What in this community has helped you open up?
Posted on Feb 22nd, 2008
by 
synonym for light
synonym for light
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for February 22, 2008:
This sort of thing -- Owais' Poem about Farland. and all the great people I have encountered here who are so open and giving of themselves. Most days, when I read my email, I look for stuff from gaia first. Who has posted a new blog? What's happened in those conversations on blogs I've also commented on? Do I have a new comment from a friend? It feels like walking into a yoga studio where you know you are going to see someone you are glad to see and you'll have time to talk and interact before and after and you also know that you will be given your space and quiet time once you enter the yoga room. It's a perfect balanced mix of together but spacious. There's plenty of room to grow and breathe while interacting on a number of levels.
Access: Public
change
August 2008 
Wow, if I remember right, that was pretty much the stated intention of this community, wasn't it? And you are so right, they're succeeding in building just want was intended I think. I do just what you do - I read lots and lots of things online, but I come here first and most often, and this is the only site that feels personal for me, a community.
I don't know that I've needed help in opening up exactly, but this is the first place I've kept a blog, and doing that felt weird to me for quite a while - I think even though I read other people's blogs, I still didn't quite get it. Felt like, for me, babbling on and on was rude somehow, like I was the person at the party who just wouldn't shut up…now I think it's a very nice part of my life and it's finally sunk in that no one reads if they don't feel like it. Whew! That's been quite a relief, just by itself.
And the friend thing? I'm amazed by how many people that I haven't met yet in the so-called real world feel like true friends, not in the sense of a network of connections online, but like what the word means in the rest of life. I'm very impressed and grateful, and you're one of the people I'm especially grateful for, so thank you for being here - and true to your name, being so full of light!
rapunzel – you are so good at saying exactly what I mean!!! heehee. thank YOU for being a friend. you rock. I'd love to pull up a couple of those rockin' chairs, yank them right out of the perfect row and have a good conversation with you while sippin' a couple a cupps a tea.
The image which came to mind as I was reading your post was of a “Moms and Tots,” swimming class. The positive and encouraging attitude of friends, like you, is like a mother's safe arms reaching up, encouraging their fledgling swimmer to face their fears and jump into the pool. Some of us jump gleefully. Some hesitate. Others burst out crying. Yet, eventually, we “take the plunge,” open ourselves up, and risk being vulnerable. Though the nurturing of our “friends” we come home to realize the child and the mother are One in the Same.
Blessings and Good Morning ,
you are too sweet to say this dear friend, well me too reading your compelling and graspeable writings is much loved by me on this community. hey Thank you very much because you gave that link for accumulating grains alternately by responding meaning of words, perhaps interesting and addicting game of vocabulary.
wishing you a much filled with beatitude, soothings and playful weekend with your kins n husband harmoniously and lovingly, sending your way indian vibes and warm greetings and pure blessings !
NAMASKAR DAWNJEE ,
-OWAIS
I come to this place, this little box where I type words, words in response to words in other little boxes just above this one, and in response to the post itself, and somehow I come away warm and fulfilled in a way that is ever new and wonderful. Is this weird? There is no substitute for physical presence, none, but I never expected that virtual presence would be so important to me. Yeah, I guess it is weird. Oh hell, I don't care! There is an opening up, an advance into a whole theater of vulnerability that might otherwise be bone-bare, stripped of any ornamentation. I do have real friends here, ones I have and haven't met in the flesh, and my world is a better place for it.
owais - I read and loved your fishpoem. I don't commonly phish (hehehe) for friends, but expect an invitation in your email….;-)
Albert
I'm speechless friends. I luff ya, all a ya. :-)
In this funny world when I am seeing you tonight ( I can't wait! I'l bring something other than Scott) writing here in these little squares is an added way of communicating and communication is good more is better! I love you all. I am beginnig to think that this kind, like Gaia, without all the distractions of our daily lives brought into the mix because we are chosing our times and spaces, is very much more like cave people sitting around the fire telling stories. Does that make sense?
Farland - oh yes, maybe I should build a hearth around my monitor…
to imagine us all sitting around the fire in the cozy cave of our virtual damanhur makes me want to choose my posts even more carefully, so to add to the wonderful ambiance something good and yummy. I want to tell really, really good stories while I'm sitting around the fire with great friends. It inspires my creativity. It's good for my brain. it's good for my heart. it makes me even want to live a more interesting life when I'm away from the computer, so I'll have some good stories to tell. it makes me want to take better photos to share, so that increases my creativity. and I love seeing what all of you are doing creatively. you guys are muse-ical. :-)
And with us sitting naked skin clad around the fire there is no story that is not the story there is no image that is not the image that is what is so good about this. (And we get to dress up all nice fancy tonight for dinner at Phat Thai!)
I wish I hadn't had to turn into a pumpkin so early that night at Phat Thai! that was a grand time! even adam had a good time. did I ask you what was in that fabulous bowl of stuff that adam was eating? the one you ordered but that they mixed up? I want to cook that next time we're all eating here. but I don't know what it's called.
It was a green curry with Chicken I have the green curry mix in a little jar you can use. I'll be up in Snowmass on Friday
takk fyrir!
Farland, how did you know that I'm sitting naked in front of my computer-hearth?
I'm looking for the hidden cameras now…
Ummm, Farland, would you please email me some green curry chicken? Pretty please?
Jeannie - you do realize that if you find the camera it'll no longer be hidden, right? What's the fun in that?