Charles Clayton

Looking at my last blog post it certainly has been a while sine April 20th..

In the mean time I've been continuing to Live, Love, and Learn - and this summer has been full of new experiences : ) I figured it being August 30th that a summer blog would be appropriate to summarize my adventures this summer. Although I wish I had documented more of the events I visited because they certainly deserve an entire entry dedicated to each one.

For one, I went to my first rave - Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) on June 27th - one of the most exciting nights of my life and certainly opened my eyes to the energy, and sheer awesomeness of such an event.. 5 different stages, I danced primarily at the front of the colosseum stage with Kaskade, Benni Banassi, Groove Armada, Paul van dyk - and to everyone that I danced with and shared the moment together - THANK YOU! you made my night ;)

I have also arranged to attend Nocturnal, another massive hosted by Insomniac on September 26th and am really excited!

2 days after EDC I was on the road headed to my first National Rainbow Gathering - with my good friends, Jeff & Nate as well as my sister Kelly.

We left at roughly 12:30 in the morning, Jeff drove from Santa Barbara, until about 8am and then we switched and I drove 400+ miles straight across the I-40 into Albequerqe, New Mexico. I was anticipating our final destination to be some what desert oriented, but after arriving in Albequerqe we drove north about 50 miles and by the time we arrive at the camp there was dense forest that in many ways reminded me of Yosemite. All the young plant were fresh and green, which I was also not expecting during the summer. The weather was also really nice, about 75 during the day, with sparatic thunder storms that can come on within 10 minutes and be gone within an hour.

But beyond the natural beauty of the surroundings, the loving energy shared amongst the rainbow brothers and sisters is something that needs to be experienced to comprehend and words only constrict the open and accepting nature of the event. Although it is a completely free gathering centered around universal peace, it does not go without saying that there are certainly exceptions from this given the large gathering size (10,000+) - in short not every individual is wholeheartedly peaceful or loving but the great majority certainly is, and any disputes are immediately delt with by simply calling out "Shanti Sena" to fellow brothers and sisters. These two words signal to everyone that there is an issue that needs resolution such as an escalating verbal dispute.

I certainly will never forget meeting new brothers and sisters - on our second day we returned to our car to get a few items we'd left from the first day. On our way back in we decided to drive the car closer into camp, and on the way we picked up to traveling ladies from Australia who's names are Briannagh and Margaret. They ended up camping with us and we had a grand time together, since then they have visited santa barbara which was nice to catch up. The next day Jeff returned to his car again, to get his toothbrush and on his way back helped out a sister by the name of Ali. She also camped with us, and a day later her good friend Joe also met up with us. These 4 individuals I greatly connected with, and each one of them holds a place in my heart for their unique gifts they bring to our world. I love you all!

The main day, July 4th was an amazing and unforgettable experiece, the morning starts with a silent meditation / prayer for peace and the silence is broken by a massive ohm circle in the main meadow.

A week after Rainbow Gathering, I returned to Baja for self exploration and website consultation. During my stay I experienced an entire day of silent meditation (sunrise to sunset) and had a few days of down time to observe my life. I really enjoyed reading Eckhart Tolle's new book - A New Earth. The weather was hot, but we'd cool off regularly by swimming in the cool blue pacific ocean. Mangos were in season and abundantly ripening and falling off trees, which we couldn't resist.

Last night, I saw As Tall As Lions, Dredg, and RX Bandits at Velvet Jones, and needless to say it was a powerful performance. It was my first time at Velvet Jones and I really like the venue, especially how close and easy it is to see the musicians. I had actually never heard of RX Bandits but really enjoyed their performance & apparently the guitarist is the same one from The Sound of Animals Fighting...

Looking back on it all, it has been a loving, exciting, adventurous, spiritual, progressive, and unforgettable summer! Thank you to everyone who shared the moment with me! It would not have been the same without you!