I fell in love with her coconut-buttery skin when I was 12. Or maybe I was 10. Desa Rea has always been an inspiration of beauty and of Sacred Feminine for me. Leading by example, she has taught me how to live with the awareness of leaving a small carbon footprint. She has shown me that coconut oil can act as a natural sunscreen, and simply by being her Authentic Amazingness, she has shown me how to be Authentically Beautiful in my Own Skin, in these own ten-toed feets of mine.

I finally had the honor of photographing Desa Rea with her daughter and her granddaughter. Des has been an Auntie-Mother-Sister to me for as long as I can remember, so photographing these 3 Gorgeous Reflections of Beauty was medicine for my Spirit. I approached them with love and they pored love without hesitation in front of my camera… the rest: you can see in the images that follow…

And so:

How do Tribes all over our World hold ceremony?

With music, with dance, with Rip-Open-Your-Collar-Bones shouting to the Moon and laughing at the Sun. With sharing divinely exquisite feasts together; sharing with unyielding love one another’s abundance. I recently read in the New York Times that in West Africa, before colonization, there was no word for “dance”. Dance just “was”. Dance was Life, dance was ceremony. There wasn’t a need to label the act of ecstatic movement. It is simply what happened when tribes, communities and families held ceremony for birth or death; when they held ceremony for a wonderful harvest of food or for the coming of age or coming of The Self.

Why not then, I am going to suggest to you now, don’t WE as a Tribe of Epically Juicy and Gorgeous Lover’s of Life take to heart this un-labeling approach once used in west Africa. Let’s de-tach from all sorts of useless labels we have spent our entire lives believing and projecting with massive and strenuous effort. Let’s create ceremony through movement whether it be what we call Dance, or what we call Yoga, or what we name making love. Let’s intentionally hold ceremony every day in some small or big form for Authentic Self Love. For unconditional Tribe Love: so that together and entirely empowered we can infect other love-starved Tribes and Communities with juiciness. Let’s freakin’ LIVE this Heaven on THIS HERE Earth. Let’s ENJOY and LIVE our waking dream NOW!

AHO!