The 2008 Bioneers conference starts this morning … I’m up early, partly because I’m excited – this is the first year my reclusive love-monkey will be accompanying me – and partly because I drank a (perfectly-prepared) latte far too late last night.
I’m going to be live-blogging the event again this year, for all you who can’t make it to either San Rafael or one of the 18 "Beaming Bioneers" satellite locations.
Hold on to your seats …
If you know me or have read this blog for any length of time, you know that bringing sacred space into the online sphere has been one of my strongest dreams and passions ever since I entered this field. In my work I am always seeking to create environments of peace and beauty where silence is welcome and hearts connect, where we are aware of all our relations within the natural and spirit worlds and can enter deeply into our essential nature as Humans and relate together in the sure knowledge that we are one interconnected spirit and body.
I’ve been integrating color and images and movement into user interfaces, cultivating the practice of kindness and respect in conversational forums, and generally evolving these sensory-based language(s) as my ground-of-being online. I have been blessed with many successes, large and small, in beginning to realize my dream, but the other night my ability to imagine what is truly possible took a quantum leap.
My friend and playmate in this realm FireHawk Hulin (aka DragonWolf Goheen) invited me to join him in Second Life to explore something he and the ever-amazing David Sibbet (aka Sunseed Bardeen) had been working on with the exquisite Michelle Paradis (aka SingingHeart Amat) … something truly unique in my experience, and totally magical.
We sat in circle around the fire in this beautiful clearing made
sacred by our intention and David & Michelle’s artistry and told each other
stories. We shared the stories of our dreams and visions, the stories
that had brought each of us to this place in this moment of no-time.
Late into the night we spoke the words that brought us each into our
full being – together in a state of honor and respect.
We spoke through a long sunset, its last rays illuminating a variety
of lush flower beds that framed and colored each of the eight gates
that stood and marked each direction of our circumference. We continued
to speak as stars filled the sky above us and the sounds of soft
singing and drumming were joined by those of crickets and the night
sounds of the clearing. We were completely there, our small circle of
four; in that time and place, in body and in spirit.
I know that not everyone would be interested in exploring a virtual
world environment, even if the learning curve for navigating it was not
so steep. In the past I’ve thought of that fact as a reason not to
focus my creative energy there, but the other night a different
realization appeared to me. If the people who do play in Second Life –
the ‘geeks’ and futurists and early-adaptor trend-setters – are able to
experience something so truly transformational there as I experienced
the other night, then perhaps some of that peace and beauty will be
reflected, even in some small way, in what they create and write and
say and do in their own First Lives, or the ‘real’ world where the rest
of humanity lives.
This realization of larger purpose and
intent would make any time I spent in Second Life completely
justifiable, but on a more personal level it was enormously joyful and
generative to just let my imagination run free and experience the pure
pleasure of unbridled creativity… tasting that bliss is worth a lot
to me and I can’t wait to see what we’ll imagine next!
Still traveling, right now I’m in Red Feather Lakes in Colorado at the Shambhala Mountain Center for a fascinating conference called Story Field (more on this in a later post).
Just last week I was doing a Zhikr training put on by Arica Institute at Esalen in Big Sur, California.
Beyond the events themselves I’ve been thinking a lot about the environments in which I’ve experienced them, which despite some clear differences are very similar. Both are set in amazing natural landscapes, both are intentional communities and both collective businesses grounded in the spiritual realm.
I’m taken back to my years living the communal ‘back to the land’ dream in rural NE Vermont in the early 70s and the subsequent urban communal years through the 80s in Boston and San Diego. I haven’t forgotten the unique hell-realms of communal living, but I must admit the simple life in nature, immersed in right livelihood and intimate relationships with others also has its attractions.
Sculpture in the vegetable garden at Esalen
The path up to the Shinto Shrine above the Great Stupa at Shambhala
Madonna’s fabulous contribution to Live Earth:
weDialogue
Welcome!