Grateful For Joan

I was on Second Life 2-3 weeks when suddenly all of my newly acquired friends excitedly told me about Moonvine. They said I had to meet her. Not because she was just cool, but because she and I were somehow two peas in a pod, adventurers in the night who were destined to meet in this lifetime.

I remember the night we met. It was about 10:30 at night, and she was about to sign off because she goes to bed earlier than I do. After that, when I wanted to see her, which was often, I showed up at 9:30 pm so as to chat more than just a few moments.

I remember what stood out at first is that she had a different way of expressing herself.She said things like "divinely inspired," "that is something wonderful," and "what you see is what you get" when she referred to herself.

Her language reminded me of the old spiritualists, like Catherine Ponder, or of my own mother and the spiritual giants she used to hang around with.

So much was going on at the Portable Empire Island on Second Life. Besides meeting and greeting new folks, we'd sit with (virtual) Pat O'Bryan himself and learn new things about Internet Marketing. Sometimes he gave us a product he thought we should have. One night he gave all of us a (virtual) Portable Empire teeshirt (for our avatar) and for a time, all of us wore that around wherever we happened to go, whether it was flying or walking or dancing all over Second Life.

One night, two other friends, Magic Becky and Oceana, took Moonvine shopping and she became more fashionable, but I just hung out in my Portable Empire tee shirt with a rainbow halo attached to my head.

This is where we met CCGAL, KK and Triton, too.

A few weeks ago, I spoke on the phone with KK, who is also on Pat OBryan's forum, Milagro World. She recently attended Unseminar 6, Pat O'Bryan's famous Internet Marketing Summit he has at irregular times.

She met many of the people she knows online, face to face at that Unseminar. She told me something that struck me with great wisdom, which helped me to see the truth of our online friendships, including Moonvine, and all of our friendships on Squidoo and Twitter and Facebook.

That is, you think you know these beautiful people. But the fact is, you don't really know them in any fully dimensioned way.

For instance, Joan and I probably know each other better than most. We have a radio show together. We google chat or email about our show, Squidoo and about life. We also belong to the same Master Mind group, going on for at least a year.

KK tells me that I will be surprised when I meet an online friend face to face, a layer or two is peeled away, adding unrevealed dimensions, like throwing open a blind to allow bright sunshine to permeate all corners of a room.

Meeting Joan face to face will be like that and much much more.

Which is why we decided to meet at her Tate family reunion 4/10 in Pendleton South Carolina.

At first, everyone on our Master Mind Group had different goals. Joan was aiming for 100 lenses by 12/08. Laura was getting her on-line presence together with "The Way To BLiss Now." Charly Leetham was helping people launch their products, as well as creating membership sites for herself and others. I was aiming to create 100 articles for the article submission sites by the end of 12/08.

Joan kept telling us we really needed to get serious about Squidoo. She said this week after week.

She said to me, "Kate, turn your 100 articles into lenses and you can join the Giant Squid 100 Club."

Oddly enough, I did not "hear" these suggestions. 100 lenses? The journey of 100 lenses begins with the first lens, I kept thinking in my mind.

I started a thread over at the Milagro World called: "The Journey of 100 lenses (begins with the first lens") and chronicled the experience. People there would go and read a lens or two and even make a comment. Some joined Squidoo with the expressed purpose of rating my lenses.

Joan must have suggested 25 times in our Master Mind Group that we start making enough lenses to become Giant. She raved about the Squidoo Community and talked about all of her Squidoo friends.

Now we are all Squidoo fanatics in our Master Mind. Laura and Charly are Giant 50 and Joan and I are Squidoo Giant 100's. Liz Lichti is just starting out on her journey.

It isn't easy persuading people to make 100 lenses. But Joan managed to win me over to the idea, as she continues to do with others. Lens making, in retrospect, seemed like a flow, a loss of time as I immersed my self in the art of lens creation. The Master Mind as well as the folks over at Milagro World cheered me on. But Joan's mentoring was a great, great blessing.

She continues to bless everyone who crosses her path.

Thank you Joan, from the infinite depths of my heart!

We love you!!