Destination The Journey

I first laid eyes on Celeste in 2004 during a meditation course. We were in silence, not communicating with one another, but I couldn’t help stealing a glimpse of the girl in the red, flowing skirt that crawled out of her tent, moving gracefully to her own rhythm. That image of her, etched in my brain, defines her–the beautiful girl in the red, flowing skirt. The bird with the colorful feathers.

 She is a poet, a DJ on KGNU, Boulder’s revered public radio station, a lover-of-life, and a creator of things beautiful. Celeste goes to the fertile soil of the ground of pure potential, and from it, her garden springs forth. I met with her last week at the Walnut Cafe’ in Boulder.

Who is Celeste Labadie?

“I don’t live to work, I work so that I can live.”  That describes me. I have done a nine-to-five job. I will probably never do that again. I’m a morning person. I love to wake up and look at the dew on the leaves and just stare. I can be sitting on the couch, admiring the space, thinking about friends, and my partner Michael will walk in and say, “What are you doing?” As if I need to be doing something. And I’m thinking, I am doing something.

I think one of the biggest things for me are the synchronicities and magical moments. Like thinking about my friend Molly Brown, and suddenly the phone rings, and I go, “Oh, it’s Molly.” And sure enough, it is. If we all start attuning ourselves to those moments it can be very magical. We can see that there is more potential than the simple drudgery of life.

I like to bring joy to people, bring a different perspective. Listening. I think listening is the biggest skill that I can give to people.

Could you say anything else about synchronicity, Celeste?

I could write a book. In fact, it’s in me. I was thinking this morning about the Horsetheif Canyon in Utah, where the Grand Gallery is. In this Grand Gallery are petroglyphs that are a thousand-plus years old. I went there six years ago with a friend of mine. It’s a decent hike in, maybe an hour down to where there are these vessel-type creatures, they almost look outer-space-like, and here I am, in front of this amazing artwork from these people who were on the land before us, and all I can do is look up. I’m looking up at this little hole-in-the-wall on top of this cliff. It has caught my eye and I don’t know why. I’m thinking “Who lives there?”  ”What is that?”

Two or three minutes go by and all I can hear is the wind, and  a few little tweeting birds. And then I hear a cawww cawww of a raven. The raven circles above me. I look up and it is looking at me and it flies right into the hole that I’d been looking at, and just continues to stare. And so we’re staring at each other and I’m like, “Okay, I knew that was someone’s home. Didn’t know it was your home. Thanks for showing me.”

So that is what I mean by synchronicity. I clued into something. I put my attention there. Did I cause the raven to show up? There is the cause and effect…cluing into something unconscious. There’s the thinking about a friend and them calling. I was in sync. I was in the flow.

So it sounds like magic happens if you’re in the flow?

Yes. My mom is planning a trip to Spain and she is busy making plans–plans, plans, plans. I think if you stop making plans, life will take care of it for you. When your airplane has been deferred or canceled, don’t look at it as “Poor me,”  look at it as “What magic is about to happen?” “Who do I get to sit next to now?”  

I was in the Denver airport waiting for my little puddle jumper plane to Grand Junction, Colorado–I lived in Grand Junction for twelve years. I see this trio of musicians and they’re speaking in Italian. They are taking out their guitars, fumbling around–they’re looking at me, I’m looking at them. I can tell we’re sort-of in the same tribe. I’m resonating with these people. So I strike up a conversation.

I say, “Why are you going to Grand Junction?”  They say, “Oh, we’re part of an Italian-American festival and we’ve been flown in from Italy to play. Yeah, we’re going to be on the radio station tomorrow morning,” and named the public radio station I was then DJing for in Grand Junction. I said, “Really, what time are you on tomorrow?” They said, “Nine o’ clock.”  I said, “Oh, that’s my program. I’ll be interviewing you tomorrow morning.”

It sounds like it’s almost a matter of perspective?

Totally. And I think alot of people don’t follow those intuitions. They go, “PoohPooh,” I don’t have time, or whatever. 

Celeste, could you tell us a little about your creations–the ones you most love?

Well, there is the Feast of Fools.

What is the Feast of fools?

It’s an evening once a year where you can make fun of the king and queen, or the President of the United States, or your neighbor. This whole thing came about with the tradition of the fool. And the fool doesn’t get their head cut off. The fool is supposed to make people laugh. And you’re supposed to just take it if you’re the one who is the butt of the joke. I moved here from Paonia, a small community of 1000 people on Colorado’s western slope, almost 4 years ago now. There was a tradition that had been going on for twenty-five years. The towns-folk would gather and do skits or monologues or play music, and just make fun of themselves

A new hot yoga studio came into Paonia. There was a skit with people with headsets on, microphones, he had devil-horns on, a pitch-fork, and he was getting everyone in the class in scandalous positions, and hitting them on the ass, basically making fun of the hot yoga. And the teacher was sitting in the audience, and his job was to laugh. Not to become pissed-off.

We can take things personally in a bad way, or we can take things personally in a good way. When synchronicity happens, take it personally. I think that is the opposite of what Don Miguel Ruiz was talking about in The Four Agreements. He was talking about not taking things personally when someone calls and says, “I can’t see you this morning.” Just take it as, “They’re taking care of themself.” And move on with your life. It is not a personal thing.

So I picked the date for the Feast of Fools about two months in advance. Paonia hadn’t picked their date yet. We never talked, and sure enough, they picked the same night that I’d picked here in Boulder. So I found out and called the organizer. We organized to hook up over a PA system during the Feast of Fools. So it came as a total surprise to the Boulder audience when the Paonia audience was cheering-on whoever was on stage. It was a beautiful moment. That was a beautiful act of creativity. It was perfect. 

Celeste, what motivates you?

The moment. The creative moment. I like making something beautiful out of nothing. My latest thing is that I had some orange rounds and I layed them on a rack to dry. I hung them from the pole-beam in the back garden. They are beautiful and the light shines through them. It is something I could have composted. But instead I made a little bit of artwork from it. 

Back to the moment, huh?

Yeah.

How have these economic times affected you personally?

I happened to have quit my job in November. I thought, “Well, that’s kind of dumb.” For a moment I thought that. But then I realized I could no longer work that job anymore. I often have had this sudden–”I can’t work here anymore.”  And I just quit. And inevitably my employer says, “I was wondering when this was going to happen. I knew it was coming.” And I think, “You’re not surprised either.” So I quit, and I was without alot of income for two months.

I work part-time. It is what I like to do. I am a creative person. Full-time jobs don’t allow me alot of creative time, or time for walks with friends, or yoga. I live a very lovely life, but I don’t have alot of jewels, a big expensive car. I don’t have debt. It allows me alot of freedom. I have a friend who is my age and has alot of money, partly because both of her parents have died. She said to me one day, very stressed out, “I have to write up all of my assets because I’m doing all this stuff  with my money right now, and it is stressing me out.” She said, “How much money do you have in the bank?” I said, “I don’t know, three hundred dollars.” She said, “Well how much in savings?” I said, “What savings?” She looked at me, aghast, and said, “Aren’t you stressed?” And I said, “No, you’re stressed.” The less I have, the less stress. The more she has, the more stress.

However, the right job has come my way because I did quit my job during the worst time. I was checking Craigslist and saw the perfect job, sent my resume’ and a query letter, a photo, all within the same hour, and they told me out of  50 resume’s that came in, mine rose to the top. I was the right person for that job.

Celeste, if you were going to leave the planet tomorrow, and you had to leave behind some words, what would those words be?

I’m always in the current moment. Michael and I just went to see the poet David Whyte at The Boulder Bookstore last week–it was packed. One of David Whyte’s poems, the last part of it, says “Anything or anyone that doesn’t make you feel alive,  is too small for you.” And I think that that’s where I am. Why do something, why hang around with someone, why do anything if it doesn’t bring you alive or bring you joy? Move on. It’s not a hateful thing, it is just you taking care of yourself. Mother’s Day was yesterday, and I was thinking–how are we all taking time to Mother ourselves? It is our job. It is not our Mother’s job anymore–we’re grown adults. It is our turn to dig in the garden, take a bath–how are we mothering ourselves?