Thanksgiving, "What a long strange trip it's been"

******************************Where we come from***************************

**************************************************************************** Yesterday was a holiday in the USA. For those around the world that aren't familiar with our Thanksgiving holiday... it's a celebration of the first successful year after our colonists came to the North American continent nearly 400 years ago. Today many of us use the holiday as a time to renew family ties culminating with a huge meal...{that we really don't need!}. It's also a time for some of us to take stock of our blessings and to give thanks for our lives and those that are in them. This past year has been one that has seen many changes in my lives. In that other life I was able to take a treasured pilgrimage to North East India where I could visit the four most important sites in Buddhism. I've been asked if I felt safe on that trip...I did. It was a private tour and except for two train trips I had a driver and a private car. My experience in travel suggests that along with common sense... learning how to say please and thank you in the local language makes a difference. Another change in that life....since I retired a couple of years ago I found I really had too much empty time on my hands so I took a part time job... it's just perfect for me. There have been changes here in Secondlife as well... paramount among those was the leaving of Poly from Benares. Poly spent over eighteen months as a manager here...eighteen months is a long time in Secondlife, but sometimes change is good and necessary...and it's important to know when it's time to move forward. Many of the residents that were here last year are still here and that tells me we are doing something right. We have had a couple return and I'm glad to see them. In closing this post... yesterday I commented on another blog about being thankful. I have been allowed to spend over 1300 days in this virtual world we call Secondlife. This past year saw me lose friends... and gain friends. I try to always keep in mind that there are over 6 billion people on our planet... the chances of meeting any one person are astronomical, and I have met so many wonderful people.

One line out of and old Grateful Dead song has been running through my head these past few hours, "What a long strange trip it's been"...and in keeping with, that I'm going to embed that song after the customary closing. And so it goes I love you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते