OSonOS (Open Space on Open Space)
Open Space, since the moment I discovered it or it found me, has changed my life from head to toe, in all possible directions…Known as “Open Space Technology” (OST), this very simple methodology based on self-organization has taught me a very fundamental principle of life like nothing else could…life organizes itself! In tangible words, OST is meeting methodology based on self-organizing which allows a group to create their own agenda around a topic or a calling question that matters to them. The only givens are the issue in hand and the trust that the wisdom and the solutions are within the members of the group who cared to gather around the issue because they felt responsible and passionate about it. http://www.openspaceworld.org However if we leave the technology part aside, Open Space is a life changing experience and a life philosophy. For me, Open Space is not a physical space, it is mind space…It is not a methodology, it is a way of being, working and learning together. Consider these words…open…space…it promises a realm of possibility where anything is possible as long as one takes responsibility for one’s passions. Letting go of control and inviting a healthy degree of chaos in to our lives. Realizing that we create our own reality every single moment by our thoughts, actions, speech…but also by allowing life penetrate us and dancing with the emergence.
For the first time in my life I was given permission and responsibility for my own learning in an open space meeting. I was to sense what it was that I needed and wanted to learn and create and then make it happen! This created an immediate shift in my mindset, opened a lot of space in me and from there on I tried to practice open space in my everyday life…guided by the four principles and one law of OST:
- whoever comes are the right people
- whatever happens is the only thing that could
- whenever it starts it is the right time
- when it is over, it is over
law of two feet: I am solemnly responsible of using my two feet to go wherever I learn/contribute most.
Every year, there is an international gathering for the OS practitioners called Open Space on Open Space (OSonOS), where practitioners from all over the world meet in open space to explore, learn and play together and evolve their Open Space practice. This year OSonOS was in Halifax and a golden opportunity for us (me and the other shire hobbits) to learn with some amazing people…Last week once again we found ourselves in sweet Halifax or Heavenfax as one of the OSonOS participants called it, to take part in this amazing gathering. 100 people from 12 countries showed up around their passion: Open Space. The person who midwifed OST, Harrison Owen was there to celebrate his 70th birthday and OST’s 20th birthday.
During these 2,5 day gathering many things happened. I attended many sessions and conversations, met people of open hearts and minds, got amazed by human creativity and playfulness, learned practical things…but most importantly we practiced what open space calls forth: being open to possibility and to each other and keeping the space open for all different expressions. This is what I call an organic learning, something one needs to experience to fully comprehend it. In my experience, OS invites people to genuine dialogue for what is possible. The most wonderful learning happens when we meet each other around burning questions, dropping our agendas, being genuinely curious about each other and willing to evolve the answers together rather than shoving our own “rights”, truth and answers…that is what I call a meeting of the hearts, for the wisdom to emerge through us…longing to be at that field that Rumi invites us:
There is a field-
I will meet you there.
In this particular gathering, my learnings were quite relevant to my journey at the Shire and my personal unraveling…
Letting go of control and letting go of attachment to outcome…
Be prepared to be surprised is the motto of open space. It is very hard to let go of wanting to control the process and the outcome; that is how we are programmed to function. Not to say one can rewrite the programme…J I realized how much of one’s energy goes into trying to keep everything under control. Wanting things to happen my way…and the stress and resentment poured over unmet expectations…
Rather then wasting my energy on what isn’t, I am learning to work with what is there…even it is something that I am not in alignment with. “Make annoyance your friend” said Judi Richardson, the main host of OSonOS. That is where my learning edge is, the unfamiliar, the different, the uncomfortable…starting with the question, why is this in my life, what is there for me to learn?
Opening space for different expressions…
When working in groups, the energy of the space is crucial…that energy is created collectively by group members and shifts with different expressions from the group. Sometimes it might be that an individual expresses himself/herself way beyond the norms of the group, driven by strong emotions or ego or whatever, and that creates a tension (chaos)…if that space is truly open, the group can hold that expression rather than rejecting and alienating the expresser which would create more resentment…To me, this has something to do with compassion and trying to really see where people come from. We had a similar experience as OSonOS, and space remained open as one participant had to express himself rather boldly.
Decision making in council
Last day of the meeting, we needed to decide where the next OSonOS was going to take place. There were two candidates, Moscow and Edinburgh. The process chosen was not ‘voting’ and majority rules but one of reaching consensus through dialogue. It was an amazing process!!! Although there was quite a bit of a chaos in the beginning, we allowed ourselves to sit with that chaos and continued conversations until we got a sense of where it would serve best the OS community, not only the people who were present there. After a while, it became obvious where OSonOS 2006 wanted to happen: MOSCOW
Opening the space
I arrived OSonOS with a sense of ‘something is about to happen’. I clearly felt the shift of energy in me and wondered what would manifest. The first morning, Judi approached me and asked whether I would like to open the space on the last day of the gathering. Opening the space means, to walk the circle and speaking from the heart and putting a question in the middle and inviting people to step into their passion and responsibility. There is a magic and responsibility to it because one who opens the space sets the tone and channels the energy to a certain direction.
When Judi asked me whether I would do it, my heart skipped a beat, because this was a big gathering, where the gurus of open space were convening...but my heart also knew that I was meant to do that. I told Judi next day that I would do it, I dreamed about it that night. From that moment on she started mentoring me for the process.
And the moment arrived. I first asked Kairi to read a poem, the message from Hopi elders and then I stepped in to the circle. I don't know what happened but I transformed all of a sudden, the anxiety disappeared and I just spoke with total clarity from the heart. and it was magic...I've stepped into a space within me that I'd never been before. ego got out of the way and I had nothing to worry, so I could just give the message that was needed to be given...
Here is the message from Hopi Elders that Kairi so beautifully read before I opened the space:
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell people that THIS is the hour.
And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships? 
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore,
Push off into the river.
Keep our eyes open,
And our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally,
Least of all ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey
Comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the One’s we’ve been waiting for.
The Elders
Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation
Work that reconnects…
I am reading a truly inspiring Joanna Macy book called “Coming Back to Life”. In this book, based on her work with engaged Buddhism, deep ecology and general systems theory, she fearlessly uncovers the anger, pain and fear we are experiencing in today’s industrial growth society…She talks about the Great Turning which is happening right now all over the world. People are awakening to their true nature, to their true connection to the earth. A shift from Industrial Growth society to Life-sustaining society. She writes (chapter 1, page 21)
“…Now, in our time, there three rivers – anguish for our world, scientific breakthroughs, and ancestral teachings – flow together. From the confluence of these rivers we drink. We awaken to what we once knew: we are alive in a living Earth, source of all we are and can achieve. Despite our conditioning by the industrial society of the last two centuries, we want to name, once again, this world as holy…”
(chapter 2, page 26)
“…the perils facing life on Earth are so massive and unprecedented that they are hard to believe. The very danger signals that should rivet our attention, summon up the blood, and bond us in collective action, tend to have the opposite effect. They make us want to pull down the blinds and busy ourselves with other things. Our desire for distraction supports billion dollar industries which tell us everything will be all right so long as we buy this car or that deodorant. We eat meat from factory-farmed animals and produce grown by agribusiness, knowing of the pesticide and hormones they contain, but preferring no to think they’ll cause harm. We buy clothes without noticing where they are made, preferring not to think of the sweatshops they may have come from…”
(chapter 2, page 27)
“...what we are dealing with here is akin to the original meaning of compassion: “suffering with.” It is the distress we feel on behalf of the larger whole of which we are part. It is the pain of the world itself, experienced in each of us.
No one is exempt from that pain, any more than once could exist alone and self-sufficient in empty space. It is as natural to us as the food and air we draw upon to fashion who we are. It is inseparable from the currents of matter, energy, and information that flow through us and sustain us as interconnected open systems. We are not closed off from the world, but integral components of it, like cells in a larger body. When that body is traumatized, we sense that trauma too. When it falters and sickens, we feel its pain, whether we pay attention to it or not.
That pain is the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world. It is not only natural, it is an absolutely necessary component of our collective healing. As in all organisms, pain has a purpose: it is a warning signal, designed to trigger remedial action.
The problem, therefore, lies not with our pain for the world, but in our repression of it. Our efforts to dodge or dull it surrender us to futility – or in systems’ terms, cut the feedback loop and block effective response.”
In the continuation of the book, Macy presents tools and group processes that reconnect us and shift us from angst and apathy to acceptance and action. I am yet to read these exciting chapters…
Cherry tree
You gotta love the nature, you gotta love the trees…
I first noticed the cherry tree four months ago as it was blossoming with its full might, and I fell in love with it immediately. It was also a time when I was literally falling in love with everything, with life, spring, nature…That cherry tree I came across in Devon, in the garden of Schumacher college gave me a life kiss, reminded me of the magic and miracle of life blossoming, swirling, changing, becoming, manifesting every moment…that image stayed with me… 
I met the cherry tree again, recently, in Halifax, in Tracy’s garden…This time she was adorned with beautiful bright red cherries…I stood there, looking at it , thinking how something can be so beautiful, so perfect, so generous. The lovely cherry tree manifesting its true essence, just being what she is…
Thank you cherry flower, thank you cherry fruit, thank you cherry tree!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment