Greetings, all ~ I think I've come to a resting place with the knotty problem of how to integrate who I am with what I do for a living. Since so many of you have helped me on this journey, I want to share my current thoughts with you.
I'm working on letting go and letting be. I'm imagining letting go of text books and training manuals, letting go of expectations for what will happen on any given day or in any given moment, letting go of rushing and grasping, of trying to define what can't be defined. I want to let go of external props that interfere with my internal knowing and my ability to respond in the present to what is happening in the present. And I want to let myself be who I am.... quieter, calmer, more fully aware of myself and others. In the doing of all that, I'm thinking about working backward (only backward might really be forward). That means entering the room each day thinking first about people as people..... being aware of the energy, the vibe, the spoken and unspoken needs of the people in the room.... perhaps giving time and space for an opening each day, an opportunity for connecting, sharing, attuning.... and not expecting to progress on any other level until the group has started feeling like a community (engaged conversation, caring, connection, sparkling eyes, laughter....) During this community-building time OST and play are two tools we can use to reach a place of deeper understanding and authentic caring..... .....and then allowing the learning to flow across many paths..... learning about each other (and thus learning how to listen and learning that each person has unexpected depth and wisdom.... surprise!).... learning about how we communicate and how we deal with conflict, about the choices we have and the choices we make, about how we can help others find their way through conflict.... learning how to learn with rather than learning from.... .....and perhaps ending each day with a closing, a time to reflect and share the learnings of the day..... These are all things we're already doing in a rather haphazard way. The difference for me is naming the priorities and getting things in their proper order. When I started doing this work, I thought my task was to teach people the theory, techniques, and skills of mediation. My frustration stemmed from not knowing how to go deep enough to get at what really matters. None of the skills and techniques matter a whit unless the person/mediator is coming from a deeper place of caring and compassion. This is a place that can't be talked about meaningfully until it's been experienced. It can be shared with but it can't be told to. But how to get to that deeper place in a classroom? It seems so simple and yet so hard.... don't attempt to describe to, but rather experience with..... which simply requires following the unfolding that leads us there.... I think OST will become both explicit and implicit in the way I work. It's important to make it explicit because doing so helps break the institutional trance and invites creative thinking about what's possible. I also think it's important that it be implicit, in the sense that it doesn't always need to be named. We don't always need to call what we're doing OST. We can just interact with each other naturally in new ways that don't require entering any kind of structured process. I'm imagining a classroom that works a lot like the OSLIST. Because people on this list have integrated the principles into who we are, we can just use them without need for planning, posters, themes, invitations, or designated marketplace. I think groups of people in classroom communities can do the same. My challenge is to slow down, to trust, to allow the unfolding.... I'm extraordinarily fortunate to be surrounded by people who are searching for the same kinds of connection and learning I desire. It's an amazing thing. Everywhere I turn, I hear "yes." Yes is an invitation to deep learning, to becoming who we are. Such a great gift in such a small package..... yes. Julie * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
