Butterflies

[Peggy Holman]

This weekend was the quarterly gathering of Spirited Work, an open space learning community that meets 4 times a year using an archetype from Angeles Arrien's Four Fold Way as the focus for each season.  (This was the season of the visionary.)

While there I uncovered an aspect of butterflies that was new to me and want to reflect on with you.

First, a little background.  The way I have always seen butterflies relates to the description of predicting weather patterns, that is, a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world creates storms in another.  In other words, small actions can have large consequences.  In OS terms, a conversation in the hallway with someone who doesn't seem to be in breakout sessions very often can lead to great insights.  Those insights are taken into the breakout rooms by the people the butterflies touch and spread, having broad impact.  I still believe this to be the case.  

The additional perspective on butterflies comes from several conversations that took place with people, who for reasons of race or temperment see themselves as outsiders.  These were folks who didn't post in the marketplace either because they didn't yet feel safe (e.g., what if my views are so foreign that I get rejected or my ideas are rejected?) or they couldn't yet formulate what they were trying to say well enough to post it (e.g., I have this uncomfortable feeling but don't quite know how to express it.)  In these cases, the butterflies found a person or people who spent time with them, listening, talking.  In neither case did it lead to a posting in the marketplace.  In both cases their experiences are now in the field and since Spirited Work has the luxury of continued gatherings, my hope is that at some point the perspectives they bring will move from the margins into the consciousness of the whole.  

Because OS has always felt so welcoming to me, it was hard for me to understand the very different experience these folks had.  I see these butterflies as beautiful and wary of their surroundings.  What they bring are gifts of increased awareness of who we are collectively that by being still enough to invite one to land nearby I can touch.

Peggy




_______________________________
Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
425.746.6274
www.opencirclecompany.com
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