Dillon Levenque Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Sylvia Tamalyn wrote: It was a very special night indeed, Dillon, and I love your post! For me, one of the blissful moments of that evening was when you and I brought out our katanas...now that is going to sound odd to anyone who was not there, but you know what I mean! I am blessed with many blissful moments in SL, too many to post photos of them all, but here is a very recent one. :smileyhappy: I've been looking at that picture in my 'Reply' section for about three minutes, trying to think of something to say. Mmmm. That was the best I could do. Sometimes a picture is not only worth a thousand words, but makes words irrelevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Quinn Morani wrote: If you're sappy, Dillon, I'm sappy right along with you. I am sorry that I only just now saw this wonderful thread. I don't think Lillie had any idea Friday night, when she invited me over to listen to her sing and said to bring Maddy and Celestiall along, that it was going to turn into the magical evening that it did. I didn't want it to end. Quinn, everyone already knew you were sappy; there was no need to mention it here. Thank you for posting and I have taken a peek at your flickr pictures too; I love that you put the chat stuff in there (I even saw the 'magical' comment!). And you are absolutely right: Lillie was beyond lovely. The good news is—I just got all caught up! I've answered everyone who posted since I last had a chance to get online, and by the way thank you all. Your contributions have kept that good feeling I had when I wrote the OP going in me and I hope in everyone who has read your posts. It's a special place we have here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mags Indigo Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Dillon Levenque wrote: Mags Indigo wrote: I have had a few such moments in my SL - though sadly not lately. I remember when escort clubs (like your Las Princesas) were not wholly about sex but about making friends and being in good company - that was before voice and cam made it all a bit too 'real'. :smileysad: Thanks, Mags. You are imagining the club exactly as it was. There were no poseballs and it was considered gauche to actually say things in open chat to someone about an encounter. Of course the regular open chat would make a sailor blush, but that was all just us having fun. I can tell from what you said that you know exactly what I mean. I'm glad to see you back on the Forums after a couple of weeks away. We missed you. Edited for spelling *Waves - some threads can't be ignored. Great thread Dillon - maybe it's just a 'certain generation' in SL - but this thread made me smile a lot today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lillie Woodells Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 Dillon and everyone else who gave shared such wonderful, touching, funny, and special moments, thank you! Your sweet words and open hearts brought tears to my eyes. We each contributed in some way to making that night what it was. I know it would not have been the same without my dear friends gathered around me. I have had a few moments like that. Friday night was one of them. One moment that touched me deeply and sticks in my head was a lazy afternoon, leaving my pc logged into SL while my av laid with her head in the lap of someone very special and dear to my heart. It was a beautiful moment to me. I will never understand why, but I cherish it. Thank you my dear friends! (I'm sorry my words are not very sophisticated tonight) love you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted June 5, 2011 Author Share Posted June 5, 2011 Lillie Woodells wrote: Dillon and everyone else who gave shared such wonderful, touching, funny, and special moments, thank you! Your sweet words and open hearts brought tears to my eyes. We each contributed in some way to making that night what it was. I know it would not have been the same without my dear friends gathered around me. I have had a few moments like that. Friday night was one of them. One moment that touched me deeply and sticks in my head was a lazy afternoon, leaving my pc logged into SL while my av laid with her head in the lap of someone very special and dear to my heart. It was a beautiful moment to me. I will never understand why, but I cherish it. Thank you my dear friends! (I'm sorry my words are not very sophisticated tonight) love you all! Sophisticated is not required. And besides, if you look back to Page 1 you will see that Valerie, as one would expect, has combined sophistication with heart in a way that none of us can match. There is just something about those French girls. Thank you, for inviting us over. But more to the point of this thread, thank you for the vignette of your av with her head in the lap of a special person. That's even more to the point of the thread; you weren't even actually at the keyboard the whole time, but in your mind you knew where you were in SL and why. Lovely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinn Morani Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Sylvia Tamalyn wrote: Quinn, your album is fantastic! It was wonderful going through all the pics and reading the chat snippets that you added...you did an awesome job capturing the spirit of the evening! And I also want to thank Lillie...she's always a fabulous hostess and I love hearing her sing, but on this particular night, I think she sounded even more beautiful than usual...and the music she gave us was a huge part of what made the night so special. Thank you, Sylvia. Combing through the chat log trying to capture the relevant chat to accompany some of the pics took a fair bit of time, but it was so worth the effort. There was a lot of other hilarious chat that didn't make the cut only because it didn't exactly fit any of the pictures. I thought about posting the full chat transcript from the night somewhere, but then I realized that probably everyone has in their chat logs already anyway. I think that somehow last night I got dubbed the group's historian. I'll do my best to live up to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinn Morani Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Dillon Levenque wrote: Quinn, everyone already knew you were sappy; there was no need to mention it here. Rats. I thought I was hiding it so well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Ahren Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 It's a quote from a book entitled "Ilusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach. A more complete quotation of the relevant portion is: "Richard, don't forget what you did today. It is easy to forget our times of knowing, to think they've been dreams or old miracles, one time. Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream. " "The world is a dream, you say, and it's lovely, sometimes. Sunset. Clouds. Sky." "No. The image is a dream. The beauty is real. Can you see the difference?" I think what it means is that beauty is something we create. It's a matter of perception. If you perceive something as beautiful then it is for you. This brings up the question of what is meant by insanity. To those who cannot hear the music, the dancing man seems crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 Randall Ahren wrote: It's a quote from a book entitled "Ilusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach. A more complete quotation of the relevant portion is: "Richard, don't forget what you did today. It is easy to forget our times of knowing, to think they've been dreams or old miracles, one time. Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream. ""The world is a dream, you say, and it's lovely, sometimes. Sunset. Clouds. Sky." "No. The image is a dream. The beauty is real. Can you see the difference?" I think what it means is that beauty is something we create. It's a matter of perception. If you perceive something as beautiful then it is for you. This brings up the question of what is meant by insanity. To those who cannot hear the music, the dancing man seems crazy. Wow. I've never read it, nor have I heard of Richard Bach. Wiith the added lines I think I may be less in tune with what he meant than before. I think I need to read the whole thing to put that in its proper context. But if your interpretation is correct (and that's how I interpreted the quote when you first posted) then yes. I believe someone did say something about 'the eye of the beholder'; might be a boring old expression but that doesn't make it any less valid. When I said I wasn't quite sure what you meant I was talking about "You had me at t-girl". I have the idea that you probably meant that none of that matters; it's who we are and how we think and how we treat each other that is important. But that's just what I think. To be perfectly honest, I just liked the line and from where I'm standing it needs no explanation; it can stand on its own merit. If I ever run across you inworld I'll maybe ask for an explanation but only if there's a good restaurant nearby. I get the feeling you are a philosopher and I sometimes have trouble keeping up with them. I like to be able to fall back on things like, "My, this is really a lovely chardonnay". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinn Morani Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 I've been thinking about this thread since I first read it this afternoon. The events I've already mentioned (the parties at Lillie's and Hippiestock) are really significant to me because of their sense of being a part of something bigger than myself. That makes them epic, and I love that. But there are others that have significance to me on a more personal level because they reinforce the sense of affinity I feel with individual friends. One of those is when Snugs outed my RL birthday in the forum last year and Maddy put out a banner and cake at the Forum Cartel Hangout for the occasion. I didn't expect to plan to celebrate my birthday on the forum or in SL that day, but watching the birthday greetings on that thread all day and then an impromptu gathering at the Hangout that night made me smile all day long. That little something to celebrate a milestone day felt really special. The other times when I experience bliss are when I'm engaged in meaningful one-on-one conversations with friends. I love the relationship building and deepening of friendships that occurs when I'm learning more about people in such talks. That makes me happier than anything else in SL, and my biggest frustration in SL is not having more time for such conversations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Ahren Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Dillon Levenque wrote: When I said I wasn't quite sure what you meant I was talking about "You had me at t-girl".... I like to be able to fall back on things like, "My, this is really a lovely chardonnay". My fall back is jokes of a sexual nature. With the t-girl line, I was paraphrasing Dorthy's line from Jerry Maguire: You had me at hello. Be careful in SL. It does to your mind what spring does to cherry trees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amana1488303110 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Yeah! Bliss in its most delightfull illusion. Even for the most deluded.. :matte-motes-nerdy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 Thank you :-). I hadn't expected this to turn into the 'loving embrace' thread but it seems that bliss is a common theme in that regard. Who knew? I love the picture and I thank you for posting it. A friend of mine used the expression uber-cute about something; I'm pretty sure she'd use it here. Thanks so much to all of you who have given me, and everyone who has looked at this thread, a little slice of your happiness. I only started this because i was feeling so good; there was no selfish intent. But the result has been that I've kept that feeling all along just seeing what all of you have written. I hope there's more when I come back and look tomorrow, but if not I will still have this little treasury of warmth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amana1488303110 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 When you started the thread and you defined what Bliss was I was in agreement with you. But the cynic in me tells me that it won't take long before this would turn into a love thread and it did.. lol... But it holds true, people defined Bliss when they think they have reach the perfect moment at the right time. Most of us who are in love with Love will define Bliss as when they are in the arms of a love one, whether the feeling was as real as RL or something that they forced (or not) themselves to believe in, is a different subject to discuss, perhaps in a Delusional vs. Illusional Thread or something. My picture was taken with a friend of mine who knows how to have fun in SL. Amana is always in anime avatar and my friend, he loves to change as much as he can. This was him in his android form. I thought this might be a good place to post since most you are posting pictures of couples dancing... teehee... How do I define Bliss. My idea of perfection is being in the nature. That would mean green lush countryside, smell of spring flowers, the sound of gentle waves, crickets at night, early songs of the morning birds, the smell of after rain, the sweetness of wild berries. I also experienced moment of Bliss listening the laughter of my family in RL while having our usual morning breakfast with fresh breads and milk and bright morning light. Bliss when I was sitting on top of a hill overlooking the sea while having my special one in RL hugging me from behind, nuzzling my neck and whispered sweet nothing to my ear and the fresh smell of his colonge. Bliss is when I am at peace with myself, with nothing to worry, no obligations, no pretense and as real as it is. Bliss isn't just what you perceived in your mind, Bliss to me can only be truly achieved when all 5 senses are met... and it that sense, Bliss is Real Life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishtara Rothschild Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Dillon Levenque wrote in part: ... There were no mind-altering drugs in evidence ... Oh, I'm sure there were a lot of those All naturally produced by your body and brain. All you need to do in order to produce some mind-altering chemicals is to smile. Being blissfully happy works even better of course. But even a forced smile will give you an endorphine kick, and it will do the same to everyone around you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted June 6, 2011 Author Share Posted June 6, 2011 Ishtara Rothschild wrote: Dillon Levenque wrote in part: ... There were no mind-altering drugs in evidence ... Oh, I'm sure there were a lot of those All naturally produced by your body and brain. All you need to do in order to produce some mind-altering chemicals is to smile. Being blissfully happy works even better of course. But even a forced smile will give you an endorphine kick, and it will do the same to everyone around you. Smiling now, ain't I? Thanks :smileyhappy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melita Magic Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Dillon Levenque wrote: Wow. I've never read it, nor have I heard of Richard Bach. Oh highly recommended. Met him once (book signing) he has the most beautiful and sincere smile I've ever seen. Just underscored that his books are from a real place inside the writer. Some may find it all a little hippy-dippy in these cynical times, but his books are highly recommended reading anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 Dillon, it's been nearly three months since that evening. Some of the detail has faded into the mist, but it is a keeper. It was a transcendent experience. I can fall into SL much like I fall into a good book or movie or a Barbie in her little pink Dream Boat, but with a difference. Books and movies are the frozen constructions of other minds. I might sail away on one, identifying with one character and viewing the others from an adopted perspective, but I cannot man the tiller. Barbie's boat goes where I alone command it, and nowhere else. In SL, we can all grab the tiller and sometimes, hand on hand, we go places none of us could have imagined alone, places (this is important) that are aware of us. We can and do make connections to each other and our own past experiences that lift us above the ordinary. I'll relate two of my lasting memories from that evening in June… By mid evening, we'd built quite a crowd, dancing out on the beach. Lillie rezzed some empty snow globes and moved them around in the sand to capture us like fireflies or precious collectibles. The moment I saw them encircle us, I felt Lillie's presence… and not in a small way. With just those pixel props and some movement, Lillie had conveyed an understanding of her friendship with us. An understanding we shared as we huddled closer in the globes. Later in the evening, Keli (our happy faerie), backed her Millennium Falcon out of the garage (without ripping off the rear view mirror, I might add) and extended our dance floor into the sky. Celestiall (our hard charging intellect), others, and I climbed onto the roof and did our best to maintain our poise as Keli tried to sweep us off our feet. Though some of us were able to dance through the entire aerial ballet, we were all truly swept away. As Keli deftly parked the Falcon beneath the palm fronds, I felt the ocean breeze on my arms. This is the power of pixels under the direction of people. That personalities so different as Keli, Celestiall and I could all come away from that experience with the feeling we'd shared something special is indeed special. I am well aware that our pixel people are not us. They are tools to tell our stories, like pen on paper or oil on canvas. Our artistry varies by degree, but we make a go of it nonetheless and sometimes the result is... Bliss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillon Levenque Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 Madelaine, I am so glad that you have decided to grace the forum and moved beyond words that you chose to start here. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lillie Woodells Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 Maddy, you captured it beautifully. You knew what I was thinking as I moved those globes around, the mixture of emotions that blended together that no words could encompass. You managed to convey it here. I never shared with anyone what my heart was saying to me as I put them out, but you knew. What you have described here is what we know of SL. The family that we've formed and come to look forward to spending time with for a short while each night. My time in SL is about being with that family. Being connected though apart. That is a concept that came to me while you and I were discussing that very night some time later. I quoted you in my profile pics because what you said touched home so beautifully. You said "...we needn't all be physically together to "connect" and to be part of something larger than ourselves. Even if that something larger is a nutty night on your sim. Each of us was pulled through the glass into that shared experience." This is what it is all about. We can't all be together in real life, but we can and do in SL. We can share things that we aren't necessarily able to in real life. We can hold each others hands and be part of an atmosphere that we create together. It's all very amazing. I think about what you said in your post here a lot. We are all different from different places, and different backgrounds, yet we all are touched by many of the same things. This is how it should be. I am tremendously grateful for the friendships I've formed and for the love I feel. It is bliss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinn Morani Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 /me sighs Maddy always did have a way with words. Welcome back, Maddy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinn Morani Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Since this thread has now been officially necroposted, I'd like to add another contribution. This is something I originally wrote in my own blog on July 1 (one of only two posts I've made there, and the only one of substance). I should have put it here in this very thread, and I am correcting that oversight right now. This isn't the blog post I meant to write. The post I started out to write was supposed to be a reflection on an opportunity I had last weekend to hang out with a group of people different from my normal crowd, and the universal traits of camaraderie and kinship I saw there. I was going to write about how even though I didn't have a history with that group to be "in" on much of the conversation, I was very much struck by some similarities with my own gang of friends. The personalities and the topics of conversation and the subjects of friendly ribbing may have been different, but the fact that this group had a shared history and genuine delight in the company of one another was exactly the same. It warmed my heart to see that such connections are alive and well in Second Life outside of my own little cocoon. That's what I was going to write. But this isn't that post. It isn't that post because something took place last night that superseded any of those reflections. Last night my "regular" group and that other group came together for the joint purpose of celebrating a special friend we share in common. And even now, a day later, it makes me emotional to recall just how much that unity, and the entire surprise evening of friends lavishing attention and heartfelt speeches and belated birthday wishes, touched and moved our mutual friend on so many levels. Knowing that you've been a part of of giving someone else such a moment of joy (or Bliss, as the friend in question might say), is utterly priceless. And I was moved nearly to tears myself over all the selfless love that was shown last night. I don't think I've ever felt so acutely the emotions normally associated with RL friendships played out in SL. It's moments like last night that justify every second I spend in Second Life. I wouldn't trade my SL friends or the memories I have made with them for anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valerie Inshan Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Maddy, waking up up this morning and seeing your name, reading your post, sensing the beauty of your words: this is bliss. Especially today. Thanks to be back posting, Madelaine. Yes, I feel blissed by your presence and beautiful mind. Please let me hug you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charolotte Caxton Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Takes M's hand and leads her back to her room. That's so wonderful of you to post again, dear. Here is your tea and your pills, you won't wander out again, right? Here's some pretty pictures to keep you happy. Now get some rest luv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Thank you, C. Where would I be without you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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