~*...hot springs and the temple of divine light...*~

randnorm tuesday event in black rock city 2005
digital dump!!!
tuesday - monday, 8:00am-9:30am
when your digital camera just has to take a dump...you can't take it to the port-a-potty. so bring it by and we will dump the pix to cd for you! bm04 saw 18gb served! late afternoon hours (if any) will be posted. hosted by: hot wheelz @ catharsis and 6:00

photo by jon ross

randnorm mind grenade

money can't buy happiness, unless you spend it on toys - normurai and dynovac

normdate 4.4.6

mckayla, owen, julia, and i showed up at jonas and frederic's place just after 1pm. our destination was the ainsworth hot springs about 45mins north east of nelson. i had never been, and i'd heard that despite the commercialism of it all, that it was worth the trek.

the clouds captured amongst the kutenai mountains created majikal dragons that loomed above the waters of kootenay lake.


when dragons fly away, the sun is free to scorch the earth with fire.

the hot springs were definitely worth the drive. nestled right on the west shore of kutenai lake, it had three beautiful pools and a 150ft horseshoe cave. it was an excellent way to relax and enjoy the company of friends.



the horseshoe cave was dark, mysterious, natural, and the source of the hot water that feeds the springs. it is also pretty fukkin hot in the caves. it got difficult to breath in there after a while..and the steam wasn't really that ideal for takin pikchaz.



the caves were ideal for singing and chanting. you could hear the echoes of your voice, your chants, bounce off the moist rock walls. their policy of no moaning or chanting in the cave isn't really policed that well ;)



click here to see a 360degree virtual tour of the ainsworth hot springs.

even at the hot springs, the dragons flew above us.


after an sesationally relaxing adventure at the hot springs, we drove to the free ferry across lake kootenay heading for the east shore.




have i mentioned how breathtaking the ferry to the east shore is? even on cloudy daze, the ferry ride is still beautiful.



its kinda hard to not have your head in the clouds when the clouds are right there in your face. crazy dragons they be.



once on the east shore, we made a stop at the yasodhara ashram. owen was telling us about his friend charles from victoria who was living at the yasodhara ashram. sure enough, the first person we saw outside of the main house was charles, and two beautiful goddesses. it was amazing seeing owen and charles reconnect. it was pure. it was real. it was powerful. it would prove to be a theme that radiates from this place.



the yasodhara ashram is a vibrant spiritual community where people of all ages work together to expand their awareness and to live the teachings of yoga. it rests on 120acres of woodland, where the mountains touch the waters of kootenay lake. i cannot think of anywhere more appropriate than the east shore of lake kootenay to create a sacred place like the yasodhara ashram: mountains, woodlands, on the shore of a lake.

charles took us on a tour of the ashram. words cannot describe how unbelievably breathtaking, beautiful, and gorgeous this place is. the force is beyond powerful here. this is the place where jedis train.




the many trees at the ashram have just begun to embrace the spring weather, and will soon bear fruit. the organic garden and fruit orchard will soon be in full bloom.



the beauty of the ashram revealed to me why the east shore has been so overwhelming and powerful each time i come...there is a jedi academy here! but it wasn't until we arrived at the temple that i truly understood how powerful this ashram really is.



the temple of divine light is the holy place where these beautiful beings gather each night for satsang, a sanskrit term that means "to be in the company of the wise."



as i entered the temple, i was overwhelmed by an intesnse feeling of peace, of light, of inner self. i could try to make attempts at describing what it felt like, but it is beyond words. i hadn't felt anything this intense since i stood at the temple of dreams at burning man.



the temple of divine light is a holy place. it draws power and light to it. the views from the many windows of the temple offer the most breathtaking images of nature, of trees, of mountains, of water, of light.



i've got to come up with a different term than breathtaking, eh? mindblowing? wikkid fresh? kick ass? no matter what word i choose to describe this place, it does not come close to being there.

inside the temple we chanted, hearing our voices echo off the walls of the huge dome over our head. i moved, i danced, i flowed, i was one with the force. i can only imagine what it must be like to satsang on a daily basis in the temple of divine light.

my friend anastazia had spent last summer here at the yasodhara ashram. charles enjoyed satsang with her while she was here. it also turns out that there is a beautiful picture of her on the back of the yasodhara information pamphlet. noice one stazie \m/^_^\m/



charles took us down to the beach, just past the prayer room. we marvelled at how gorgeous the east shore is and watched the sun set behind the mountains.


thank you charles for the guided tour of your home. it is beyond majik.

we were pretty hungry, so we headed over to the home of the mou collective which was less than a 5minute drive from the ashram. ali and wanaki were there, and wanaki's mother, riviere. we feasted on delicious food, including pasta and coconut curry *mmmmm*

i love hanging with the mou collective. they constantly shatter what i believe is possible, showing me new and different ways to embrace life.

we watched the animatrix on the projector screen, which was epic.

i was beat, as was everyone else. i didn't make it through the entire movie, and passed out half way through it. what an incredible day in the kootenays. from hot springs, to jedi academy, to the mou collective. the force flows powerfully on the east shore. we are all one. we are all different.

same same but different.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...pulpit rock...*~

randnorm monday event in black rock city 2005

animal exchange
monday-sunday
come to cuddle puddle camp and exchange one of your animals for one of ours (stuffed or human). take your "animal" out and share some cuddle time! hosted by: cuddle puddle @ bipolar and 4:30


photo by michael stewart

randnorm mind grenade

the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. ~ marcel proust (1871-1922, french novelist)

more mind grenades here

normdate 4.3.6

after the lunch today, owen and i met up with steve, aly, and rob. our destination was the top of pulpit rock, elephant mountain. a quick drive across b.o.b. (big orange bridge) brought us to the north shore of nelson. our trek to pulpit rock began 330m above sea level.


i had never hiked up to pulpit rock, so i was pretty excited to see what the city of nelson looked like from the vantage point of elephant mountain on the north shore.



it was a pretty cloudy day for a hike, but at least it wasn't raining. i'm always comforted by the knowledge that if it is cloudy and raining in nelson, its snowing up at whitewater. schweet.

the trek up took about 45minutes, which is a walk in the park compared to some of the hikes i've made this season (up snow covered mountains). the view was breathtaking! looking down on the city of nelson from across the river, and a few hundred meters up, is something i'm going to have to describe for you because my camera battery died by the time we reached pulpit rock :(

its called pulpit rock because it sticks out of elephant mountain like a pulpit in a church, demanding the attention of all those who look up. i pulled out my poi and began to tune into the prana of being on top of a mountain i've spun poi in so many incredible and breathtaking places.

our celebration for reaching pulpit rock also included pilsner beer, a spliff, and some fudge. mmmm...

its also a lot colder up there, and it didn't take long for us to add more layers to keep warm. standing still isn't as good for keepin warm as hiking up or down a hill.

the hike down was definitely easier than hiking up. ain't that always the way? i had a great time connecting with aly on our hike down. its comforting and healing for me to reconnect with the family that i left in toronto, and having visitors from the big smoke have helped remind me of the strong community i left behind.

rob and i ended up tossing a frisbee around lakeside park after our hike. this boy knows how to toss a disc. he's got the flick down to an art. i'm looking forward to warmer weather and more frisbee tossin in the park. even more excited to meet more frisbee tossin enthusiasts who live here in the koots.

memories of playing with the ultrasonic redz in toronto always puts a smile on my face. i miss you guys.

ca-cawww!

have a safe journey to panorama steve and aly. i'm honored that we were able to spend time together on your visit to the kutenais. i hope you guys can make it back here for shambalah.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...snow much fun...*~

with burning man on the mind, i'm going to inject some randnorm playa goodness to my blog entries as well as a mind grenade (just in case the playa event doesn't succeed at blowing your mind).

randnorm sunday event in black rock city 2005

the wilson phillips pancake breakfast
9:30am - 12:00pm
i think the name says it all. hosted by: the bouncy bouncy club @ 4:30 and bipolar


photo by anthony peterson

randnorm mind grenade

wisdom through snowboarding. i often refer to snowboarding as yoga at 50km/h. you are forced to tune into every part of your being to maintain balance. muscles you didn't even think existed hurt after a day of riding. you need to be aware of every part of your body to compensate for the constant change in balance that the mountain throws at you. though it may look like a snowboarder is balanced and going straight down a hill, you are always on an edge. its that edge that holds you in place as you balance your way down the hill. a snowboarder is rarely equally balanced on a board, we are always on one edge or the other.

more mind grenades here

normdate 4.2.6

my friends steve and allison arrived yesterday from toronto. nelson is their first stop on their week long snow adventure through british columbia. i am always stoked to share the majik of the kutenais with my peeps from the big smoke. it is such a contrast living here in the mountains compared to the hustle and bustle of the city. you have to be here to understand it, and i love seeing the epiphanies of understanding that overwhelm people when they breath the air and feel the power of this place.

steve picked me up this morning around 9am, which was actually 10am thanks to daylight savings time *d'oh*



in the parking lot we ran into a whitewater celebrity. this dude rides with his pet bird tucked into his front jacket pocket. extreme bird!



steve and aly were blown away by how beautiful whitewater is, and how much snow there is in april! after a few warm up runs with the whole krew, steve's friend rob and i decided to introduce steve to some more challenging terrain...and powder.



the glory basin was blessed with a good amount of fresh snow, excellent for a beginner's first experience riding through powder. seeing steve wield his fear and ride through powder for the first time reminded me of my first experience with powder at the beginning of this season. we ride in onterrible for god's sake, there isn't snow like this there...ever! we're used to riding with our nose down and balancing on ice, not leaning back and floating through powder.



steve did a great job on his first run through powder, but like all of us new to these conditions, he had to learn the hard way that leaning forward and not having enough speed in powder means that you tumble. getting back up after you fall in powder is beyond exhausting.

tired and exhausted, we emerged from the trees at the bottom of the glory basin (steve's first time in trees) and stared down our next challenge: dynamite.



dynamite is steep, narrow, and covered in moguls. this was the most extreme run steve had ever faced in his life. this line through the glory basin and down dynamite is, imho, one of the toughest and most challenging ways down the summit side...and we conquered it together! nice work steve.

we met up with the rest of our krew in the lodge for a well earned beer. steve had just ridden powder for the first time, rode trees for the first time, made it down dynamite, and lived to tell the tale.



after nourishing our bodies with the tastiest of local ales, and the most delicious food available at any resort in the world (it really is that good), we headed back out for some end of day turns. steve was pretty exhausted, and wasn't into the idea of traversing across to the catch basin for some untracked powder goodness. somehow, with the promise of weed, we got steve to make the trek past the enchanted forest...

and relax with some lifted spirits at the top of the catch basin.


hooray for spring riding without a jacket on! kung fu outfits look so much kewler anyways ;)


steve's reward for making the traverse was a plethora of powder to ride through. actually, we all enjoyed the reward. the best snow is here at whitewater, if you're willing to walk to it.



and just like the glory basin, the open bowl of the catch basin funnelled us through some trees and then a very steep and narrow run, with smaller bumps ;)



congratulations steve on shattering what you thought you were capable of on a snowboard, and conquering the extreme terrain of the kutenai mountains.

satisfied and exhausted, we met up with aly and alexandra in the lodge for a few end of day pitchers of nelson faceplant beer. mmm...sooo good!



i was glad to run into my friend naava and her sister in the lodge. two jewmaican sisters reminding me that its not only possible for two different races to love one another, but that mixed breed children are very good looking too!



it was awesome riding with you steve and aly. i'm glad i was able to share with you the majik of the mountains that i call home. i know you're going to sleep well tonight.



~*...normaste...*~

~*...fire and the dreamweaver...*~

after lunch today, julia, owen, and i went to mckayla's place to hang out. there was some rum she had left over from the night before, so owen and i began sipping. mckayla left to babysit, and said to help ourselves to whatever booze we could find in her kitchen.



by the time mckayla got back from babysitting two hours later, owen and i were shmammered. it had been a while since i'd been drunk...ok, that's a lie, i was drunk a week ago. but before that it had been a while ;)

in our drunken state, owen and i made a little something for mckayla to put on her wall.


calligraphy and life by norm, rhymes by owpen dragon.

mckayla had some catching up to do...




the plan was to meet some people down at cottonwood falls to spin some fire. we rolled a few joints, grabbed some fuel, some fire poi, and fire fingers, and headed down to the falls. yes, we were well drunk by the time we reached the falls...so drunk that we had forgotten a few things at home, like my camera, and most importantly fire! yah, we had nothing to light our joints with, and nothing to light our poi with.

STONERS!!!

but seeing as mckayla's place was only a 5minute walk away from the falls, we began our quest for fire only to meet up with the craziest motherfucker in the history of ever! his name was dreamweaver. he had a light. he also had a huge marijuana leaf tattooed on his forehead! ON HIS FUKKIN FOREHEAD!!!

i asked him if it was real, and he encouraged me to try to rub it off. holy shit! this dude takes smoking weed very fukkin seriously!

i told him that he was the craziest motherfucker i had ever met in my life, and he thanked me for the compliment. did i mention he had a huge fukkin marijuana leaf tattooed on his forehead? i would post a pik, but i didn't have my camera. dreamweaver also didn't want his pikcha taken, so i respected his wishes.

when i asked him how difficult it is for him to cross the border, he said "why the fuck would i want to go visit that country?" fair enough.

i had never spun fire before, so i was pretty excited. i wanted to get comfortable enough with a few moves before i graduated to fire. setting myself on fire would suck.

HOLY SHIT! spinning fire is so goddam fun, and sexxxy! the sound of it moving by you, burning, consuming...its like a drug, it gets you high. its fukkin hot! i will never forget my first time spinning fire.

mckayla is a fire pixie, a very skilled fire poi spinner. she's also goddam cute. making out with her while she was spinning fire was very hot. hearing the flames spin past me while making out with the person spinning the fire...*drool*

julia is also a very skilled fire poi spinner, but i didn't make out with her while she spun ;)

we met two quebecois boys from montreal at the falls. they followed us back to mckayla's house where they pulled out two bottles of wine and proceeded to get us more drunk than we already were.



i passed out on the sofa and woke up feeling like a bag of shit. mckayla and i decided to turn today into a recover and do nothing day. *ouch* and to think that booze is legal. man, the next day is a write off!

~*...normaste...*~

~*...backside...*~

i woke up this morning to clouds and rain outside my window. living on a mountain, the clouds and rain were literally outside my window. the kutenai mountains like to trap clouds, and energy, amongst its valleys.

raining in town meant that 1000m higher at whitewater it must be snowing. jonas and frederic picked me up and we headed to the mountains. sure enough, it was dumping snow up there.

actually, there was so much snow that the road to whitewater was covered in fresh powder. this made things difficult for cars to reach the hill unless you had 4wheel drive. our car couldn't make it up the road, despite numerous attempts. so we parked it on the side of the road and hitched our way to the lodge. powder day at the end of march. schweet!

there were about 40 people in total on the hill today, including staff. the snow was incredible, soft, fluffy, and freshly fallen. it was fresh tracks all day to ourselves. heaven...literally. did i mention this place has the best snow in the world?

it wasn't as sunny as yesterday, but the dumping fresh powder all day made up for it. to get back to the car we had to do a little backcountry hike down the backside and ride it down to the road. the snow was untracked, but spring like, and therefore really sticky underneath the fresh layer of powder. but i wasn't complaining, i got to ride backside for the first time, and it was killer. steeps, trees, powder...this place is a gem.

those who know are here, those who don't are somewhere else...and that's just fine with the people who are here.

as you can probably tell i didn't bring my camera with me today.

adam freeland is playing at fluid tonight. this place gets world class talent for such a small town. if only i had $25 for cover :eek: maybe i'll drop by at 1:30 and get in for free. who am i kidding, i'm fukkin tired. i'm going to bed.

~*...normaste...*~

~*...spring riding...*~

jonas and frederic picked me up this morning and we headed to whitewater for some spring riding. the sun was shining, the weather was warm, and there were people riding in t-shirts. i opted for the turtle neck sans jacket...


its going to take a while for all the snow on this mountain to melt, even with these warmer temperatures.

and of course there is always fresh tracks available to you if you're willing to walk to it. the sun did however cook the snow, so the silver king side was very sticky spring snow.



the summit side had some pretty good snow, and some lightning fast groomed runs. i don't think i've gone that fast in my entire life. there is no rush like speed.

spring riding roolz! warm weather, fast runs, and t-shirts. women riding in bikinis would have been nice though ;)

after an awesome day of riding, we stopped at oso for a coffee. it was jonas and frederic's first time at oso, despite being here for three months. it is the place to be here in nelson, and the continous warm weather is just around the corner.

joa, the beautiful woman that i met on friday night, had invited me over for dinner at her place. i love how everything in nelson is a 20minute walk..even out of town is only a 30minute walk ;)

spring riding, spring fever. gotta love it. this town roolz!

~*...normaste...*~

~*...randnormness...*~

after an awesome afternoon of tossing a frisbee at gyro park, and an evening of hanging with jonas and frederic at their place, i was hiking up rosemont hill when a volvo passed me, stopped, then reversed.

a woman offered me a ride home, and i accepted. she said she had seen me earlier in the day near gyro park. i was balancing on the railway track walking towards the park. she said she had seen me and wanted to say hi to me, but couldn't find the right words and by the time she had, i was gone.

she wasn't going to let that happen again, which is why she pulled over. her name was gin. she drove me the 350 feet to my house. thanks for the lift gin.

sometimes i have that effect on people. i love randnormness like this.

i've also lost 9lbs since christmas. i walk up a mountain every day here. its good for the body.

life is simple: i want to be in love, drink good coffee, and ride my bike - drew grear


~*...normaste...*~