B. April 2010

April showered us with an Play as Being Anniversary party… celebrating 2 years since this group began. It also happens to be one year since I’ve been with Play as Being. I can honestly say that I have become a different person as a result of attending sessions, in ways that it’s not easy for me to express. I hope for others that it’s the same.

The month of April started off with a bang of pixel fireworks…. and continued to flow throughout the month. I hope we always play this way... in SL and RL! Play as Being had another retreat, this time in San Francisco, California. The retreat was planned well in advance, unfortunately, a surprise eruption from the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland and subsequent cancellation of European flights disrupted the plans of Wol and Gaya to attend this retreat… and they were missed. Genesis was able to attend, as her flight to Italy was cancelled. Theme sessions continued with three about TSK, getting into more personal experiences with the concepts in the book. The theme session ‘Know What Is, See Clearly’ continued the concepts discussed in last months session of ‘Be Decisive, Know What Is, See Clearly’. We had a second scribe session, Yakuzza started a ‘Voice Hour’ preceding his Friday 1 pm session, and Liza introduced the idea of a meditation project. I also interviewed guardian Lia Rikugun. In April, the art from the Art of Being Project remained in the village square for us all to enjoy.

San Francisco Retreat - See here: 2010-04 San Francisco for retreat accounts by the participants. There is a theme session in early May on San Francisco retreat thoughts, also. I've been tempted many times to add more to this section, but the link to this retreat says more than I ever could. It's well worth reading all of the retreat accounts.

Theme Sessions -

2010.04.04 13:00 - Theme session #2: TSK
2010.04.06 19:00 - Know What Is, See Clearly
2010.04.08 19:00 - Learning How to Read TSK
2010.04.10 13:00 - Scribe Session, Part II
2010.04.11 13:00 - TSK theme session: thawing out
2010.04.16 13:00 - Theme session: Liza's meditation project

Friday Voice Chat - On April 23, Yakuzza Lethecus started hosting a free-style session in voice chat about Play as Being topics at the pavilion, on Fridays at noon SLT... switching to written chat at 1 pm SLT for his regular Play as Being session. Thanks Yakuzza, this really was a great idea! :)

Meditation Project - On April 24, 2010, Liza Deischer started a meditation project - her email:   On the 16th of April we had a theme-session about the benefits of meditation getting closer to our own experiences. In that session I offered to do a series of 4 meditations only accessible for PaB-members just to see if this concept could work for PaB and it's practice. See: 2010.04.16 13:00 - Theme session: Liza's meditation project

Guardian Interview - On April 26, I interviewed Lia Rikugun for the chronicles, found here: C. Lia Rikugun. Thank you Lia, I had a lot of fun!

Pema's 100 Day Play - On April 27, 2010, Pema sent an email to the guardian group, describing his "100 day play" -- 100 days from the end of the last retreat, to the first day of the next retreat. It’s a nice reminder of what it means to Play as Being… As a result of these emails, I decided to collect them and place them in their own section in the chronicles. See: Pema’s 100 Day Play.

This will be ongoing, leading up to the next Play as Being Retreat in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Weekly Guardian sessions - A topic this month that came up frequently was the issue of structure vs spontaneity during Guardian Sessions.

2010.04.04 08:00 - Guardian Session: Group Workings & Space for Spontaneity
2010.04.11 08:00 - Guardian Session: Being Playing House
2010.04.18 0800 - Topics for Guardian Sessions .. or .. structured spontaneity AND free-form structure
2010.04.25 0800 - Guardian Session - Appreciating Creativity

Working Group - The working group discussed various matters. See minutes.

Minutes -

2010.04.13 1400 - Working Group Meeting Minutes
2010.04.27 1400 - Working Group Meeting Minutes

April Guardians - There were no new guardians for the month of April.

April Scribes - The scribes for April were Adams Rubble, Arisia Vita, Calvino Rabeni, Eliza Madrigal (who did 2), Mickorod Renard, and SophiaSharon Larnia.