I arrived at the teahouse for the 1PM session with a new title, from a group I had just joined…
Maxine Walden: hi, Dakini, love your ‘heart warrior’ title
Dakini: oh Maxine, I love this too - i just joined a new group with this title
Maxine Walden: tell me…
Dakini: yes, it was synchronicity
Maxine Walden: wow, always a good sign
Dakini: the woman who runs this group
Dakini: is combining psychotherapy with buddhism
Maxine Walden: oh!!
Maxine Walden: in SL?
Maxine Walden: the combination?
Dakini: the discussion group is in SL - and she’s doing this in RL as well!
Maxine Walden: interesting
Dakini: she was just here in the zen retreat, i had hoped she might join us
Dakini: do you think i should IM her?
Dakini: i think the two of you would love to chat
Maxine Walden: I would love to hear more about how she works, or your expeerience …yes, please
Maxine Walden: IM her
Dakini: but she also mentioned she has the flu
Dakini: OK i’ll IM her
Maxine Walden: oh, that can lay one low, the flu
Not even a half hour earlier, I had met Ruby for the first time and, like Maxine, instantly liked the “Heart Warrior” title for her group. It conjures up an image of compassion and courage… So Ruby was summoned to our session and, regardless of the flu, she joined us.
Maxine Walden: hi, very nice to meet you, I believe Dakini was just mentioning your group and your work which sounds very interesting
Dakini: Maxine liked your Heart Warrior group title as well as I :-)))
Ruby Quality: Yes, sounds like it’s time for a revival… lol
Maxine Walden: yes, very nice title
Dakini: we might say we’re heart warriors in a sense, doing this experiment to change our boundaries
Dakini: it takes a certain amount of trust to attempt a change
Ruby Quality: Dakini mentioned you trained in psychotherpay Maxine, where did you train if you don’t mind me asking?
Maxine Walden: yes I have trained iin both the USA and England, but would say I have evolved over the years, and your experience?
Maxine Walden: would consider myself an explorer of the unconscious realms from where our dreads and dreams originate
Ruby Quality: I work in mental health and have some training in integrative psychosyntheis but I am exploring a core process training based on buddhist principles
Maxine Walden: I would love to hear more about this core process, sounds very interesting
Ruby Quality: My real love has been archetypal psychology
Maxine Walden: I do not really know what archetypal psycology is
Ruby Quality: My head is in a bit of a fog today (I have been ill) but I will send some links
Ruby Quality: Based on Jung
Ruby Quality: But my day to day work doesn’t include any of that:(
Maxine Walden: ok, I do know a little about Jung, have Jungian colleagues
Ruby Quality: More community development and fundraising
Maxine Walden: very important functions
Ruby Quality: Thank you Dakini
Ruby Quality: Well bit soul destroying
Maxine Walden: yes, I can really believe the beleaguering aspect of that aspect of community service
Ruby Quality: It’s all very much based on the medical model of psychiatry
Dakini: I mentioned that i did some healing based buddhist training
Dakini: Menla training, with Kristoff Klonck
Ruby Quality: Yes.. I’d like to hear more about that Dakini
Maxine Walden: so much output…yes would love to hear more
Dakini: part of that training is to learn to take care of your … let us say soul… while attending to the needs of others
Maxine Walden: ah
Ruby Quality: Interstesting…. I did some training in core energy management that sounds similar
Dakini: really based on learning to be mindful, compassionate, and develop our capacity to be in a healing space
Ruby Quality: I must send you a link to William Bloom
Maxine Walden: taking care of one’s soul…at the heart of things…core energy management?
Dakini: yes!
Maxine Walden: oh, yes, mindfulness seems so central to so much of what we do
Ruby Quality: Oooh al these wonderful possibilities
Maxine Walden: (perhaps except for fund raising)
Dakini: anyway, there are delightful possibilities here!
Maxine Walden: Ruby, you are a ‘Cultivator’ may I ask what that is? Ruby Quality: I think I should open up the heart warrior group for people to develop as they feel is right
Dakini: Maxine, Ruby and I traded groups:-)
Dakini: the Cultivator is Pema’s group
Ruby Quality: Maxine, I have just joined so I don’t know yet but I am looking forward to finding out lol
Maxine Walden: I know of one Cultivator group here is Sl, wondering if…oh, traded groups, I understand, yes, I was thinking of that
Dakini: yes, you were a Cultivator at first, now are a Guardian
Maxine Walden: nice to trade groups…sort of sisterly
Dakini: o sorry -the Guardian is zen retreat
Dakini: mixing my groups
Dakini: yes it is :-)
Maxine Walden: yes, not a problem, remember wanting to trade clothers with my sister but she and I never wore the same size
Maxine Walden: clothes
Dakini: oh my, my 3 sisters and i traded clothes for awhile there
Dakini: when they were younger, till they grew taller than i
Maxine Walden: oh, yes,…so interesting I think that sisters have usually very different relationships than brothers with brothers or bros with sisters, might be obvious but is interesting to me
Dakini: Maxine, i think I have some clothes I could trade with you
Dakini: in Sl the clothes always fit!
Maxine Walden: oh, Dakini, that is very nice, but do you know I do not have any clothes except what came with the SL kit as it were; never have bought anything
Maxine Walden: nothing much to trade
Dakini: that’s OK Max, i have too many clothes - you can trade some with me when you get more
Dakini: or maybe trade for your insight :-)
Maxine Walden: LOL, that is very sweet, that would be an adventure for me, new clothes in SL
Maxine Walden: from a sister in PaB
Dakini: oh yes, let’s do it, maybe you can tell me what sort of clothing you like :-)
Dakini: yes!
Maxine Walden: well, let me see…usually I wear rather simple things, never have been into fancy things much, but love color and smooth lines…not sure if that gives some idea…
Dakini: yes, I think it does!
Ruby Quality: How far do you want to develop your av maxine?
Dakini: i’ll see what i have that can be transferred…
Dakini: if you get some inventory offers from Dakini, please “accept” them :-)
Maxine Walden: you know, I am not sure, as I really am still viewing SL mainly as a vehicle for PaB…so not quite sure how much to develop my avatar
Dakini: lol you can save yourself lots of time if you don’t ….
Ruby Quality: When I came to sl I didn’t have any IT skills to speak off
Ruby Quality: and I was rescused by some vapires who took me under the sl wing
Maxine Walden: but I will gratefully accept your offerings
Ruby Quality: I could rez things up and kept getting things stuck in walls
Maxine Walden: appreciate that Ruby, how long have you been on SL?
Ruby Quality: They were forever rescuing me. It was a wonderful community lol
Dakini: rescued by vampires…. that sounds inetersting
Ruby Quality: all role play. I wss the mythical writer in the Tower lol
Ruby Quality: Just over a year…
Maxine Walden: yes, can imagine…rescued by vampires?? ah, mythical writer
Maxine Walden: there is so much possible fantasy in SL!!
Ruby Quality: Archetypal vampires..
Ruby Quality: and lots of warrior stuff. I used to write the rp for the Kings army and he said I was making them soft…
Ruby Quality: I was giving them heart centred meditations lol
Maxine Walden: oh, boy, archetypal vampires …such as in Dracula? or something…king’s army? in SL or RL
Ruby Quality: It was great fun .. I have very fond memories…
Maxine Walden: the boundaries in our discussions between SL and RL get blurry for me sometimges
Maxine Walden: sometimes
Ruby Quality: No.. the vampire archetype is a real archetype, usually adolescent energy..
While we chatted, the tea service contributed its monologue…
Cha-No-Yu Japanese Tea Ceremony (Taupe): Please enjoy your ceremonial cup of cha, Ruby Quality-san. Goziemashta arigato.
Chawan : Mmmm, delicious green cha made in the ceremonial Japanese tradition, Ruby Quality, so refreshing!
Chawan : Mmm..
Chawan : Mmm..
Chawan : Mmm..
Chawan : Don’t you feel at one with nature now, Ruby Quality so peaceful and relaxed.
Dakini: Pema claims this tea does not speak good Japanese
Maxine Walden: what does Pema mean by that, Dakini”
Dakini: he would correct this tea’s japanese
Dakini: however, i am unable to do that - i bought the tea service
Dakini: he must cringe every time he reads it :-)
So we did finally get around to playasbeing… briefly. I thought to edit out the non-PaB conversation but that would leave this precious short interchange…
Dakini: oh yes, and I should mention….
Dakini: this is a meeting of the playasbeing group
Dakini: we log the chat, and publish it on the group blog
Dakini: Ruby, is it OK if I log this chat?
Ruby Quality: If you like lol
Dakini: (I should have said this earlier)
Maxine Walden: yes, Dakini, of course
Dakini: SHould I take out any references to location?
Ruby Quality: I will brush up my typing lol
Ruby Quality: Noooo not for me anyway
Dakini: oh please, you will make me look SOOO bad if your typing is good
Maxine Walden: not necessary for me
Dakini: thanks (now, back to the fun part of the program)
Maxine Walden: you know my conscience comes in and says…oh, maybe we should be talking playasbeing, but in a way we have been doing the playing part
Dakini: should we have talked about Pab?
Dakini: haha same thought Max
Dakini: Pema won’t mind
Maxine Walden: sisters think the same way sometimes, don’t cha know…
OK so Pema you had 3 women here this afternoon and we spent our time “bonding”… Can’t you just see us chatting and giggling over our tea?
Dakini: haha 3 sisters here talking about trading clothes
Maxine Walden: right
Dakini: lol
Maxine Walden: yeh, love it
Dakini: yeh, youre reminding me to send this link to my RL sisters…
Maxine Walden: trading clothes, trading groups, and passionate interests
Dakini: that would be a HOOT!
Dakini: very nice little group session here this afternoon
Dakini: or evening as it may be
Maxine Walden: would it, sounds great, more HOOTs the better
Dakini: :-)))
Maxine Walden: my sister and I used to play all sorts of sister games, as kids..makes me smile to think back as we are talking…
Dakini: aw, that’s a happy memory….
Maxine Walden: yes, a very happy memory
Dakini: we played dressup with old clothes in a box…
Dakini: i would stage theatrical productions in the basement… lol
Maxine Walden: ahh, makes me smile, old fashioned clothes? big shoes…
Dakini: yes, old prom dresses…
Dakini: tiaras and crowns and fairy wands…
Maxine Walden: what kind of play…oh, prom dresses, super…invite the neighborhood to the plays?
Dakini: lol not too many were all that interested….
Maxine Walden: oh, fancy dress, fairies and fairy gogmothers
Dakini: kind of what we do here in SL….
Maxine Walden: meant to say godmothers, but like the gogmothers idea as well
Dakini: lol gogmothers yes
Maxine Walden: oh, dressup and pretend and such…amidst the fantasies that young girls have
Dakini: oh yes… so many wings here…
Maxine Walden: oh, yes…
Dakini: that must be a bit of an archtype
Maxine Walden: would think so
Dakini: maybe that ethereal, free part of us?
Dakini: with the special healing powers?
Maxine Walden: this is surely a sisterly chat…including the ethereal too
Dakini: i’m smiling…
Maxine Walden: oh yes I am too
Ruby Quality: I had a brother.. would have loved a sister
Ruby Quality: I have a sisterhood group in sl tho lol
Dakini: i always wanted a brother.. but a BIG brother haha
Maxine Walden: oh, Ruby, sorry you may have felt left out by our discussion…did you have a big brother?
Ruby Quality: No not at all.. I had an older brother by five years
Dakini: just like my son and daughter!
Maxine Walden: oh my, how lovely, Dakini..
Dakini: yes, but the “big brother” role is not quite what i imagined… haha
Maxine Walden: oh??
Dakini: my children are grown now, but in their childhood.. well, let me just say… my daughter developed a champion scream
Ruby Quality: Older brothers can be torture lol
Dakini: yes haha
Maxine Walden: champion scream about all the things her ‘big brother’ did…oh, yeah oh, yeah
Dakini: she developed such a scream (with his brotherly help) she won a medal for it
Dakini: haha
Maxine Walden: I actually had a big brother and a little brother and it was my little brother who hit me with his train!!, he was two and I was 6 yrs old…what kind of medal?
Dakini: “best screamer” at girls’ camp
Ruby Quality: That sounds very cool:)
Maxine Walden: oh, I can see it now…around the camp fire…best screamer…
Dakini: and got a screaming part in a school concert
Dakini: haha yes!
Maxine Walden: LOL\
Maxine Walden: were you proud at the school concert of her prowess?
Dakini: Not sure about proud… but it made me smile to think of how that scream was developmed
Dakini: and happy for her
Maxine Walden: bet it didm make you smile and yes happy for your daughter…lovely images
Dakini: oh yes and really how much more interesting to have a solo scream than to play the flute :-)
Maxine Walden: LOL
Maxine Walden: one’s own flute, the scream
Dakini: lol yes and quite unique
Maxine Walden: indeed, pleased for her, I never did develop a scream…maybe not hit enough by my brother’s train
Dakini: i’ve loved chatting, and i’m afraid i need to leave…
Dakini: lol maybe not…
Maxine Walden: yes, I need to go as well, and this has been a lovely conversation. thank you both
Dakini: I’ll be away all of tomorrow, but i’ll search my clothing inventory as soon as I can, Maxine
Ruby Quality: I used to work next to an office that ran a primal scream group.. It was very unnerving
Dakini: looking for something simple and colorful
Dakini: wow primal scream
Dakini: that takes me back to the 70s
Maxine Walden: nice to have such sisterly talk, oh thank Dakini…very sweet of you,
Ruby Quality: Tell her her brother saved her years of therapy:P
Dakini: hahahahahahah!! maybe so
Ruby Quality: Cut right to the chase lol
Dakini: o dear i hate to leave
Ruby Quality: I have to go too…
Maxine Walden: oh yes!!
Dakini: thank you for joining us, Ruby
Ruby Quality: Lovely to talk to you both.
Dakini: be well, both! :-)
Maxine Walden: hate to go too, but will, Dakini, you are taking the chatlog? I will go right now to give you time
Ruby Quality: Maxine if you need any asistance let me know.
Dakini: i’ll get the log, Max
Dakini: thanks!
Maxine Walden: thanks and bye both.
