Doug Germann quotes me to the effect that going deeper involves the withdrawal of the facilitator (Pg 110 of the User's Guide). I checked, and I certainly said that, but that is not all I said. I was thinking mostly of physical presence, and therefore physical withdrawal -- as in moving out of the spotlight, always expanding the space in which people can find their own power. In my experience, however, "withdrawal" is never to be confused with leaving. As I withdraw I find myself more intensely present. Somewhere else, I came up with the odd notion of being totally present and absolutely invisible. For obvious reasons, we never quite pull this one off, but we can make some real progress. And when we do, I find that amazing things happen -- most of which we never could have predicted, and none of which occurred because of our control. I call this, letting go, but not giving up.
Judi Richardson explores this strange paradox magnificently, sharing her own sense of vulnerability. Speaking personally, I surely know that feeling of vulnerability. Yet in an interesting way, the greater my sense of personal vulnerability, the larger my sense of my own personhood -- and maybe even power. I find myself by losing myself. I am sure that this experience is not my alone, and I think of my young Palestinian friend, Carol Daniel with whom I had the pleasure to work in Ramallah several weeks ago. She shared her experience with colleagues from around the world who have joined me in The Practice of Peace program. With her permission, I share them with you. "I'm still overwhelmed by the experience I had with Harrison in Ramallah, he introduced the word 'Peace' for the Palestinians in a fantastic way as if it was used for the first time and never existed before in the dictionary. Palestinians used the real meaning of Peace all over the training, they brought it up in nearly every small discussion group they created, peace within themselves, peace at work, peace with their children and later on passed to the causes of non inner peace: sexual frustration, wrong education, how to raise children to be more open and keen and so on. I personally never witnessed such openness within the Palestinians and more amazingly between men and women. Until that minute I wasn't sure about the power of the OS spirit and its immediate influence on people. Harrison whispered in my ear the second evening that he will be leaving Ramallah early, and asked me to continue the third day with the participants, I was really shocked and in disbelief that I could do it without him. I didn't sleep that night, I was happy and confused and tensed all at the same time. When the time arrived and I had to swim alone without my teacher, I looked at the great group of people that were there and started to go around the circle over and over again while they were sitting in silence, waiting for myself to feel more relaxed to open the space and then I requested that they join me." Somehow, vulnerability is power of the very best sort. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
