The Guardian for this meeting was Zen Arado. The comments are by Zen Arado. Present were Alfred Kelberry, Eliza Madrigal, Multiverse Resident and myself.

Starting slowly:

Zen Arado: Hi Eliiza :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zen :)
Zen Arado: how are you?
Eliza Madrigal: Slow starting this morning but OK :)
Eliza Madrigal: How are you?
Zen Arado: I'm slow every morning
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Happy New Year
Zen Arado: you too
Eliza Madrigal: ty :)

My typing:

Zen Arado: I'm having trouble typing on my new computer
Zen Arado: the keys are slightly raised
Eliza Madrigal: is the keypad quite different? Oh
Zen Arado: yes
Zen Arado: I'm nerly just typing one handed
Zen Arado: I'm usng voice typing at the moment
Zen Arado: but it keeps on missing letters
Eliza Madrigal: :) seems to be working, you have good speed
Zen Arado: I thouht the new coputer won't stop that
Zen Arado: it is really fast
Zen Arado: it must be the second life viewers
Zen Arado: would*
Eliza Madrigal: does it work with other programs as well?
Zen Arado: oh yes it works great with Microoft word
Eliza Madrigal: ah, so it is a 'lag' issue in compatability
Zen Arado: I have only spent about 5 min training it on this computer
Zen Arado: yes
Zen Arado: there is another way I can try
Zen Arado: typing into the dictation box and then transferring
Zen Arado: but that takes more time
Zen Arado: probably a Mac would have been better :(
Zen Arado: but they are so expensive
Eliza Madrigal: I opted for a rather simple one, and yes it was more expensive but is supposed to last a few years longer...
Eliza Madrigal: we'll see
Zen Arado: I needd a computer that could run second life and also voice processing software
Eliza Madrigal: I'm sort of streamlining lately.... going down to a few things
Zen Arado: voice recognition uses a lot of processing
Zen Arado: I wish I could do that
Zen Arado: my life just gets more and more complicated
Eliza Madrigal: and the laptop is one of those few things, so, bought something I could take everywhere
Zen Arado: I wouln't like to carry this laptp too far :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: the main thing is it has you here
Eliza Madrigal: so we can say Happy New Year
Zen Arado: yes true

Yearning for silence:

Zen Arado: I am finding lately I dont want to chat so much
Zen Arado: in fact I woud love to do a long silent retreat
Zen Arado: I woul love to do the one at Tassajara
Eliza Madrigal reflexively smells bread
Zen Arado: which is running now for three months
Eliza Madrigal: maybe it would be better to sort of 'down shift' in daily interactions

Zen Arado: they only have one telephone
Eliza Madrigal: The question for me is whether I can stay fully engaged while also not driving nor being driven
Zen Arado: Hi Multi :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Multi
Multiverse1 Resident: Hi, Zen and Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: So one thing I like is reading Eos lately, describing how he finds pauses in various cues...
Eliza Madrigal: like when someone ends a sentence or during regular activities
Zen Arado: yes, you have to do that if you work
Zen Arado: but I m retired
Eliza Madrigal: but you are engaged with people and in that way busy
Zen Arado: i could meditate all day if I wanted to
Zen Arado: I keep getting sucked into hobbies
Eliza Madrigal: well for me I want to do that AND I want to be out and about
Eliza Madrigal: at the same time :)

Love the most important thing:

Zen Arado: but what is the most important thing in life?
Eliza Madrigal: I like that Moulin Rouge line "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and to be loved in retrun" :)
Zen Arado: but I enjoy talking to people so much
Eliza Madrigal: *return
Zen Arado: hmmmm and just thinking that was a good question I thought of:)
Eliza Madrigal: the capacity for being receptive to that may be grown in meditation to a large extent, or not necessarily in formal meditation as we were talking about at the guardian meeting, but in "returning"
Zen Arado: maybe that is romantic illusion though?
Zen Arado: or am being too cynical?
Eliza Madrigal: depends on what one thinks love is :)
Zen Arado: what do you think Multi?
Zen Arado: maybe it is only when we can see through our illusions and the things we think we need that we can be the two truly love others
Multiverse1 Resident: I think loves is in the eye of the beholder. We all have an image of it. A great big hug comes to mind, at this instant.
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Multiverse1 Resident: illusions are our dreams of reality then?
Zen Arado: and maybe it isn't warm and fuzzy
Eliza Madrigal: the illusion that love is some 'thing' we people get and give to other people is pretty pervasive
Multiverse1 Resident: or our hopes?
Zen Arado: Hi Boxy :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Boxy :)
Alfred Kelberry: hi :)
Multiverse1 Resident: Hi Alf
Alfred Kelberry: nice glasses, multi
Zen Arado: love is a warm wet nose :)
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Eliza Madrigal: :) bang bang shoot shoot
Eliza Madrigal giggles
Alfred Kelberry: actually, it should be cool :)
Zen Arado: you must have a temperature then :)
Multiverse1 Resident: 97.6 here
Zen Arado: you better see a vet
Zen Arado: :)
Alfred Kelberry: no, temp is when it's warm and dry
Zen Arado: ah ok
Alfred Kelberry: tarmel. haven't seen her in a long time.
Multiverse1 Resident: Eliza is blooming today

Rez days and reminiscences:

Eliza Madrigal: :) it is a rezz day gift from Perfect Paradise
Alfred Kelberry: neat
Eliza Madrigal: but I sort of like this feeling... hiding under the Bird of Paradise
Zen Arado: ah happy Rez day Eliza
Multiverse1 Resident: It suits you nicely
Eliza Madrigal: :) thanks
Alfred Kelberry: oh, yes indeed! jan 23rd :)
Eliza Madrigal: Today is Chinese New Year and also, according to Wol, the "saddest day of the year"... some article
Zen Arado: three years in second life today
Alfred Kelberry: article?
Eliza Madrigal: yes :) and my PaB anniversary will be Feb 14
Eliza Madrigal: amazing I wandered over that quickly and just stayed, lol
Multiverse1 Resident: A valentines child then
Eliza Madrigal: yup :)
Alfred Kelberry: gee, i can't recall events like that :)
Zen Arado: me neither
Multiverse1 Resident: nor I
Eliza Madrigal: you are just a little older than I am according to your profile, Boxy
Zen Arado: it was a woman brought me here
Eliza Madrigal grins
Zen Arado: Aurora
Alfred Kelberry: i have a hard time recalling the year when i first got to pab :)
Eliza Madrigal: ah, yes I remember her
Zen Arado: nobody remembers her I I gues although she was a Guadian
Alfred Kelberry: eliza, i'm much older than you :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Zen Arado: you're an old dog then boxy :)
Eliza Madrigal: your profile says 3 years and 1 month
Zen Arado: can't teach you new tricks :)
Multiverse1 Resident: I feel like a babe for the 1st tyme in years. No wonder I have such a hard tyme keeping up.
Eliza Madrigal: and you are the first avatar I ever met that I still know
Eliza Madrigal: (Alfred)
Alfred Kelberry: :)
Zen Arado: I'm tring tothink of the oldest avatar I kno that stillknow
Zen Arado: probably Dianket
Zen Arado: though I don' see him much now
Eliza Madrigal: ah, yes he was a very early person I met too
Eliza Madrigal: he signs off and on a lot, lol
Alfred Kelberry: for me, it would probably be pema
Zen Arado: I remeber you at Kannonji Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: really? Boxy :)
Zen Arado: before pab
Eliza Madrigal: yes we've known one another forever too Zen :)
Zen Arado: it looks unlikely that I wil meet people from here in real life
Eliza Madrigal: I didn't really get to know Alfred for a while, but in my first few days in SL I remember from a coffee shop
Alfred Kelberry: actually, no. i know a woman from 2006 :)
Eliza Madrigal: Maybe it will happen in another way Zen
Eliza Madrigal: i know it is hard
Zen Arado: travel is too difficult for me now
Zen Arado: the first place I wet to was the sceptical Buddhit group
Zen Arado: I don' go to any Buddhit groups now
Zen Arado: I don' know why
Multiverse1 Resident: 5 years ago then , Zen, you would not have even this opportunity. It is a step in another direction here in sl. Not sure what that direction is, but is is a new one for me.
Zen Arado: that's true Multi
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Multiverse1 Resident: so, the future may brings other changes
Zen Arado: we forget that opportunities for travel to other countries have formally opened up in the last 40 years or so
Zen Arado: most people didn't leave their own country
Multiverse1 Resident: what we can't see, sometymes appears before our eyes.
Zen Arado: formally = only
Eliza Madrigal: interesting thought Multi
Multiverse1 Resident: formulations of only
Zen Arado: :)
Eliza Madrigal: this really is like a wormhole out of nowhere in some ways :)
Zen Arado: voice typing formulations :)
Zen Arado: there seems to be a compulsive need to travel to other countries nowadays
Multiverse1 Resident: yes, the worms have ownership then
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Zen Arado: they get us in the end
Zen Arado: :)

Travels to here:

Eliza Madrigal: heheh
Eliza Madrigal: I can't speak for the whole necessarily but experiencing other places does seem important, like the difference between knowing about someone and getting to know them... thinking of the layers of a place, the propaganda for tourists and suggested routes, and then the more adventurous and sometimes less comfortable exploring from scratch or from openings that arise which may lead to different angles
Multiverse1 Resident: The vistas and cultures that one encounters, that which we can imagine, yet when we travel, come to experience 1st hand. An enlightenment in some ways.
Zen Arado: I read somewhere that we like places because everything is new and interesting
Eliza Madrigal: indeed Multi
Zen Arado: but if we stayed there it would become the familiar
Eliza Madrigal: I've been touristing my own back yard for the last year or so...
Multiverse1 Resident: yes, new= exciting, the "unknown" which then at least, becomes partially known.
Eliza Madrigal: going to places I grew up in and didn't see
Zen Arado: if we could look at where we are now in the same way it would stay fresh and different maybe
Eliza Madrigal: and taking pictures
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Eliza Madrigal: but I didn't start doing that until I went away and felt a sort of deep appreciation of 'place'
Zen Arado: I remeber taking India people who were on a training course with me to see Carrikfergu Castle
Multiverse1 Resident: Yes, you can travel to places you haven't been within hours of where you live. Yet the faraway holds more mystery.
Zen Arado: and to them it was like the Taj Mahal !
Multiverse1 Resident: a totally new thing to them, yes
Zen Arado: Yet to me it is mundanr and ordinary
Eliza Madrigal: :) mystery
Eliza Madrigal: the mysterious mundane
Eliza Madrigal: somehow that sounds wonderful
Zen Arado: so we need new eyes maybe, not new experiences?
Zen Arado: Yes Eiza :)
Eliza Madrigal: beginners eyes
Zen Arado: exactly
Multiverse1 Resident: I have encountered as many as 600 things, that I noticed, just going to and coming from the grocery store at tymes.
Eliza Madrigal: heart eyes
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Zen Arado: yes
Zen Arado: open eyes
Zen Arado: not eyes blinded by thoughts
Multiverse1 Resident: they are as far away as the Taj Mahal. Yet are right under Boxy's nose.
Zen Arado: like a small child with eyes like saucers
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Multiverse1 Resident: that we may never grow up
Zen Arado: adults in supermarkets very past me with their shopping lists, but little children stare at me in my electric wheelchair with huge eyes
Zen Arado: hurry *
Zen Arado: we are in my thoughts not in the world the way children are
Eliza Madrigal: I had this sort of experience yesterday Zen! in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a festival, a very 'new' baby fixed on me and sucked me into a different universe :)
Zen Arado: our*
Zen Arado: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Sam uses the term 'dralas on eyelashes'
Multiverse1 Resident: the wonder of a new experience, the questions, which come forth, then the imaginings of the answers
Eliza Madrigal: imagining of the answers :) you are poetic this morning Multi
Zen Arado: and baby hasn't learned yet to frame the world into thoughts and concepts
Multiverse1 Resident: no rules yet
Zen Arado: yes Multi :)
Eliza Madrigal: thereness
Zen Arado: hopefully meditation gets us back to that state some ways
Multiverse1 Resident: everywhereness, and ...... yet........
Zen Arado: I think it helps
Multiverse1 Resident: monstrously
Zen Arado: distancing ourselves some way from the incessant buzz of our thoughts
Multiverse1 Resident: you got a long toungue there Eliza
Zen Arado: lo l
Eliza Madrigal laughs
Eliza Madrigal notices the trust it takes to touch boxy's nose
Eliza Madrigal: never know what it will exclaim

Eliza Madrigal: slow smiling
Multiverse1 Resident: I will lick his ear myself
Eliza Madrigal: I'm going to head over to the Kuan Yin Oracle in honor of my rezz day :)
Multiverse1 Resident: Happy travels Eliza, Zen
Eliza Madrigal: thanks for being here friends
Zen Arado: I have to call in at PP a few times today
Eliza Madrigal: Oh, true... me too Zen
Zen Arado: thanks to all for coming :)
Eliza Madrigal: :) Bfn
Zen Arado: for healing day
Eliza Madrigal: mmmm healing eyes
Zen Arado: byee
Multiverse1 Resident: bye alf. keep your nose clean.