“Much has been documented regarding how drum circles can heal individuals, but another kind of healing takes place: Group drumming builds bridges between people. We feel connected, find commonality and build Community.”
– Rick Cormier
I had the best week. Maybe top 5 weeks since I’ve been on the road. I absolutely LOVE my new spot in the Magic Circle, and I’m so glad to have met Matt my first week here and to have moved in across from him. We just really seemed to hit it off, and with very few words, have worked out spending time together and time alone quite effortlessly. He is so kind and generous in checking if I need anything when he drives into town, or when he goes to dump trash. He said he mostly isolated last year, being hesitant to go to events alone. I too stayed alone a lot last year, being too far from most events to walk, and not being willing to drive my van to events and trying to navigate the labyrinth that is the Magic Circle in the dark on my way home. Matt drives us in his side-by-side, and that gives us both some company and the courage to go to some of the many happenings in Q. We had a blast at the Halloween party last week and Friday night we went to a drum circle.
I have enjoyed being so close to potable water. The weather has been in the low 90’s, so it is a luxury to take a shower every day and know I can just drive down the hill to get water if I run out. I’m on Avenue A- this year. Last year I was on Avenue K. That means I’m about 15 minutes closer to the water than I was last year.
My first week here, Matt made a fire every night and we were both so excited to have a new friend that we often stayed up until midnight yacking. Now, we’ve both settled down a bit and I usually go home by 9:00 and I am back on track with awakening at the first light of day. The sunrises have been over-the-top gorgeous this week.
And we had a full moon which was the biggest super moon of the year. Very nice.
Lessons From The Road: My first year in Quartzsite, I fell in with some musicians/hippies. I was just getting the hang of nomadic life and still felt lost or alone on occasion. The next couple of years in Quartzsite, I had people close to me but sometimes felt more lost than when I was physically alone. And my first year in the Magic Circle, I was surprised by the number of people marking off their “property boundaries” with rocks and solar lighting. I thought it rather presumptuous to stake a claim on public land. This year, I finally realized that’s just the way life is in the LTVA (and probably BLM land in general) in Q in the winter. Come early. Get a good spot. Spread out. Stake your claim. Matt and I have done just that, putting up a rock boundary, and each of us buying some solar stake lights to alert anyone driving around at night that this space is occupied. Here’s our compound at night:
In riding around with Matt at night, every night looks like Christmas. Right now there are Halloween decorations up, but they are gradually being replaced by Thanksgiving decorations. There is a huge inflatable ghost on the road we travel on going in and out of La Posa South and the guy there who lives in a school bus spends nearly every day adding more lights. It is quite the spectacle after dark. Matt already had some solar lights when I moved in “next door” and I’ve added to it. I think our compound not only looks pretty special at night, but more importantly, it looks very occupied. We’ve hung a couple of flags and for two men living in vans, we’ve managed to make it look like a tribe of our own. I love it.
My biggest lesson of the week was sitting quietly in the drum circle. Matt drove us across the wash and we set up our chairs at the back of the crowd. In between people we could see the giant fire and people drumming and dancing. It became such a metaphor for life (well, at least MY life.) Such a diverse crowd. Each person had their own percussion instrument, from sticks they found in the desert to real drum sticks, to all sorts of different drums. Each played their own rhythm, sitting next to someone playing something completely different, and yet, it all worked. Actually, it went way beyond working to something exotic and mesmerizing and spiritual. A good reminder to me. Play your own beat. Find others doing their own beat. Harmonize.