A Tribe, Their Music, Their Stories, and Life as I know it with My Friends

This is an article I wrote about my friends and our "Tribe." My friend found a sticker with a small totem-pole of cartoon characters that had the words "Mellow Tribe" printed on it. The sticker was placed on the front door of one of our houses, and as time passed we became known as the Mellow Tribe.

Photo by Troy Page

To my tribe members: thanks for the mellow times.

A New “Old” Tribe Discovered, Reportedly Mellow

By Sarah Westergren

Mellow Tribe Members

CALIFORNIA - A unique and clever culture, the Mellow Tribe inhabits the southern coast of California. A civilization who originated around the Emerald period can often be found in the hills of Cardiff by the Sea, and stretched east to “waiting view”, also known as Linda Vista, and south to the neighboring areas by the Pacific Ocean’s Beach.

  

Mino’aka

A tribe gathering, though sporadic, can number anywhere between 3 to 30 members at a time. Often engaging in tribal sounds that seem to hypnotize the people, the sound leads to a reported facial transformation. Few Mellow Tribe words have a direct translation, but in Hawaiian, a cousin language, the facial transformation is referred to as mino’aka. In American-English we know it as smiling.

The life giving energy, results in a power that filters through their main tree-house dwelling and into the surrounding lands.

The energy, once absorbed and broken down in the soil, produces evidence of its existence by its lush and edible gardens near each member’s lodging.

“Listener”

The most recent member whose name means “listener” pronounced sah-MAN-tha, is an example of the tribes overall child-like attitude and depicts a common theme of “lightness of spirit” which primarily manifests in the tribe member’s eyes.

The peaceful tribe, easily distracted by four-legged beings, has an overall bronze to their skin that exists throughout the year. It still remains a mystery as to how this smolder is sustained through all months.

Some of their unique traditions consist of didgeridoo blowing directly at each other’s hearts, eating insurmountable amounts of handmade humus and guacamole, consuming healthy amounts of Yerba Mate’, removing their clothing at the beach to be replaced with a black neoprene covering prior to submerging themselves in a large mass of water, and blowing, hitting, or banging objects referred to as “sound makers” or instruments.

Mellow “instrument”

Many tribe members have admitted to the following: touching the plant species makahiye also known as “touch me not,” routinely informing visitors of the difference between the compost and the tribe’s main salad dish that evening, and being followers of the god brothers, Chester-Buster and Walter, and have reported reaching personal enlightenment from their teachings and presence.

Makahiye

Chester Buster

Mellow Tribe outdoors near fire

“Soul Nourishment”

When not all at a tribal gathering it is said that individually each Mellowan man and woman are out gathering multiple types of soul nourishment, also known as “fun activities,” in anticipation for the next assembly. Some of these nourishments are common amongst all members while others have been known to branch outside of the typical habits. Nourishment consists of the following forms: remaining perpendicular to planks ranging from 5 to 11 feet while enduring the varying surface of a large body of water, adorning cups of cake, carving Agave trees into long hollow tubes, saddling miniature and life size horses, digitally documenting mundane events and adding drug-like induced music, stringing small glass pieces on thin clear threads for Mellow Tribe’s people, spreading a wide range of colors over a variance of surface sizes, mixing earth’s fruits for consumption, immensely perspiring in unusual  postures and stances in a small enclosed area with natives of other tribes, generating vociferous sounds while rocking back and forth in public display with a device made up of a wood block painted black and 4 metal chords, feeding tortoises, recycling small clear sacks that are known to “zip and lock”, and roaming for the purpose of staring at organic wild life to “come to a mental space” of tranquility. The later of those is often performed in pairs.

The Mellow Tribe often greets one another with full body embraces, mino’akas, and an armful of edibles.  The Melwomen (female tribe members) spend time mixing and creating food for the Mellow people, and though it’s challenging to decipher what they are discussing, the topics are suspected to range from personal experiences with other tribes people, animals, plant species, their Mellowmen, and their unique expressions of soul nourishment.

Melwoman

 The Mellowmen, confident with themselves, retreat to what they call “hacking a sack” which necessitates the use of their feet, and if one tribesman uses his hands during this event it is common to hear a verbal disturbance expressed as the game resumes. Periodically a Melwoman will enroll herself in the game.

Mellowman and Melwoman co-mingling

Easy to mino’aka, the Mellow Tribe is a people who easily find the nectar in life. It’s difficult to not slip right into their song, comprised of a euphoric love, happiness, peace, creativity, and synchronicity within the tribe that is united with the flow and balance of the earth.

If ever graced by the presence of their people, be sure to pick up any instrument nearby and unify yourself with the sound of heaven. It’s an experience you won’t find at any resort or spa, and it’s a guarantee your molecular structure will warp into what Chester-Buster and Walter refer to as your true self.

Mellow Tribes People