Muddy Mike

Happy 8 Months baby! You’ve been a true rae of light ☀️ in my life since the day I met you and I look forward to all the exciting plans we have coming up, between performing our song at tonight, to church tomorrow, to our upcoming family get togethers and trips 🏔️ in July, and beyond 😍.

Thank you for everything you do and are, both to me ❤️ and to all who come across your path.

Love you so much 😘.

Mike

Join us this week to celebrate Rachel Travis’ 7 Year Soberversary!

She’s a beloved member of The Kava Bar - North Dallas family and we can’t wait to honor this meaningful day in her life over some shells of kava the day of (during happy hour on Wednesday, May 13th) and with a bigger celebration and sober coin ceremony on Friday, May 15th from 7:30-9pm.

We’ll see you then 🥳!

BULA 🤙🏽💙

——

📍 14856 Preston Rd #212, Dallas, TX 75254

First Pascha (Orthodox Easter) service at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church for both Rachel Travis and I. So beautiful 😍!

I grew up Methodist and fell away from Christianity for more than a decade after my sophomore year of college, exploring Zen Buddhism and going on multiple 7 day silent meditation retreats in addition to meditating daily. I also heavily explored altered states through lucid dreaming practice, cannabis and psychedelics, as well as dabbled in Tibetan Buddhism and the Bön Tradition of sleep yoga. Lastly I listened to tons of Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, and tons of other spiritual and open-minded thinkers that all contributed to my New Age thought of taking pieces of all kinds of different traditions from Hinduism to Buddhism to Christianity and picking and choosing what made sense to me from each and what didn’t and keeping only what I liked.

During the pandemic and then the election, both of which were super divisive and stressful times in our country, I started to become very anxious about the state of the world and my mix and match patchwork of different frames of thought that were convenient for me but didn’t offer an actual relationship with my Creator was finally just not enough to quell the anxiety/stress in my soul.

Slowly I felt myself getting called back to Christianity through all kinds of coincidences, including my mom looking through one of my old baby books while I was at her house which had a note from my grandpa I was super close to who unfortunately just passed away (God rest his soul) that said essentially (referencing 9/11 when it happened) - “Michael, I’m very worried about the world you and your sister are growing up into. Please, please, whatever you do, just don’t stop believing in God.”

I read this at the perfect time because so many stones had already unturned that were moving me in that direction and that was just the final confirmation I needed. Since then (~1.5 years or so ago) I started going to church with grandparents, attending my church I went to growing up, attending friend’s churches, and more, and finally the Eastern Orthodox Church. More on this to come.

Until then, Christos Anesti (Christ is Risen) ☦️