"Like a rolling stone..."

His Bobness (a.k.a. Bob Dylan [born Robert Allen Zimmerman]) is 65. Bob Dylan's 65th birthday celebration at Toronto's Hugh's Room will feature The Dylan Tree, a very cool band formed of four really fine Toronto musicians I heard this morning on Breakfast Television. I am very much looking forward to seeing them live!

http://www.hughsroom.com/

Firewalking

A good friend of mine invited me to a firewalking event over the weekend. This was his first time as well, so neither of us knew much about what to expect or what firewalking is all about, anyway. I was mostly driven by curiosity and a desire to walk the fire as another way of defeating my own fear of things unknown.

I was quite surprised when the instructor lead our preparation not into the direction of what or how we will be doing but toward us defining intentions we can very strongly identify with and visualize to a degree that it becomes an irresistible force toward action to make our intentions manifest externally. It is exactly the power of this intention that allows the mind to get distracted from the glowing coal (1200-1600 F) under one's feet. It's not really the heat of the coal one has to conquer. Rather it is the fear of it. We have individually been taught for decades to stay away from fire. As humankind, we have trained ourselves to keep away from the flames for millions of years. An extremely strong instinct has been, as it were, burnt into us all. And for a very good reason, too.

Firewalking has become to me the freeing of oneself from this very specific fear, and about braving a powerful instinct. But the real goal, I find, is not within conquering one's fear of walking a few steps across hot coal, though that can be a serious challenge itself. It is rather far beyond this single incident. It is in finding the ability to free ourselves from self-limiting beliefs that, like towering obstacles, block us from reaching the goals and ambitions we want to realize in our lives.

It's what awaits you on the other side is what makes this experience so amazing and powerful. It does not matter whether you know anything about the heat conductivity properties of the skin on the sole of your feet. It also has no relevance how long you wait before starting your walk. The magic lies in the ability and willingness to believe, against our instinct, that we can do it! That we have the capability to open up to the possibilities beyond those of our ordinary lives. It is one step on a journey to becoming extraordinary.

(I have yet to receive pictures taken by others so I can show myself walking the fire.)

Two pictures I took at my recent trip to Hungary. There are plenty more. I just have to make time to publish them in a fashion befitting the beauty of that country.