First the background: the Fetzer Foundation has given Steven Tainer (Stim in SL) and me a grant to explore virtual worlds to see how we could develop our Ways of Knowing activities there. After checking with the Foundation, we have now been given the green light to spend a significant fraction of our grant to pay for most of the costs of the forest that we are currently creating in SL. This is wonderful news indeed, since it will allow us to move ahead and purchase the remaining pieces that we need to connect the parcels we already own. In addition, it allows us to branch out further to the East of Rieul and Mieum.
In particular, in noticed that there were some sizeable parcels for sale in Bieup, right to the East of Mieum, adjacent to the welcome area. I was wondering whether to buy those pieces. Dakini was asleep, it being in the middle of the night for her, but for Storm in Scotland it was already morning, which was the reason I could contact him. After hearing the news, he was of course happy too, to hear about our funding. As for possible Bieup purchases, he said that he would consult his Quan Yin (Kuan Yin) oracle. I had done so before, and had enjoyed the poems I had received there, so I walked over, after my half hour at the tea house was up. I drew the following poem:
Your trees each bear a thousand plums.
Your mines bring forth the finest gold.
Your hour has come!
I enjoyed the reading about the very encouraging images, and so did Storm. We talked a bit more about possible uses of the Bieup parcels, given their strategic location near the welcome areas. After all, some fraction of our visitors arrive by accident, just walking by, and some of them enjoy our Play as Being activities and return. Perhaps we can use the Bieup parcels especially to put up some kind of introductory information about PaB. In the end, I decided to buy those pieces of land, so now we have a potential forest branch stretching into Bieup.