Making Plans is for Amateurs | Floor Lessons - Chapter 1

"Hey guys I really don't want to pressure you, but can we get going soon?"

I was waiting for my newfound friends from Italy to finish up what they were doing so that we could walk down to the mainfloor and enjoy the opening ceremony of the festival. It was our first Ozora after all and I had a strong sense that the opening ceremony would be something I wouldn't wanna miss.

_{Downhill view from our camp at night}

"Ah Marrrrrrrrius (imagine a lovely Italian accent here), but I want to make a paaaaaaasta for us to enjoy! It will be so delicious, come sit, we will go to the opening right after the pasta!" And the others welcomed the idea. Genuine Italian pasta, who could say no?

Maybe eating something before diving into the Ozora experience on the floor would be a good idea. I tried to keep my eagerness in check, looked at my mobile to get the time and I relaxed a little. The opening ceremony was still a good two hours away and maybe my anticipation was getting the better of me. I sat down and opened a wine for us to share, a lovely one the crew had brought from Italy. "Vino Rosso" - red.

Some people came by, said hi and sat down in our lovely little camp to chat and enjoy the company of open minded strangers. This place WAS different than "out there", and we were all keenly aware of it. Never had I experienced strangers' openness to such a loving degree, no small talk either.

We laughed a lot, a girl from the crew started asking our opinion on 'how to best go about getting into the festival vibe' - noone really knew. We were all newcomers here and the wave of anticipation was lingering just beneath the surface for all of us. We felt something big was coming our way mere hours away.

The loving crew took off to the mainfloor - "Cya later guys, thanks for the wine, we will come back later, it was really nice chatting with you. But we don't wanna miss the opening ceremony and we want find a nice spot for our blanket."

Yeah, no shit ;) I felt compelled to say: "Actually, I will be joining you, as I have the feeling that I will not ever leave this camp in time due to these lovely stalling Italians". But I didn't. I thought those people were really nice, but that we had our own loving crew here and I had the romantic idea that we as a crew for the week - camping together and all - should go down to the ceremony together.

I asked Nikola who was still in the camper: "Hey man, how is the pasta coming?"

"Ahh, I will get to it in a moment, we still need some water and we are empty." He hadn't even started making the pasta yet.

Are you kidding me? I looked at the mobile again... About 90 minutes to the opening (if you are an optimist). "I will get some water right now man, I really wanna get going here."

I walked down the hill, got water, went back and handed it into the camper. Every one of my Italian friends seemed busy doing something - looking for things inside the camper, talking to people who passed by our little camp, checking the timetable for the week to see what DJs would play the main floor. Not that we knew any of them.

Nikola asked: "Some coffee my friends? We got water, I can make some for us..." And everyone was super excited, yeah coffee sounds great actually, why not!

"It's Italian way of coffee" he grinned. And for a moment I thought "this is never gonna happen, is it?" I had become uneasy, but I did my best to drop my pushiness to just GO RIGHT NOW and convinced myself that a bit of coffee wouldn't make much difference in the timing.

Coffee was done about 10 minutes later and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.

"Thanks for the coffee, that is really something," I said. "Can we go now though? It's getting really late"

"Ahh but Marius we still haven't eaten the pasta, I will make it right now and we go. I promise!" And the way he looked at me was just too loving, like a little puppy you really couldn't get mad at. Maybe I was overreacting. "Alright sure, I would love some pasta" and the others agreed, having gone back to the wine we were sitting in front of the camper in a circle as the sun was beginning to set. It was a beautiful sight actually, but I was more occupied with my idea and how it seemed to drift off slowly into improbability.

The pasta got done eventually, and it was really tasty, though only a small serving as we were 6 people and shared like family. "Delicious, thank you for that," I said, being hopeful we could finally walk down to the main now. But no, we couldn't. Somebody was looking for his wallet in the camper and a new crew had come by our camp to sit down and stay a moment.

I became somewhat... furious while still trying to maintain a friendly outlook and appearance. It didn't quite work. I somehow took it all personally. My friend from Germany picked up on my uneasiness and asked me politely to calm down, "it's just how they are, we will get there, don't worry." And maybe he was right.

Needless to say this went on with half a dozen new situations that could be seen as a 'justified delay' - a neighbor came over asking for some help with setting up his tent. Two of our camp said they had to go to the bathroom but that they "would be right back". And so on. I rolled my eyes and sighed. I was beginning to get the impression that they were all doing it on purpose, delaying our taking off to the ceremony just to mess with me, which seemed unlikely though. I felt utterly tested by life itself and my mind was doing its best to come up with an explanation. I wanted to find the conspiracy against me here in SOMETHING. Circumstances accumulated, challenging my patience to the utmost like I had never experienced before.

Like life saying: "Got any patience in you? No, like, do you reeeeeeeaaaaly got patience in you?" Guess not, I was struggling, and beyong the point of understanding.

_{Random lady walking near our camp}

I really tried but the longer we waited and the more people walked by our camp down towards the main floor, the uneasier I got. I would never get there, would I? Now I felt self-pity. Poor little me. I wanted to scream.

In all of this I never had the idea to simply say: "K guys this is taking too long for me, I will see ya later, I really need to see the opening, I feel it calling me". And then to just walk off.

NOPE. I had this unrecognized... obligation to go with my friends as a group even though we had just met the Italians the night prior. We WERE a crew for the week after all, maybe that's why I decided to stay against my better judgment. But it hurt a lot facing the fact that my romantic idea was crumbling.

And more time elapsed. And more. And more. New reasons came up, unexpected delays and situations that seemed utterly natural and unintended, such as finding the keys for the camper to be able to lock it, which took some more time.

Eventually I noticed the opening ceremony must have long started, we were already 40 minutes past the set time on the festival schedule.

I barked at my friends, and I think they got that we really should go now - in the spirit of not pissing me off too badly. I was torn between screaming at my crew for being so 'inconsiderate', and laughing at the utter ridiculousness of the series of delays that seemed neverending and of an audacious degree of coincidence.

Germans are somewhat famous for being on time, it's somewhat of a mindfuck obsession of our culture you could say. From what I experienced, the Italians seemed the exact opposite. Chilled as fuck and not worried about missing anything. Content with the moment, in a way.

Finally, we took off as a group. I walked a bit ahead as I could no longer fight my ego to "stay cool", but we had the rest of the wine with us and the Italians gave some to me and asked if I needed a hug. I said: "I think I do, please!" And I felt better.

We were finally on our way! Wow! All of us totally excited! Love-radiating crews of friend-circles all around us, all walking their own pace towards the hill behind the mainfloor, all of us thrilled to finally see it and 'get into the festival nitty gritty'. Whatever that meant.

Someone howled like a wolf, and instantly you could hear animal impersonations from everywhere, beyond the hills, and from the crews next to us. And we started as well, chickens, dogs, and the Italian girl did a lovely cat. It was such a novel experience, people laughing everywhere. It must have gone on for a whole minute. Initiated by one guy somewhere. This place was awesome.

We arrived at the hilltop and looked at the glorious mainfloor down below with all those people and the crisp music that came from the mighty speaker systems. WOW!!! I got goosebumps, even now just thinking about it. The opening ceremony was over and the first act was playing already, tribal live music I had never heard before. "I thought this was a psytrance festival" I said.

I turned around to share my feelings with my crew and you know what? They were gone! All of them!

I saw friendly faces looking back at me as more and more people came from the campside, however my crew was nowhere to be seen - I was all 'by myself'.

I LOST THEM?!!!!!
I couldn't fucking believe it!!!!

I had been waiting for them to get going for hours, we had been walking together for mere minutes and now I was standing here all by myself, my intuition drawing me to go down to the floor, my odd sense of responsibility still clinging to somehow find my friends to make that failed plan work despite the obvious fact that it wasn't. And that it hadn't.

It was a sad, sad situation, a painful but essential lesson - three hours of waiting and fighting the flow of life just to lose them now that we arrived here. I battered myself, cursed my stupid obsession to put all my own needs back just to somehow fulfill a societal obligation that was never actually expected of me by anyone but myself. None of my friends would have had a problem with me just seeing the opening and meeting them later. It had been ME who insisted that we would have to go as a group despite being totally at odds with how long it took to get going. And now I had lost them not ten minutes after we took off from our campsite. I felt... betrayed. Joked with by life. It really hurt. I just stood there and looked at the mainfloor below, all caught up in my head.

Another guy asked me: "Hey man you look sad, are you not happy to be here?"
"I am, but I just lost my friends and I missed the opening!"

"Me too dude, I wanted to come here so badly and they would just delay and delay, until I eventually came here on my own. But I guess I still missed it, haha."

And that helped a lot somehow - I no longer felt singled out but in fact... in good company. Instantly I felt this situation had great meaning and that it was... a conditioned part of my ego that had been the obstacle to experiencing life, not the actual situation itself. I thanked the guy for his being here and he hugged me like a brother without even asking.

"Come man, let's walk down and GET INTO THE ZONE, we will meet our friends later huh?" And I agreed. Fuck it! I instantly felt free of all the self-imposed burdens! Partying with this dude suddenly seemed as good as with anyone. This would be one meaningful week, I could already tell.

Mere hours later I realized that this had all been necessary, the dancefloor had taught me my first important lesson of letting go and surrendering to the moment, long before I ever set foot on it. And that many others felt the exact same way, looking around in confusion to apparently find someone they knew, until we all decided to just screw it and find each other instead!

Needless to say shortly after letting go of the need to find them, I did. Against the odds, in the dark, among 20 000 people we suddenly ran into each other down by the main, and we cheered!

_{Mainfloor at night}

The joy we felt when we saw each other again was indescribable! We were back together! We all had learnt stuff about ourselves within the last hour already, and the first real psy DJ was just about to start. It was all perfect. But not before life had slapped my expectations and neatly laid-out ego plans thoroughly to the core and blasted them apart.

The floor had prepared me for the night, and the moment I let go of all attachments to fixed plans and ideas everything opened up and turned magic.

"Fixed plans are for amateurs" I thought, and I giggled. It's just that I had never seen it that way. I really needed that slap.

We had a rather short night by the mainfloor as we decided to walk back to our camp and digest our experiences with another bottle of wine, and then hit our beds. We had a whole week ahead of us after all!

Trust the cosmic flow of life, and everything will work itself out, once you get out of your own way. And if you don't, life will make you. It has patience, even with the impatient.

---

If you want to read more about my life-changing experiences in the first days of the festival check out:
Psychedelic Trance - A Gateway To Understanding Life As Human Being

Come check out other Floor lessons:
-Making Plans is for Amateurs | Chapter 1-
-Gratitude as Abundance-Engine | Chapter 2-
-"We're all friends here, but you and me are NOT gonna be friends" | Chapter 3-
-Everyone is Someone's Rolemodel | Chapter 4-
-Feet & Friction | Chapter 5-
-"We can totally handle this" | Chapter 6-
-Cosmic Magnetism & The Fear-Override | Chapter 7-

_{Image sources:
gunnareichweber.com
truehumanity.eu
gunnareichweber.com}

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