The Healers' Outreach Projects

[ghaelen]

The healers' first membership gathering was small but loads of fun, with the support and humor much larger than the actual number of participants.  The goal was to meet each other and chat for a bit in our membership chatroom as a kind of preliminary experiment to perhaps starting up some larger gatherings or events in some way.  While we didn't have a "meeting" per se, there were a couple of issues we realized made our work in the community less possible.  One major factor was the lack of a 3D space in which to meet.  The 2D chatroom is nice, but there is something extra and more personal when we meet in physical form, even if that physical is virtual.  So we started up the discussion again about our own age, MORE, the waiting, and our feelings of limitation.  We realized the healers need a place to do whatever it is we will eventually do, and even though we are not sure what that might end up being, we all agreed it had something to do with making a space for others to come to or creating an environment that is relaxing yet enjoyable -- and populated.  We realized that the reason we needed a space was because we did best whatever it was we did where other people also were.

While the area in Kaneva is pretty, there are very few Uru people there.  While GW and WOW and some other MMO's are populated, they require attention on fighting or tasks, or simply don't fit the Healers.  So that left Second Life and There.  Both have pros and cons, yet both have Uru people in them.

Tailahr was with us and also at an event in Second Life.  We all began talking about it so we decided after our gathering to give it another look.  "Getting Around 101" was the first priority, but a few of us did manage that.  Jane, LC, Tai, met me there.  Tai showed us some new places; I discovered old landmarks were something now completely different, and we didn't know what to make of any of it.  However, the cities were coming along nicely, there were duplicates of new ages (Eders Delin and Tsogal are underway) and the area Tai is in is building a Tokotah Rooftop (we have really missed that!).  She offered to set us up in a space free of charge for a while that allowed us to build. After looking and thinking for quite some time we thought perhaps an outreach would not be untoward.  So a small group of Healers is trying the experiment in Second Life.  It isn't home, but it is a place, and there are important ingredients there.... people.  (Not to mention we none have to die or kill to stay in play...).

If anyone has an account in There, and has thought about this same kind of experiment or outreach, let us know that, too.  The SL experiment doesn't obligate any other Healers to participate, but it would be good to know what we are all doing.  Maybe we'll start having events to promote and news to report to the Messengers.  Huzzah!  Anyone who has a SL account, I am Ghaelen Winnikow and I would love to hear from you.  I'm also Ghaelen in There, so let me know if you are There, too.   

[ghaelen]

The Retreat is coming along very nicely.  I've spent some furious time trying to build enough in there so we can invite others to visit.  With Tailahr's help (and lots of it!) I can safely say the space is now far enough along that I can go back to some RL obligations.  Jane has been very enthusiastic about learning to build.  I'm interested to see what she creates!

There are three levels so far ready to use for sitting or gathering.  Ruby joined us (hopefully we can talk her into working with LC to start a storytelling circle...) and brought a very nice traveling cart that seemed quite appropriate for a group of traveling healers.  Several folks who had been to the surface at Eder D'uru mentioned how well her cart would fit there, and to our delight we discovered that part of our space includes a spot on the surface.  So be sure to visit Ruby in the desert on the surface.  You can get a landmark from her or I or just fly up and up until you hit the roof then look for the water and enter it from below just like the traveler in Riven. 

For anyone who is interested in building, we haven't used all of our prims, and there's room for creativity on any of the four levels.  I'm a pretty good landscaper and terrain designer, but actual buildings from me end up looking like trees or caves or groves or whatever.   We could use a couple fire pits, one on the plateau and one on the surface near Ruby's cart.  They will enhance our gatherings or meditation sessions as well as that storytelling circle LC and Ruby are going to get started....  /laughingoutloud

We're starting to plan regular and special events for Eder D'uru residents and the wider SL explorer community.  The Healing Uru event sounds like fun...  Jane has been enthusiastic about the reatreat.... maybe I can talk her into working with Tai and LC about preparations and music for that one.... /lookshopeful  I could work with other healers in regard to writing a healing script for text and voice chat, too. 

[Tailahr]

Well, now that you're all settled in... 

I wonder if any of you would be interested in participating in the Eder D'Uru July "Journey."  I started doing these monthly journeys as a bit of entertainment to draw visitors to the sim, and by leading them to various locations, show and tell them about us.  (The current journey has a fictitious character, "Emmett Dale" giving visitors a tour of the surface and alluding to mysterious events that happened there in the past.)

But, the July Journey is going to be all about our residents.  I'm taking their pictures and making cutouts which will talk to the visitor in text.  The cutouts will be placed on their parcel or favorite location in the sim.  I'm thinking that this would be a good opportunity for the Healers to inform visitors about the new retreat.  If you're interested, I can give you more information in SL.

[ghaelen]

That would be kind of fun, provided we don't ourselves have to be there at all times???
I guess I wasn't sure how it worked.  I'll let you take my picture after I find a new face... this one is beginning to scare me. 

So... we just decide what our cut-out self is going to say and then you put that text on it?  Like Dudemom's statements when she yells at the kids to stop fighting in the car?

[Jane]

The Retreat is coming along very nicely.  I've spent some furious time trying to build enough in there so we can invite others to visit.  With Tailahr's help (and lots of it!) I can safely say the space is now far enough along that I can go back to some RL obligations.  Jane has been very enthusiastic about learning to build.  I'm interested to see what she creates!

Jane needs to create her Dagda homework before she's fit to create anything for the retreat, lol.  I got derailed a bit last week & have fallen behind, but hope to catch up soon!  Of course by then LC will have used up all the prims on plants & pink flamingos.   (I love the flamingo.)

We're starting to plan regular and special events for Eder D'uru residents and the wider SL explorer community.  The Healing Uru event sounds like fun...  Jane has been enthusiastic about the reatreat.... maybe I can talk her into working with Tai and LC about preparations and music for that one.... /lookshopeful  I could work with other healers in regard to writing a healing script for text and voice chat, too. 

Yes I'd be happy to help set up the Healing Uru event.  Maybe we need to have a meeting for that one?

[ghaelen]

I must say the ideas are flowing fast and furious now, and I've been hard pressed to regulate time spent on implementing various projects.  I'm amazed I've gotten my homework done amidst the building, website modifications, and sudden urge to talk about everything and anything I'm doing as a member of the Healers.  Having somewhere to sit and meditate has done wonderful things for my mental health, even as my little voice keeps poking me in the side of the head and saying "dissertate! dissertate!"  I am, in fact, dissertating, too!  Huzzah!

As long as that is moving forward, I feel free to move other things forward.  A wee change today in images (see them?).  A bit of a contribution to other forums, too, finally.  And the storytelling (that group I keep mentioning) is starting up, I can feel it.  I just hope they tell me where it is....  /giggle

Btw, there is a thread for Retreat specific experiences which has been a lot of fun to add to.