Remembering Winter!!!

I love Winter in Second Life because I never get cold. This is the perfect place to go when you live in a place where winter does not include lots of snow. This year it is especially true when you are forced to stay inside and cannot go to Holiday Markets or Gatherings. I can drink my hot "egg-nog coffee" and it is always just right and never filled with guilty calories. 

In Germany, I would take the sled and go to the forest with my father and we would ride down the snow covered hills. It was so much fun as a child. We would also ski, but I felt a bit safer on the sled, plus besides I did not have to walk home, my father would pull me.

As I slide down my own hill here at the Retreat I joyfully remember those cold Winter Days in Germany. These are great memories I can recreate right here in Second Life. The cool thing about it is I can keep this snow for as long as I like even in the summer.

I seem to be the perfect ice skater, well here in SL not in real life. That is an amazing thing. I love to skate at my own skating rink here. It is so much fun, especially when everybody is now out there hustling and bustling the black Friday sales.

If you are longing for Winter and want to refresh those memories, why not stop by the Retreat and take some pictures. The Retreat is open year-round for all residents to enjoy. Let me know what you think and what memories it brought for you. Also, pictures can be posted to the Flickr Retreat Group.

Happy Winter!!!

What is the magic?

The magic isn't in what you lost but what you still have. So what if romances come and go and he totally did not dig you and disregarded you. When you are hurting, you are vulnerable. Protecting yourself with healthy boundaries is an essential part of good self-care. Almost all relationships are great in the beginning—otherwise, they would have never started—but the whole of a relationship is what it was from beginning to end.

Because our mind is trying to heal our heart, the painful memories often get shifted to the background and we find ourselves remembering and longing for the good times. We forget who the person really was and idealize who we wanted them to be.

Don't let the disappointment and anger follow you, because it can eat up in you. Questions like why are normal. but do not spend too much time figuring out why. Instead, figure out the now what. And there is no set time limit for healing - as factors including the length of the relationship, shared experiences and memories of betrayal, and the depth of emotion all play a part in the healing process.

The saying time heals everything is actually true in many ways. The hurt will lessen and lessen and that person you once worshipped will not matter as much as all anymore. Someone wise on the internet once said that “the past won’t rest until you jump over the fence and leave it behind”.

Just like this year is almost over and new adventures are heading your way. Just like the song says: 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne? 

The basic message is that we should not forget our old friends and should celebrate a reunion with them.

When the clock strikes midnite on New Year's Eve, gather everyone together at your party or celebration to sing the New Years Song and remember the good memories of family and friends from long ago. Remember what you still have and not what is gone.

Wonderful Winter 2020

What I miss most during the winter months is the snow that I remember from 

Germany. There was always snow during this season or the air was crisp and you could bundle up while you completed your holiday shopping. The great thing in Second Life is that I can do this and make it feel like I am in that Winter Wonderland anytime I like. There are so many places to visit in Second Life, it is an amazing time of the year. So go log in since you are staying home anyway and travel through the regions and discover something new.

The Retreat is a perfect spot to enjoy Winter in Second Life.

You will find an ice skating rink, lots of snow, a warm cozy gallery, a nightclub for those late parties, and lots of snow. There is also a chapel if you want to quietly thank someone or reflect on the past year.  

I hope you will stop by and enjoy the Winter Season. Take some pictures and enter your photographs in the Retreat Flickr Group.

Get Ready for the Holiday Party @ the Retreat ( Secret location)

Here is the official poster for the Holiday Party. I will have a LM/TP posted at the Basement Club and the Entry at the Retreat.

This will be open all December so you can come and visit as often as you like and take your holiday pictures. Find the pickle for a fabulous gift. Start on December 6th, 2020 at 6PM SLT. 

Open to all residents in Second Life...young and old...member or not...

Happy Holidays from Anjelikka and the Retreat :)

Oh! What a freezing cold winter morning

Everything is white.. everything looks frozen
I find myself in a state of mourning...
Not a single soul, complete silent.. unspoken.

The grave silent winter’s day today
On this chilly winter morning...
The memory of you is within me every day...
This frosty winter morning, it's you, whom I am longing.

The winter skies are clear and bright...
The chilly breeze touches my skin.
Your handsome grin will be such a delight.
If you shall lay next to my skin to skin.

The Last winter we were together
In front of that fireplace. We cuddled each other
Throwing snowballs like we were teenagers
In this world, only you and I lived together.

How I wish on this winter’s day.
That your love for me will never die...
I have faced the sun on the summer’s day
The emptiness on this winter? I can never lie.

Every year I decorate the Retreat for Winter. I love this time of year, but it does feel cold. I hope you all come and enjoy the Winter Season at the Retreat.

Weihnachtsgurke or Christmas Pickle is that real???

The true meaning of hiding the pickle in the Christmas tree is a mystery. Many people insist it is a German tradition, but I sure cannot ever remember that we did this in Germany. Maybe it was a family that settled the idea here in the United States. Nowadays Christmas markets in Germany are selling pickle ornaments but mainly for their American tourists.

The biggest problem with the German pickle (saure Gurke, Weihnachtsgurke) tradition is that no one in Germany seems to have ever heard of it. Over the years this question has repeatedly come up on the AATG (US German teachers) forum. Teachers of German in the US and in Europe have never been able to find a native German who has even heard of the pickle legend, much less carried out this Christmas custom. It may have been some German-American invention by someone who wanted to sell more glass ornaments for Christmas. Or could the Weihnachtsgurke be an obscure regional custom that few people are aware of?

The tradition says the first child who finds the hidden pickle on Christmas morning will get an extra treat or gets to open their gifts first. In Germany, we open the gifts on Christmas eve and it is not Santa who brings the gifts either, that has become an American tradition as well. St. Nicholas Day is celebrated on December 6th, 2020. Children set out a boot or shoe the night before outside their door and St. Nick fills it with some goodies. (For the ones on the good list, the bad listed children would get coal.) St, Nick was a slender figure with a bag and a warm coat and hat but he was fattened by American culture to the jolly ole soul we all know now. (In Germany the gifts are brought by the Christkind, which translate to Christchild, but it is an angel actually)

So, here is the great news for all my followers. On December 6, 2020, I will hold a Holiday party for everybody who would like to attend. In my cozy apartment, decorated for the holiday season. You can sit down, enjoy some food, take your holiday pictures here, and if you find the pickle, get a gift.

I will leave the apartment open after this as well for the official " The Hunt for the Kosher Pickle".

There will be other gifts as well, so look around, stay as long as you like, and come back often...you might get a clue to find an extra gift, All of this I will reveal later as I am getting ready to sort through my decor. 

Christmas is always a sad and happy day in my family. My mother passed away on Christmas Day while I was there on vacation. The happy part of this was I was there to have that moment to say thank you to her and I am sure that made it easier for her to relax and be at peace.

Hold on tight to memories and families as years pass and before you know it, you are old and wish you done or said something. Do it all now, while you think of it. 

Stay tuned for more details on the official " Hunt for the Kosher Pickle".

I want

"It doesn't make sense when you're tryin' hard
To do the right thing but without recompense
And then you did something wrong and you said it was great
And now you don't know how you could ever complain
Because you're all confused 'cause you want me to
But then you want me to do it the same way as you, and, but
I don't, I don't want anything
I know it's not, it's not your fault
I don't want anyone
Always I do, it's not for you"

Sometimes a song can inspire me to think about what real life means.

How do I measure what I put into this and what the output is? I feel this pressure from work all the time because you put so much into it and then you get little back, other than you could have done this or you forgot about that. It is never easy when you have done in your mind everything right but you get nothing back. Should we work with the thought of getting something back? Or should we just do it because we simply want to do it and it brings us joy?

The Retreat is especially beautiful in Autumn.

I know it would be an absolute lie if I say I just do this for fun because that is a small part of it. I do this to satisfy the inner need of being recognized. Like saying, hey look at me, I am a person, I am here. I want to bring joy and memories to others. I feel we all have that need to be part of something and to make a difference and that is the need that needs to be recognized with a simple thank you at times. Just a little thought of kindness helps in so many ways.

Oh, there is the saying"thou shall not want", but I do want something, we all do. This phrase covers a lot of things affecting everyday humans. Many people ‘want’ a lot in life. They want a soul mate, they want money, they want a job, they want a better life. In fact, most of us negate the law of not ‘wanting’ for anything. Regular people are stuck in the cycle of wanting they forget that everything they ever need is already theirs, all that is left is for the possession of it.

If you think ‘want’ you get want, if you think ‘abundance’ you get abundance.

Want some pizza and beer?

"Es war alles für die Katz."

In German, we have this saying: "Es war alles für die Katz", which means it was all a waste of time.

All the effort and planning for something can fall apart in a second and then you see how it was all for nothing. You most definitely see this in the voting process this year. Everyone wastes time. I know I do. I’d like to waste less time, but doing that requires identifying which time is wasted. And that’s a tricky question.

Some people may say we waste time in Second Life, but do we really? Is it not time spent to fill our mental being with activities that otherwise would result in boredom? So what is wasted time? I’ve come to like this definition: Time is wasted when it’s neither enjoyed nor spent in pursuit of some larger life goal.

Cats spend a lot of time sleeping and that is because they enjoy this and it may look boring to us (well a good nap does not hurt anyone). There is a purpose for all this napping is to save the energy for hunting at night, because that is their goal to hunt their prey.

We are too critical of ourselves and others and put things in a waste of time category because it means nothing to us. Stop doing this. Your time is your time and nobody else's. We all have our own path. Sometimes it is with the people we are with and sometimes it is alone. Either way, our time is our time and we all have a certain time we will be here. Some of us are here for many years, others are very short-lived, like ideas that blow away in the wind. One thing is to remember it was not wasted or for "the Katz" (Katze= cat in German).

Stop the worries about what to wear and what you still need to do. One thing is clear if you are breathing right now, that is a good thing. 

Projects come and go and even if they pile up, do not sweat the small stuff for now. Take your time and smell the virtual flowers in Second Life!!!