One year ago today around midnight, I arrived at Black Rock City, Nevada after hours of stop and go in a rented Chevy minivan, and banged the gong as a virgin Burner, thus entering the alternate reality that is Burning Man. The week I lived on the Playa spun me into an initiatory experience of a collective creative consciousness that has (apparently!) changed my life. A major focus of my experience was Rhythm Wave, the ecstatic dance theme camp where I first experienced the 5Rhythms Wave. Led by Samantha Sweetwater , DJ Basin, Shawn Swanson, and others, I danced in the desert under a parachute canopy on the raised bamboo dance floor morning, afternoon and evening. I came home inspired, with the energy of the novitiate who first tastes the sweetness of Joy. Although I won't be there this year, a part of me will be, and my first Burning Man experience will hopefully not be my last.