has continued to connect us since we left; from quotes, to lyrics, to music we heard there coming on the radio at poignant moments, to planning our next reunion with each other at Music Midtown.. even typing it out sounds cheesy and too wild to write about. But it wasn’t wild, it was just real! And wonderful, and awesome in every sense of the matter.
I’ve seen and experienced lots of things in my life, but truly nothing as good as that weekend at Bonnaroo with those people I shared it with.
Since getting back to the “real world,” I’ve come to many conclusions and have started to live them out as much as I can:
The life we want is literally at our fingertips, waiting for us to act upon it. Do you want to be a rockstar? Start practicing! Want to be an artist? Start creating! Want to read more, pray more, love harder, share more? SIMPLY START DOING IT! Our actions come from our thoughts, so think life into action based on everything you want! Bonnaroo taught me that there is still so, so, so much good in the world and so, so, so many good people. What if the “norm” we think society wants us to live up to is all a bunch of babble? What if the “real world” were more like Bonnaroo and the feelings and love and happiness shared, all by complete strangers!?
Things CAN be this way, but it is up to US to create it.
We are the ones that have to love harder.
We are the ones that have to smile more.
We are the ones that have to think positive over negative and make it a daily habit!
I was in the store the other night and as I came around a corner, a woman noticed me walking, and physically knocked herself into me as aggressively as a stranger in a grocery store could. She didn’t even flinch or turn around to apologize, but rather kept walking! I was in complete dismay, and began ranting to my best friend about how incredibly mean and rude that was, before just pausing for a moment… and wondering what she may have had happen in her life that day… what she may be going through personally… what could’ve happened in her world that made her so cold and angry on this random Tuesday night. And I repeated to myself “share love, give love, share love, give love.” I didn’t say anything back to her, but just thought those thoughts in a mantra, and let the situation go.
What if we gave love more, shared love more, prayed more, and let situations go more? What if we lived like I lived at Bonnaroo every day in the “real world,” and worked on making it more real one moment, and one experience, and one stranger at a time? Try it… see how our daily lives could dynamically change.
Bonnaroo has been followed by a closer walk with God and clearer path in my spiritual/ religious journey, better relationships with lovers and friends, more happiness and clarity on the things I want in life, planning to see and experience more art, music, and life with amazing people, and so, so, so much negative energy removed from my existence. It was a big, beautiful reset I never knew I needed.
What’s something you’ve wanted to do but just never gotten around to it? Think of that now, and plan to do it. Whatever it may be, just do it.
That cliché statement of “Live, laugh, love” has never felt more real to me. But your best life is just waiting to be lived, if only you so choose.
So choose it.
And live it.
And laugh about it.
And love every second of it.
What are you waiting for?
I hope this post sends you enouragment, and some shared joy from the experience I had, and maybe some motivation to go after whatever it is you need to go after. One foot in front of the other, you’ll get exactly where you need to go.
I love you all, and hope you continue to share your light, and love, and sunshine with our big world more and more and more. It’s always, always gonna need it.
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