Breathe Owl Breathe

In a lot of my blogs I talk about a festival called Blissfest.

This a festival in nothern Michigan where a bunch of hippies, and normal people too, get together for three days of music, dancing, food, and an incredible sense of calm.

This year will be my...umm...sixth year? Wow. Yah, my sixth year going.

This festival is the highlight of my summer, actually, the highlight of my whole year.

I just get this indescribable feeling of happiness and serenity when I'm sitting on a blanket in front of the main stage with my friends. Folk music drifting to my ears and the smell of vegetarian nachos making my stomach growl.

This festival gives me a greater appreciation of nature, of people, of everything.

Especially the field that extends into the back forty. It's one of my favorite places on Earth. If not my very favorite.

If I could live in that field, I would.

Even on the inevitable day of rain we get each year that field is the happiest place in the world for me.

O.K. so here's a breakdown of what goes on every second weekend in July when we make the trip to Bliss.

We wake up around 6 a.m. and head out for McDonalds to get coffee and breakfast. Oh, sidebar, we have to leave so early because there's a giant line of traffic that lines up outside the gates waiting to get in. The earlier you get there, the better camp site you get.

So we drive north for about three and a half hours listening to Bright Eyes and Jason Mraz and rolling the windows down.

We make the occasional stop to pee and buy junk food and pop.

By the time we see the tell-tale giant plaster chicken in the town right next to the field where Bliss is held, we are all psyched.

We drive another fifteen miles or so down the dirt road branching off from the giant chicken town and finally arrive at either the gate or the line of traffic, depending on what time we arrive.

We scour for a campsite that's close to the dreaded porta potties as well as close to the main stage.

We then proceed to sweat in the hot sun and set up our tents in the wheat that we attempt to smush down by rolling on it and stomping it into submission. It never works though, every night we still feel that prickly grass poking us through our sleeping bags.

After we get set up we proceed to wander down to the stage to see if we can get a volunteer spot or we just stake out a place in shade to watch music from.

The rest of the weekend is spent dancing and drumming in the Drum Kiva, eating vegan and vegetarian concoctions, listening to fantastic mellow bands, buying hemp from vendors, and wandering the woods at night to find new friends and make new memories.

I'm just saying right now that if you've never been to this, put it on you bucket list. Because it will be one of the best things you will ever experience.