Dear Harrison and all, Thank you for your irresistible invitation, which has goaded/enticed this Appreciative Lurker to peek out for a moment. I like how this thread has become a deep slow stream braiding through all the rest.
One of my current working definitions for "learning" is: "finding, and making, new and cumulative knowledge, skills and meaning". In considering what I've learned from/in Open Space, I find that it doesn't have so much to do with businesses or formal organizations. The way I have experienced and seen Open Space so far has been more in the wide sense of ordinary life. In the past 4 or 5 years since I was first invited into a consciously Open space, I've gotten to participate in half a dozen or so (including the Practice of Peace), and have ventured into opening space at the school where I teach part-time, four or five times. So, from a still very "beginner's mind" perspective, the areas where I am learning a lot include these: 1) Noticing the principles & law of OS in everyday life is liberating, and such a relief. Those descriptions of reality have been useful frames to offer to everyone I work with (patients, students, colleagues) and live with, even without being in a specific Open Space gathering. The more I practice loosening my grip on wanting things to go or be a certain way, the more relaxed and energetic I feel, the more aware and responsive I seem to be--and in my line of work (natural medicine practice & education) those qualities are good indicators of increased health. Encouraging myself and others to trust in the goodness of the law of two feet is like the "opening of the channels" of acupuncture practice, allowing enthusiasm, willingness, inspiration, and the energy for focused action, to pour and circulate without obstacle into and through our lives. 2) Open Space encourages accelerated learning. It has been breathtaking to watch what our students have come up with in Open Space in terms of projects, and deep exploration of topics they love, and organizing, and networking--nothing out of the ordinary for what usually occurs in Open Space, I am sure, but aren't you re-amazed every time you see it happen? 3) The importance of intentional preparation and conscious invitation. That in order for an invitation to be alluring, it has to be about something that really matters to people; invitation-crafting can be a soul practice. Getting to hear/read about the ways that many of the OSList members prepare before an event-- the impeccable preparation for the task of "being totally invisible and entirely present" -- has been imagination-provoking, and has led me to think a lot about what it means, or could mean, to prepare and hold space for a class (both before the term begins and before each class session begins) and for my work with patients. 4) How important it is that griefwork accompany truthful process. As we learn to loosen our grip on what we think should happen, and pay more attention to reality, we may have to let go of something we were attached to, and then we need to acknowledge the loss that goes along with that change. This was one of my main "take-home" messages from Harrison's Practice of Peace morning talks, and it goes along with my next learning: 5) The possibility (and importance) of "developing the capacity for instant connection" This one is a pith, or core, teaching I saw in a PoP post from Anne Stadler. My experience has been that being in Open Space reminds us (because often we've forgotten, but we used to know) how to connect with other beings quickly and truly. And then the corollary of that will be grief and loss (including the milder forms of grief such as nostalgia and wistfulness and homesickness), because that particular created community won't ever come together in the same way again, and because the individuals that I got to connect with in that immediate way are people I may never see or talk with again. So: Open Space develops in us the capacity for instant connection, and the capacity to let go with love and blessing. 6) And at the same time, there is a resilient sureness to the "Radiant Network" that Peggy Holman and Anne Stadler describe. Another way I understand learning is that lessons are gifts, blessings, opportunities to wake up and see things I didn't see before (even though they might have been there all along). Without question, the most potent and precious gifts I've been given in every Open Space I've gotten to participate in have been the deep-and-brief connections, the collegial relationships, and the dear friendships, each of which is opening up whole new worlds to me. It has been fascinating and stunning to see how the connections then have begun to overlap and mesh in terms of synchronistic interactions and the unveiling of connections between people I didn't know were connected. There is something about the withdrawal of control and imposition that characterizes Open Space which allows the glowing tracks of interconnectedness to become obvious. Last summer, when I moved out of an office I had been in for a couple of years, I found a little typed note taped to the side of one of the book cases. It was titled "Rules for Spiritual Living" and listed, the principles and law of Open Space (without mentioning OST by name). It had been there all along, and I had never noticed it. I was glad to know that it had been there, though, and I left it for my successor to find for himself. with great appreciation, and hoping to make it to Halifax, Christy Lee-Engel One Sky Medicine 2611 NE 125th St Suite 100 Seattle, WA 98125 (206) 363-5555 clinic: http://oneskymedicine.org weblog: http://lifecultivatinglife.blogspot.com * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
