The combination of illness and the death of Lionheart somehow made me less than enthusiastic about Second Life for awhile. One has a finite amount of time to spend in ANY world, after all. When I mourn, I do so alone. Somehow, Second Life no longer seemed to be any sort of haven of peace... part of this is the natural guilt one feels when any loved one dies. One wonders if one could have spent more time with the loved one, if one cheated the loved one and oneself as well by diverting attention elsewhere. Yes, Lionheart was a cat and moreover, one who was fairly independent for the most part, but grief has its own ways and its own calendar.
A misadventure in Second Life then 'lost' my virtual cat and destroyed a little garden I had created for him. This made me even less inclined to visit Second Life...
Then I realised that all the reasons I had been drawn to Second Life in the first place surely remained valid, and many of them were aspects of 'healing' and 'meditation'.
I visited my chapel again. Having received a notice about some new cygnets created by a favourite artist, I acquired one and set it with the adults. The female immediately 'adopted' it, and I received a statement to this effect! I was thrilled by the creative mind that conceived of this and made it a reality. It reminded me that Second Life is a mirror of the imagination of every sort of human, including those who are filled with love of all creatures, compassion and a childlike sense of wonder and magic.
The artists who had created my original virtual cat now have created a 'cuddle cat' that you can hold in your arms, pet and kiss. The original virtual cat was a brown tabby but these are of all different colours and breeds. I chose a Siamese...
Standing on the shore of a virtual sea, watching the tiny cygnet and the pair of black swans, holding my little Siamese in my arms as a virtual sun set and threw a shimmering path across the waters, my heart awakened anew to life...
Another artist with considerable talent in animation has created a sandcastle with animations that allow the avatar actually to 'build' the castle in the sand. It reminds me of a Zen rock garden in a way. The act of watching my avatar build a sandcastle is a form of meditation. My heartbeat slows gradually and I am lulled into peace and quietude. I almost can feel the grit of the sand beneath my fingernails, taste the tang of salt on my lips, hear the lullaby of the waves...
It is not real, but it is not false either. It is a moment of the imagination, a means by which we can touch the best or the worst within ourselves if we choose to do so. I once perceived Second Life as a means by which to draw closer to the Divine. Nothing has changed. It is all a matter of motivation.
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