OS combo - longish tho shorter

[BrendanMcKeague]

g'day again folks

me again - another os today - and I'm 'rapped' in the energy of it all - so
need to share it out to those who care to listen....

I was invited to facilitate, at very short notice (one week),  an OPEN
MEETING of a community (about 60 folks) who are in the process of forming
an Eco-village - they were having some serious conflict about a whole heap
of things, had written submissions to the Community Building Committee
(in-house) and responses to the submissions and responses to the responses
to the submissions and so on over the past months - circulated these to
each other via email - and were mightily engrossed in 'adversarialism' ,
aggression, defensiveness, vitriol ...and so much more....complexity and
conflict abounding - they were adding to their grief on a daily
basis.  Just the sort of challenge an Irishman living upside down in
Australia loves....

Anyway - the mtg had been scheduled from 1130am - 4pm in a big tin shed
they had erected on their 400 acre property - and I agreed to it on the
understanding that they adopt the process I was offering - INVITATION TO
CONVERSATION  - they did - here's what happened - about 35 folks showed up
and I figured they had enough ideas of what was going on from the mountain
of emails to take some time out of their 'positioning' to get on with their
grief stories first and then open some wider space:

First from 1130am - 1pm - storytelling; firstly with a partner of your
choice and/or an invitation to be open to someone who chooses you;
10 mins each telling your story of what it was like for you and how you
were feeling about it - partner reflected this back to you, then switch roles;
Next, you and partner join with another couple - each person introduces
partner's story to the others and then make a collection of the significant
issues and feelings emerging from the four shared stories (40 mins)
Next, return to the circle and record your collective issues and feelings -
everyone gets to hear these spoken by one member from each group - these
were listed and left on the wall for all to hear/see... not discussed (30 mins)
Next - break for lunch and much chatting, clarifying and cleansing...
Next - back to the circle and opening of space on "what do we need to do
next...?"
Two x 40 min conversations, (not many of the BIG ISSUES from the morning
were posted - the seven topics focussed on the future - how to rebuild
community constructively and deal with conflict) -  followed by a closing
circle - that went on until 430pm - I reminded the group that the Law of
Motion was still in play...

The Closing Circle was soooo powerful and such a relief to everyone  - they
spoke of their anxiety coming to the meeting and the learning they had
experienced throughout the process - they felt they were learning to deal
with conflict through their participation in the process - they were
mightily relieved, relaxed and resumed their hope for the future - in
short, they had rediscovered TRUST in each other and in their capacity to
grow and continue the journey towards their dream of an eco-village....

Wowwww - I'm off to bed before I float off with the fairies - or should I
say, leprechauns.....

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