Welcome
Welcome to my OP5 learning review. This project unfolds as an interwoven Mandala of experiental lessons and practical reflective refference points upon my first session Gaia program pathway. It is a portal to the rest of my OPs/projects from this cycle as you will find them linked in the Project overview section of this report. I have extracted the essence of key un/learnings, patterns, and outcomes as a personal documentation tool and social reference device for anyone else to whom these reflections may bring benefit.
the purpose of this page is to share how my Gaia journey started, what my origional intentions & goals were and how they actually unfolded.
Path to Gaia & Original Project Goals
I first heard about Gaia University during a 'Generation Waking Up' youth retreat at the Esalen Institute with Joanna Macy in 2011. I had recently finished two years at Naropa University in Boulder CO and after hearing of Gaia's 'loose structure/action learning/project based learning model', I felt that finishing my B.A. with them could be a liberating and inspirational step for completing my process within the constructs of a 'traditional education pathway' while affording me time to travel and freely design projects of my choosing. I researched deeper into the University while traveling in Asia, submitted my application after returning to the US, and while visiting my stepfather in a hospital in Oregon whom had been recently diagnosed with lukemia, was accepted to Gaia U after completing an interview with Liora Adler.
I began my orientation while living in Laguna Beach, CA in February 2012, and completed it while living and working on a permaculture farm in Kauai, HI, in May of the same year. The orientation process was an introduction to the deisgn tools, memetic devices, internal structure, and support systems/services of Gaia U.
After completing part A (Life & Carrear Review) of the first Output Packet, I began to map my skill-flexes and formulize goals in which I envisioned to accomplish over the course of my coming program cycle.
These goals included:
1. Complete my first full length professionally-recorded music album.
2. Utilizing the 'Work That Reconnects' practices & GenUp facilitation meathods to effectively organize and facilitate a 'Wake-Up' event. My key intention being to deepen my experience with leadership and transformational educational approaches as well as to aid in the expansion of a network of empowered world-changers in my local community and beyond.
3. To visit various Intentional Communities & Eco-villages to comparitively study and analyze best practices for sustainable infrustructure and to specifically research how arts, education, and personal transformation work are implemented and integrated within them.
1st Gaia Time-cycle Summary
The beginning of my true engagement with Gaia U began after orientation, while writing my Life & Career Review as I was working and living on a permaculture farm on the magical island of Kauai in April of 2012. I returned to my home in Laguna Beach after the tragic passing of a dear friend to help support my community through a time of intense process and grieving. This time also aligned with the onset of my first independently designed project with Gaia U. This project unfolded over the next six months as I recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered my first full length album, SunDog, working closely with a dear friend and production assistant, Paul Olsen.
in November of 2012, after completing my OP2 and finalizing the record, I took part in a pranic breathwork/juice & dry-fast retreat in Bolinas, CA for personal evolution, deepened self-reflection, purification, and renewal. Shortly after, I set out on a series of travel journeys to connect with friends and family between Laguna Beach, Kauai, and Northern Michigan. I settled in Laguna after a re-evaluation of my program pathway with Gaia U to focus on OP3, connecting with fellow associates, and spreading my album throughout the local and global community.
After attending, performing, and providing my chocolate services at various community events where I was able to share my music further, I was inspired to embark on a month long journey to New Zealand with a dear friend over the month of March, 2013. I continued to gift SunDog throughout my travels down under. I returned from Aotearoa in early April feeling inspired and alive with an even stronger urge to share my musical gifts with the world. The album was building momentum and was continuously well received from virtually everyone who's ears and hearts had known its nectar. I began performing heartsongs from the record with fellow musical commrades at various festivals, street corners, house parties, restaurants, and community events, further connecting and sharing my gifts through a vast and expanding network of transformational artists, heart-centered musicians, and inspirational organizations.
In late July of 2013, after hosting various friends at my home in Laguna, visiting family in Michigan, forming a relationship with my newly acquired campervan, and slowly beginning to catalouge a mass number of song ideas that were piling up in my Iphone recording device, I was invited to play a full set of songs from SunDog at a Socal primitive skills, transfortional arts and music festival called, 'Elements'. The invite was very short notice and after a few phone calls and a bit of organization, a band of musicians inspired by the vision of SunDog came together (basically by magic) and in only 2 days, learned and performed 10 songs which we were to play at the festival a day later. Flying high on adrenaline and sonic inspiration, after the performance we collectively agreed to continue working as a band, collaboratively supporting one another in our individuated musical/artistic pursuits, and to further manifest the vision of sharing SunDog with the world.
From mid August to early September we roadtripped to northern Calirfornia, performed in various locations, and swiftly delved into grandious visions and collectively inspired life changing plans. In our excitement we felt that the next best step was to move in together on a for-sale 40 acre property with multipule dwellings in the mendocino forest called 'Frogwood'. Here we could live and work as a band, while developing a businiess model to retrofit the property into a recording studio, educational center, and healing retreat facility for artists and musicians. Shortly after, while envisioning furture possibilities, organizing performances, assembling a business plan, making music, and singing to a massive redwood tree in the Santa Cruz forest, I met an amazing traveling german musical-medicine-priestess, Hannah, with whom I would soon fly deeply in love.
A major turning point in my 2013 journey was after attending a final summer festival in September called, Symbiosis. After this time of intense lessons and transformation, Hannah and I would continue to deepen our connection and after attending my stepbrothers' wedding in Mexico, would participate in our first Gaia U gatherin in October at 'Dancing Deer Farm', outside of San Luis Obisbo, CA. The rest of my band met us there and we performed during the newly graduated associates' celebration party. The gatherin was super inspiring, gave me more strength to continue my Gaia pathway, and energized our visions of cultivating frogwood, generating intention to partner with Gaia U as we saw our facility could effectively act as an activity hub and project center for associates. After returning to Frogwood, practicing for upcoming shows, organizing business logistics, meeting both personal and communal growth edges, deepening with Hannah, and learning of significant challenges within the legalities of the permitting process for our land-vision, I was faced with the reality that I was simply not ready to take on a project of such magnitude and commitment.
The band was scheduled to play at a new years festival in lake Atitlan, Guatemala and after a final visit to frogwood in December where we could say our goodbyes to the land and caretakers, practicing our set, meeting new challenges, and preparing to meet Hannah early at the lake before the festival, I could feel that great change was on the horizon. We made an impromptu indie gogo fundraising campaign to raise money for the band to fly to and from Atitlan. I flew to the lake alone and reunited with Hannah. Due to various logistical challenges and seemingly unfortunate synchronicities only one of the three still remaiing 'actual' members of the group made it to the lake, along with his girlfriend whom would accompany Hannah and I in a barely rehearsed, almost improvised performance. After integrating from the festival, the SunDog band (ecstatic union) essentially dis-banded as we followed our individual inspirations toward our newly inspired goals and projects.
In January of 2014, Hannah and I embarked on a transformational shamanic educational journey where we visited four distinct 'alternative communities' throughout central and south America. We offered our services and took part in workshops and retreats while studying the structure and design of these various intentional communities. All of this woud aid and challenge us to individually harmonize ourselves as resonant instruments and clear channels so that we may more effectively embody and offer our gifts in the world. We tasted the ancient mayan and new-age village culture of Lago Atitlan, studied shamanic practices & Osho meditations in Omatepe, Nicaragua, participated in a 'Clarity Breathwork' training program at Pachamama in Costa Rica, and committed to a month long consciousness transformation & sacred plant medicine retreat in the Peruvian Amazon. We learned myriad life lessons through growth, challenge, introspection, and inspiration which has continued to unfold since my recent return to Laguna Beach, CA this June of 2014. (See Commentary Page for more info on the 2014 learning journey)