Module #3 - "MINGLING" - Fall 2020

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Welcome to the Module 03 "Mingling" thread! This is about getting to interact with one another as classmates, particularly about themes from the lesson and your corresponding class work if that speaks to you. Those who post their Monologue or Manifestation may provide helpful prompts for discussion points. While you're welcome to mingle as much as you like, each of your first three 50+ word posts you will receive 5 points. When submitting your work, please let me know if you've posted once, twice, or three (or more) times so I can confirm participation. As a fun option, you may choose to Role-Play these interactions though are not required to. If you do, please take a look at this RPGuidelines page for some helpful tips.

November is upon us, and Sindor is giddy for the upcoming month. Everything from Día de los Muertos, further celebration of life and death, to the yummy food and time with friends and family. This year has been a little different, so there may not be QUITE so many interactions with friends and family compared to normal, but even Muggles have enough technology these days to stay in touch, and there will be PLENTY of delicious treats.

Sin is a pretty classic "Thanksgiving" eater when it comes to the types of food he likes. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce. The standard pumpkin pie with whipped cream! The list goes on and on, but you get the idea. And on top of all of that, his birthday falls on November 20th!

He doesn't have any particular plans this year, "But last year I went to go see 'Princess Mononoke,' one of my favorites, by myself at a local cinema where they had a screening," he tells those nearby enough to be a part of the conversation. "So I might do something similar this year. Now we've since moved close enough to where there's even a theatre that is also a restaurant so you can eat a meal while you watch the show. Been a while since I've done something like that! Will have to keep an eye on what they're playing over the next few weeks."

"Happy November, class!" Professor Aloyarc addresses the rest of the group as he ushers a few stragglers from just outside the doorway to come in and find a place. "Since there's a lot of transitional energy this month, and much to be grateful for (in spite of the craziness of 2020), I'd love to hear from all of you the types of things you're looking forward to ahead. Be they certain people you can't wait to see, or traditions you typically uphold, or food you tend to make or just CAN'T WAIT to get a mouthful of? I know one of my aunt's always brings one of those cheesecakes made mostly out of sweetened up cream cheese, and frankly as simple as it is it's one of the best desserts I've ever tried! Sadly that's probably not gonna be a part of my menu this year. Althoooough, I suppose I could simply whip one up myself. That would be fun!"

[February Fortescue]

"Absolutely, I love Thanksgiving, too!" February smiles, thinking back on so many family traditions. She smiles at Sin and shares her story with the class. "One of my cousins owns a big farm and loves to cook. Every Thanksgiving, Paulette fixes a typical dinner, with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a delicious pastry called Baklava. My brother and I share the meal with her and her husband, as does her sister, Ann, and her Ann's spouse. I always bring my two dogs, a Poodle and a Hound mix. Ann brings her two Cocker Spaniels. Paulette has four dogs of her own: a Maltese, a Shih Tzu, a Golden Retriever, and a black Lab. Plus, she has one cat

Yes, you heard correctly! Eight dogs and one cat. And they all get along " February can't help but smile. Being surrounded by the fur friends is definitely one of her favorite parts of Thanksgiving. She continues

"After everyone has eaten, we settle down into the living room for coffee, conversation, and cuddles with the all the furry critters. It's simply a perfect day, being with the people I love."

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Tarma walks in a trifle late, and was able to hear the tail end of what Sindor said, then heard what February said. While thoughts of cheesecake wafted through her mind (and her stomach growled), she smiled at the idea of having so many dogs (and one cat!) all in a group.

Tarma sits at an empty chair by the windows, and looks out the window at the driving rain. When a lull in conversation came about, she says "I've always considered Thanksgiving a wonderful reminder - to give thanks for just being alive. While I'm not too fond of the actual holiday in the States (consider me a kind of Wednesday of Addams Family Values), the idea, the concept, is really nifty.

"It ties in with the lesson, too, of choices." She looks at Sindor. "I really liked this sentence in your lesson: "This decisive energy is about discerning what we say yes to and what we say no to." It's all about choices."

[February Fortescue]

February is deep into her reverie. She loves this time of year. It reminds her of the warmth of get togethers and seasonal festivities. This year will be a bit more of a challenge, though, and very different from the pervious years, but she'd make the best of it.

Tarma's voice draws her out of her daydream. She makes a really good point! February thinks to herself.

"I agree with you on that one, Tarma. Life presents us with so many choices! It's kind of like a game of cards. We get dealt a hand. For most of us, we're strong in some suits, average in some, and weak in others. We use the cards in our hand to respond to the other cards in the game and the cards of those around us. I choose to focus on my strong suits and say yes to those who support my goals, and while I can't ignore the weak suits, if I can find a way to lessen their harm, or find a way to say no and pull them out of my hand of cards, I will. I also believe that, if everyone plays fairly and not to harm others, we all deserve to win and should help each other out."

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Tarma listens to February, and doesn't answer immediately because she's thinking of something she'd read that morning.
Finally, she says "I'm not ignoring you, February. I was trying to remember the words for what I'd read this morning. I think I have it ...
”This isn’t about me. I didn’t wage this fight. I didn’t pick this fight. I don’t understand this fight. I’m not going to think about this fight, and I’m not going to use it as my excuse to not feel good any more.”
I'm not certain how much of it I agree with, but something in it sounds true to me."
She grins at February. "I think the hardest thing for me to understand about it is not 'thinking' about it but maybe it's just a thing of thinking about it gives it energy to continue to exist? Or maybe it is that if I don't think about it, don't resonate to that vibration (by thinking about it), and choose to think of things which are wonderful, that it is like taking a piece of velcro off of me and it can't stick?"


[OOC: I literally JUST read that ....]

[February Fortescue]

"Ah, do you mean like refocusing your energy on the things you choose to allow in your life? That's a great philosophy! My personal favorite quote, and one I could never live up to, comes from actor Anthony Hopkins:

"My personal philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier."

I think he knows himself, good and bad, accepts himself and others completely, and then makes a free choice about how he wants to live his life and what he chooses to say YES to."

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Tarma claps her hands. "I love that! Yes, I really like that. It's somehow more direct and personal."
She tilts her head and looks at February. "Why do you think you could never do that? Is that something that your head came up with, judging yourself as incapable of it? Or is that from your inner self, your ... what do you say? Gut? Heart?"

[February Fortescue]

February thinks for a moment. "For me, it would be the pinnacle of freedom. To see myself and others clearly, accept them and myself for who we are, and then make a free choice as to how I want to live my life and what I choose to say YES to. It's the end goal. I want to be there. But I tend to react too much. I just know I need a whole lot of work "

[Brianna Caedmon]

Brianna walks into the classroom, followed by Cleo and Orion who have evidently decided they like it here. She catches the end of what seems to be a truly very interesting conversation, and decides to add her thoughts:

"I also think it's very important to focus your energy on what you choose to let into your life, rather than simply react to everything. It's something I've been working on for a while now, but it is really very difficult. I often find myself sort of falling into this trap of getting caught up in daily life and I just forget that I do actually have a choice when it comes t what I focus my energy on."

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Sin is enjoying conversations about the energies of things like choice and freedom. “Oof, yeah, the practice of being creative rather than reactive has been a big one for me too.”

He cringes a little, while partially wanting to laugh at some memories. Particularly from his childhood, though truth be told even just thinking back on this morning. “Can be hard living with a choice made reactively without wanting to push responsibility off onto something (or someone) else. Slowly been coming to terms with that more and more over the years.”

“I feel like I used to be more reactive than I am now, but also a lot less self conscious and mindful. The benefit of that being I had a lot less stress and anxiety over what I would say or do, with the downside being I was also arguably often overconfident, even arrogant in my lack of awareness.”

“Kinda seems like what changed for me was going from simply *believing* in Unity consciousness and then beginning to experiencing/Know what that really means on at least some semblance of a deeper level.” He ponders. “I always felt like I was a kind and empathetic person, but it wasn’t until I started waking up to my own lack of understanding in many ways that the pieces started connecting together and it changed the way I view my interactions and relationships. These days, I work on being mindful without beating myself or others up upon moments of reflection. I’m a lot better about it than I was upon first coming to terms with some of this stuff, but a work in progress is putting it nicely!”

Now, Sindor’s face does crinkle into a full blown smile as a thought occurs to him. “It’s so funny to me that the feeling of being ‘self conscious’ is often associated with awkwardness and insecurity, while being ‘in the zone’ of mindfulness and awareness is a kind of letting go of the attachment to self, tapping into a meditative, higher perceptional space. It seems like being ‘conscious of self’ would be seen as a good thing — and it is — but also interesting that when we say ‘self-conscious’ we refer to getting dragged down a whirlpool of self/ego/separation rather than tapping into the flow of self/spirit/unity we connect to moreso when thinking of self-mindfulness.”

[Brianna Caedmon]

After listening to Prof. Aloyarc Brianna pauses to consider what he said. "That's a very interesting point you make," she says, leaning forwards a little in her seat "because as you say you would have thought that consciousness of the self would be a positive thing, but it has a lot of strangely negative associations. I wonder if perhaps this comes from the way that the word 'self' can be understood in different ways by different people?".

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

“Absolutely!” Sin responds to Brianna while playing with Cleo and Orion. “It’s so cool to discover how differently we all view concepts of self. For many the idea of a personal self often comes back again to the choices we make. If I identify as being someone who lives in a certain area, or who works a particular kind of job, or prefers this food over that food, it can feel a bit of like identity crisis to move somewhere else or change professions and preferences.”

Sindor scoops the kitties up and continues on. “Our habitual routines can be fairly set in stone to the point where it takes lot of time and attention to change the things we cling to as who we ‘are‘ and what we are all about (even when we want to!) yet other times it can feel very much out of our control when layers of what ‘self’ means to us become forced into new directions.”

A saying pops into his head. “The more things change, the more they stay the same! This is one of my favorite quotes because I find it so cool to witness how this plays itself out a lot. Even with so many new and novel things working their way into the mix, there are often core/signature energies that follow a bit of a through-line. Like when I look back on myself as a child, I see how much I’ve grown and how far I’ve come in many ways. What a ‘different’ person I am. Someone, even if you’d shown me the future, I happily never would have guessed I’d be. Yet at the end of the day, I’m still that same kid, with the same general vibe and personality. And I love that!”

[Brianna Caedmon]

Brianna smiles as she watches Sin playing with Cleo and Orion and then picking them up. She knows they love attention and is happy her professor seems to be enjoying giving them some. She nods as she listens to what he says "Wow, that is a great quote!" she says. "I have to say I notice the same thing. A lot of who I am seems to have changed over time but there are certain patterns- the general vibe like you said but also things like interests. I remember I used to constantly ask my mum to read me poems as a kid, and I still love them now! I can also remember always wondering about words and their sounds and spellings and where they came from and today I really love linguistics so that is another thing which seems to have stayed the same!".

She pauses for a minute, and leans over to pet Cleo and then Orion.

"Huh, this conversation is making me kind of nostalgic. It's a nice feeling."