2009.07.02 07:00 - Eye of Peace

The Guardian for this meeting was a half-awake Eliza Madrigal. The comments are by Eliza Madrigal.

Yakuzza and I begin the session discussing the muggy weather, and then life-changing storms. 

Yakuzza Lethecus: hey there
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Yakuzza!
Eliza Madrigal: Good to see you today :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: thx, you too but i would prefer living in a fridge today :D
Eliza Madrigal: heheh
Yakuzza Lethecus: 30 C° here in the room
Yakuzza Lethecus: i guess thats common for florida :P
Yakuzza Lethecus: but here its just too much with too much water in the air, so just muggy
Eliza Madrigal: Yes, this is exactly the weather here...muggy!
Eliza Madrigal: However...can't complain too much...no hurricanes as of yet :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: hehe, ok we don´t have that threat
Eliza Madrigal: It has been a few years since we've been hit, however there is always this build up of preparation...
Yakuzza Lethecus: you live in such an american house just made of wood ?
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, no. My first story is very solid. My second floor might go in a major storm though
Eliza Madrigal: So if the threat is intense, as with Hurricane Andrew, then we go somewhere else :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: yeah
Yakuzza Lethecus: or if cathrina is taking the wrong way
Eliza Madrigal: yes...Katrina went through here before it became a monster
Eliza Madrigal: I think that Miami is just beginning to recover from Andrew in some ways....
Yakuzza Lethecus: when was andrew ?
Eliza Madrigal: the tree cover in certain areas, etc.
Eliza Madrigal: 1992! :)
Eliza Madrigal: My daughter was 3 weeks old when that hit... was quite a time
Yakuzza Lethecus: i can imagine
Yakuzza Lethecus: did you leave florida by that time ?
Yakuzza Lethecus: do they open all sides on a highway to leave in one direction ?
Eliza Madrigal: : ) Nope... we did go through the storm, however in a family member's closet :)
Eliza Madrigal: and yes.. at certain points...especially from the keys where folks are stubborn
Yakuzza Lethecus: any basements ?
Eliza Madrigal: and back then pets weren't cared for very well so no one wanted to evacuate
Eliza Madrigal: No basements here :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: here pretty much every house is made of stone and most houses have a basement
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, nice :)
Eliza Madrigal: What I learned from Andrew is to always be ready to walk away from 'things'
Yakuzza Lethecus: obviously a couple of roofs fly away in mayor stone
Yakuzza Lethecus: but usually it doesn´t look like the pictures from thee states where entire town are nearly in dust
Eliza Madrigal: Ah...yes thankfully. Most storms come and go...
Yakuzza Lethecus: we had a bit storm 2 years ago
Yakuzza Lethecus: half of our forests here are gone since then
Yakuzza Lethecus: too many monocultures
Eliza Madrigal: that takes the longest. It is a natural process and yet the heat difference is great after trees are removed, for a while.
Yakuzza Lethecus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrill_(storm)

Adams arrives

Yakuzza Lethecus: hey adams
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Adams. You look spiffy today :)
Adams Dubrovna: Hi Yakuza and Eliza :)
Eliza Madrigal: Yakuzza, the page seems not to have too much
Eliza Madrigal: on the storm
Adams Dubrovna: I probably won;t be able to stay but wanted to stop in :)
Eliza Madrigal: Glad you did!
Yakuzza Lethecus: yeah, the german page is bigger
Yakuzza Lethecus: but i guess you can´t read german ?
Eliza Madrigal: We were talking about storms a bit... causing me to think, in light of conversation last night, about the pauses within those huge storms...the eye of peace
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, not yet Ya :))
Yakuzza Lethecus: adams: did you watch the john adams miniseries ? :)
Adams Dubrovna: not this last one. There was an Adams series on PBS years ago
Yakuzza Lethecus: i didn´t even know anything about the 2nd president before that :)
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Adams Dubrovna: Abigail Adams was an incredible person
Eliza Madrigal: What is the first thing that comes to mind about her Adams?
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Adams Dubrovna: brilliant
Yakuzza Lethecus: Was she the first ,real first lady" ?
Adams Dubrovna: No Martha Washington was
Adams Dubrovna: Sadly, most women did not receive the education Abigail had received

Didn't realize I'd cut into a conversation here at first. :)

Eliza Madrigal just returned with coffee (did not sleep much last night : )
Adams Dubrovna: Ohh, sorry to hear that Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: Not at all. Last night I was very sleepy during the session here, but by the time it ended I felt energized...was up posting the log at 1:45AM :)
Adams Dubrovna: I have that happen to me with the late night sessions
Yakuzza Lethecus: ah abigail never visited school but became homeschooled and spend much time in the extendet library of her farther :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: interesting
Eliza Madrigal: A love for learning/reading/sharing ideas is far different from schooling.
Yakuzza Lethecus: right
Eliza Madrigal: I sometimes worry about layers the well-schooled need to get through to find that 'joy'
Yakuzza Lethecus: sometimes on the 1 pm session i fall asleep literaly
Eliza Madrigal: bad sentence, but you see my point :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: because i like to watch it from my couch then
Yakuzza Lethecus: i have to stand up at 4:30 am and 1pm is 10 pm for me here
Eliza Madrigal: I nearly attended last night's 1AM but thought better of it. This is what kept me up mostly:
Eliza Madrigal: Pema Pera: after all, most of us have *at least* one moment in a whole day that we are suddenly struck by something, suddenly pulled out of our own reveries by the immediacy of something that happens or the immediacy of a sudden insight or idea that pops up
Eliza Madrigal: So I got to thinking about *Immediacy*
Eliza Madrigal: and about our group explorations...that it is the pauses which string us together...
Eliza Madrigal: whether we are here or not
Adams Dubrovna: hmmm
Adams Dubrovna: On one level yes
Adams Dubrovna: I have a sense there is more :)
Eliza Madrigal: We stop on a mountain with family and we stop farther within that stop perhaps, due to our stops here
Adams Dubrovna: holding us together that is
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Yes.... but do you think the pauses might be a sort of heartbeat, in a way?
Adams Dubrovna: I agree there is something in what you say :)
Adams Dubrovna: If I think about it long enough I might go as far as you do too :)
Adams Dubrovna: But I can't help noticing that we all have some similar interests
Adams Dubrovna: we care about the environment for one
Eliza Madrigal: this is true :)
Adams Dubrovna: we all love to go out an appreciate the world around us

Eliza Madrigal: Deep Appreciation...the kind wherein one is not as aware of 'self as apart' comes alive within real pauses...
Adams Dubrovna nods
Eliza Madrigal: Yakuzza, do you find the 9 seconds valuable? I know that you have been learning to relax more :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: 9 seconds don´t really reach for me
Eliza Madrigal: Is that due to feeling a pressure to remember the time?
Yakuzza Lethecus: i can´t just ,,switch into relaxation"
Eliza Madrigal: Ahhh
Eliza Madrigal: Some here stop and count breaths... that is how I started with it I believe...maybe 9 breaths instead of 9 seconds :)
Adams Dubrovna: I find the regularity helpful when I stick to it
Adams Dubrovna: sadly I have not been so regualr lately
Eliza Madrigal nods
Eliza Madrigal: This is how I've felt about longer meditations....
Eliza Madrigal: started noticing myself come out of them completely after 15 minutes
Adams Dubrovna: Good to see where negative energy might be building up
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, that's true. Sometimes in those pauses I stop and notice whether my forehead is crinkled...
Eliza Madrigal: notice that I'm carrying something without realizing it

Someone new to me, but not so new to Play as Being it seems, arrives...

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Benedizione
Benedizione Vita: hello eliza
Eliza Madrigal: Welcome to Play as Being :) Have you been here before?
Benedizione Vita: a long time ago :)
Eliza Madrigal: Ah :) So you know that we record our chats then :)
Benedizione Vita: thank you for the welcome
Benedizione Vita: yes
Adams Dubrovna: Hello Benedizione
Benedizione Vita: hello adams
Eliza Madrigal: You've been in SL since 2007 Benedizione. My goodness!
Benedizione Vita: is that a long time? it has not been so regular... I started when Pema started
Eliza Madrigal: That seems so long to me (have been here since January only)
Benedizione Vita: haha yes, but your avatar is already much more beautiful than mine haha
Eliza Madrigal: :) Ah, you're quite familiar with PaB then! We were just discussing the 9 second pauses every 15 minutes...the idea of that
Eliza Madrigal: Oh well thanks :) Important for me to know that a pretty girl can be taken seriously..hehe
Benedizione Vita: yes, I was listening
Benedizione Vita: haha ;^)
Benedizione Vita: I am doing a different practice at the moment, but I was curious to come see how this one is going
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, something you'd like to share?
Benedizione Vita: I tend to speak in riddles
Benedizione Vita: :^)
Eliza Madrigal: Hmm
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Benedizione Vita: what a great feature! things have improved a lot since I was last here
Eliza Madrigal: Isn't the bell marvelous?
Eliza Madrigal: Was the pavillion built when last you attended? Then meetings were in the tea hut before...
Adams Dubrovna: It is nice you visitied us again Benezione
Eliza Madrigal: Indeed :)
Benedizione Vita: if I remember correctly the pavilion had just been built
Benedizione Vita: but I was only here briefly, then
Benedizione Vita: I went to some tea hut meetings, I think
Adams Dubrovna: There was a second pavilion near the tea hut
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, that's right. :)

I wonder how many others feel this way? How are we affected by knowing that conversations are recorded? My suspicion is that we might be more affected if not as SL AVs but as first-life AVs.  

Benedizione Vita: you know it is interesting, the recording aspect of things... I feel like every sentence has to be profound
Adams Dubrovna: nah
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Adams Dubrovna: lots and lots of very silly sentences in the logs
Benedizione Vita: good to know
Benedizione Vita: maybe those are the best ones
Eliza Madrigal nods vigorously
Eliza Madrigal: Afterall it is PLAY as Being :)
Benedizione Vita: hahaha indeed
Benedizione Vita: my own practice sometimes consists of remembering that, instead of "working salt mines as being"
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Eliza Madrigal: hehe...great way to express that....
Eliza Madrigal: Sometimes we take things/ourselves/others too seriously
Eliza Madrigal: get all wrapped up :)
Eliza Madrigal: Might you say more about that Ben (if I may call you Ben ;-)
Benedizione Vita: too seriously for what? serious question ;)
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, well as you said about the recording... that some may feel a pressure to be profound :)
Eliza Madrigal: when maybe the best place is a simple one
Eliza Madrigal: Simply sharing
Adams Dubrovna: I think I only think about the recording when I am GOC :)
Benedizione Vita: GOC?
Adams Dubrovna: Guardian on Call as Eliza is today
Benedizione Vita: ah
Benedizione Vita: nice acronym
Adams Dubrovna salutes Eliza
Adams Dubrovna: :)
Benedizione Vita: let me back up a minute and try to collect some things
Eliza Madrigal: Yes the recording does fade from view generally
Benedizione Vita: I don't talk, or talk in metaphors, and then watch out it's old faithful
Benedizione Vita: anyway, so we started with "the recording can suggest a need for profundity"
Benedizione Vita: and then "maybe silly is best"
Benedizione Vita: so in the first case there is a sense that profound is best, and in the second case there is a sense that silly is best
Adams Dubrovna says hello to the recorder
Benedizione Vita: best for what? for "play as being"?
Benedizione Vita: then, "sometimes we get wrapped up too tight"
Eliza Madrigal: heheh... No, best is what is natural...what arises organically IMO...but if you're going to track my leaps of thought hold on to something or take a dramamine :)
Benedizione Vita: too tight for what? also for play as being? maybe life in general? how tight can we wrap before it is too tight? and how tight can we wrap and still play?
Benedizione Vita: ooh dramamine sounds good hahaha
Eliza Madrigal: hehe
Adams Dubrovna: In answer to the wrapped too tight, that is where the brief regular steops come in handy
Adams Dubrovna: force us to look at what we are doing
Adams Dubrovna: it is not the "how" of stopping but just the stopping
Eliza Madrigal nods and smiles
Eliza Madrigal: This morning's conversation focusing on the pauses arose out of last night's a bit, which sometimes happens.
Adams Dubrovna hopes Pema is reading this :)
Eliza Madrigal: I guess also in the pauses one might ask themselves whether they are 'wrapped up' or whether they might relax and play a bit more... allow themselves to Be
Eliza Madrigal: and greet everything that arises with fresh eyes, so to speak
Adams Dubrovna: or look at things from a different direction
Eliza Madrigal: yes!
Eliza Madrigal: When we do that for ourselves, we naturally do that for each other :)
Eliza Madrigal: Ben, let me give you a notecard so that you can read the wiki if you'd like to...
Benedizione Vita: ladies and gentlemen, it has been a pleasure, but the time for me to retire is at hand
Benedizione Vita: ah, thank you eliza
Benedizione Vita: I used the link from the wiki to get here :)
Eliza Madrigal: :) Pleasure to meet you Benedizione :)
Eliza Madrigal: I hope you'll stop by again some time
Adams Dubrovna: nice to meet you benezione
Benedizione Vita: thank you; I think the odds are good :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Adams Dubrovna: I must go too and meet a student
Adams Dubrovna: bye everyone :)
Benedizione Vita: nice to meet you as well, adams, and Yakuzza
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Adams, enjoy your day
Eliza Madrigal: Yakuzza often falls alseep at PaB...was telling us this earlier
Eliza Madrigal: heheh
Eliza Madrigal: (wonders if my saying that wakes him up)
Eliza Madrigal sings "Heyyyy Yaa... Hey Yaaaa" :)
Eliza Madrigal: No objections to my turning off the log I hope :)