Thinking of loved ones

Two people who are very dear to me are seriously ill right now.

One is a young man, father of two, who was due for an operation next week, but due to the serious nature of his illness will now be going for his operation on Friday.

The other is a very old man, who's frail body is slowly giving in, despite his mind being as alert as ever.

I cannot help either of them, other than offer love and support.
This is life.
Full of sorrow and happiness, health and sickness in equal measure, harsh and cruel as well as beautiful.
The past weeks have brought this home hard. I recognise this, but its still difficult to deal with sometimes, our individual insignificance in the nature of the world as a million sorrows are played out under the sky.

Tonight is Beltane, my favorite festival of the year, a time to light the fires for the coming summer, a time of love and fertility, the promise of things to come.
But what awaits us I wonder, as we stride or stumble forward, perhaps the Gods and Mother Nature know.
The path ahead doesn't seem as bright this year.

Decisions

So, I have made some important choices, which hopefully sort things out a little.
I wont be leaving SL altogether, simply cutting down my time there.
I have sent a note out to the order asking if anyone would be interested in becoming Speaker , or if anyone wishes to suggest another person they think suitable. Already I have received a couple of suggestions.
I will stay and get the new person or persons set up, and will remain as a cleric of Triskele and Parlamay, but be able to cut down the time inworld.
I have had a request to hold a cleric meeting, as I think that those in the guild want to know whats happening. But as I have been away I am not sure myself what the status is with our Divine Emissary and the guild. I will try and get inworld a bit this weekend and find out.
I have a small island in Triskele which I have been landscaping, and I think Wren will most likely become a kind of 'cleric of the isle', helping those who visit and quietly growing herbs and sitting by the fire *smiles*

Moving on

I thought I should let you all know that I am seriously considering giving up on Second Life all together.
I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the place, and as the summer gets nearer and the days get longer, I feel the need to spend my free time outside rather than on the computer.
I have been feeling stressed at the idea of coming inworld, and a lot of the fun seems to have gone. I have enough worry in my real life without adding to it with my second life.
There are other reasons of course, and many things and people will be sad to say goodbye to, and part of me feels gut-wrenchingly sad at the thought of leaving, but I thought you should all know how I am thinking at the moment.
Still thinking it through though.
Wren

Brief note from holiday

Greetings all from my fancy hotel!
They have Internet connection in the lobby, so I couldn't resist a wee note to you all.
The hotel is all business suits and briefcases so unfortunately we don't fit in as we are all walking boots and woolly jumpers, but the breakfast is good and they have a small pool so the kids are happy.
We seem to have crammed in a million things in the last few days and my feet ache, but we have all had fun.
Back home tomorrow and back to work on Friday... boo.
See you all soon.
Wren

I have had a couple of meetings in SL the last few weeks with a most interesting person. His SL name is Soren Ferlinghetti, and I referred briefly to his survey in a previous post.
He is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, and has been doing some research into virtual worlds, religion and AI.
I have really enjoyed discussing our world with him, he has prompted me to look closely at what I do in SL, what I believe in in RL and how these things meld together (or not), and he seems like a nice guy too.
If your interested you can take his survey here:

http://home.manhattan.edu/~robert.geraci/SLSurvey.html

it only takes a short time to do, you don't have to be religious to do it and the results could be most revealing.
I think he has missed out a few questions which I would be interested in exploring, however the idea's in it are good.

I suspect I will be blogging about some of the things he has got me thinking about soon.
I really like getting a bit of brain ache looking at all this *chuckles*

Off on holiday with the family for a few days now, see you all soon!