Wow Suzanne...what a gift to share that
gratitude with us on this list and I second
Elwin in saying that you have probably spoken
for the vast majority of us. You describe my
own path in the world of Open Space quite
accurately too - I see myself in your journey -
and in reading what you have written I feel that
kernel of gratitude for all those who have been
similarly inspired by Harrison's gift and have
given freely of their time and energy and tools
and money to ensure that this community thrives
and that we can all stay centred in our practice
so that we can offer what is needed to places
where the space is closed, tight, hot and
sticky.
Sometimes just taking a breath of fresh air is a
radical act, the act of starting over with
beginner's mind, beginner's appreciation,
beginner's gratitude. Thanks for reminding me
of the feeling.
Chris
----
Chris Corrigan
ch...@chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
On 2010-04-22, at 6:24 AM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
Dear Open Space friends, I was going to send a personal thank you note
to Harrison (who I'm glad to say has become my friend as he is to all
of you and all of us). Instead I decided to just put myself out there
again in this community and send it to everyone.
As I prepare for my upcoming trip to Berlin, celebrating my first year
of Open Space following wonderful training by Diane Gibeault in Ottawa
in April last year, I just decided to share my story and my feelings
with all of you. I am truly in awe that Open Space is celebrating 25
years this year in the city where the Berlin Wall used to be. I
cannot help but feel it is significant -- significant thinking of all
the Berlin Walls that should fall in so many places in our world where
people feel overwhelmed by the things that seem to be crashing down
around them. Yet I feel that this deep pain is possibly the signal of
a collective and global rebirth. But to notice and see, we must open
up space in our lives. As we do, we realize that what matters most is
what's inside of us. It's why I am as drawn today to Open Space as I
was the first time I "met" OS a year ago. So today I decided to press
the "send button" ....thank you Michael Herman that it's working so
well allowing me to share how I'm feeling on the eve of my trip to
Berlin. I can't wait to meet so many that I have been reading here
and others who I know already. I feel such gratitude to have the
opportunity to be there. I've even decided to do a second training in
Open Space in Berlin to deepen my practice and learning with many from
other countries.
Now for my note that I had intended to send to Harrison:
Hi dear friend Harrison,
My « bliss » journey continues and I know you said Thank you not
required. But I still want to say thank you.
You see for me I've connected that the "song" (from mythology) leading
me here came from my first encounter of Open Space. It "caught me"
then and without knowing in the darkness of it all, I chose to make it
my life path. Hugely unsettling as it made me question so much of who
I was and had done in my career and in my life. It led me to a deep
searching, so much reading, throwing myself into Open Space as a
practice every chance I could finally leading me...inside myself. As
> I started to go there and for me this is just the start, I realized
that by just 'being' instead of 'doing', life around me was changing!
My relationships with my mom, my dad, daughter and siblings, friends
and others are so much richer. I've met so many people this past year
leading to so many "big talk" conversations instead of small talk --
conversations where it feels like we're Expanding our Now. (a
Harrison book).
Often, I felt like I needed to go into my cave disconnecting, knowing
> that I will be reconnecting with quiet purpose following my bliss in
the years ahead. Not easy to do in a society that expects us to do
more and more with less all the time. Plus there is this little thing
called paying your bills. Yes, it has been blissful, easy no!
As I have embarked on this journey, I read what you've and many others
have written, great thinkers and many authors you spoke of in your
books. Myth, philosophy, science, etc. Like a kid, reading Hardy Boy
mysteries, it's been magical. And through it all, I think of Open
Space, its principles, its law and what it awakens in many people
inviting them to Freedom and Choice, to the place inside of them that
makes you feel like a kid again that is your life..
Everywhere around me, I see people racing, running, worrying without
ever having timeor taking time. By opening space, wherever and
whenever I can, 24X7 (for me once a month participating or
facilitating: this weekend with the Girl Scouts), I feel I can do a
small part for people to perhaps discover as I did the magic that is
within them.
In my continuing words of thank you, a brief paragraph from one of
Joseph Campbell's writings captured in the book Pathway to Bliss
talking about Arthur's banquet hall with all the knights around the
Round Table. To me, it spoke Open Space.
"They thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in a group. Each
entered the Forest Adventurous at that point which he himself had
chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path." You enter
the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there's
a way or path, it is someone else's path; each human being is a unique
phenomenon. The idea is to find your own pathway to bliss.
Harrison when I sat in a circle for the first time, it felt like a
scary dark forest for me - someone who had lived in hierarchy all my
life, career and otherwise seeking to do what others defined to be
"living responsibly" in a command-control sort of way. I felt it then
and I feel it now that by opening space, there is a big chance that
Open Space will "catch others" too. I don't know if you can find this
place alone, by yourself. For me, I found it sitting there with others
in my first Open Space when I was in Canada. I believe with Open
Space, we can discover ourselves and what we're passionate about and
from that place, we create community, a new community where people can
just be themselves, give of their individual gifts, appreciate others
and create in a new way, paying attention and noticing what matters,
expanding their now.
So folks, now I press the send button feeling a bit vulnerable,
questioning as I always do if silence is not more effective because in
the end knowing our journeys are always unique and personal, I know
that it is not by "telling" that we find our journey but in
discovering it ourselves.
I know had I been reading this before I "met" Open Space leading me to
my path, it would have scared me to read this as if someone was
pushing a religion on me.
And yet here in this community which feels like home, I felt it was ok
to share especially now less than a month away from the Berlin WOSonOS
with OS happenings in Australia as well and Brian Bainbridge in our
thoughts.
> Love to all, Suzanne
