mother list

Fri Dec 5 16:35:46 PST 2003

There are about 350-400 people on this list Judi.  WAAAY more lurkers
than writers, or more butterflies than conveners.

Chris W refers to "mother list" and that's kind of how I think of this
"place."  It's like a sourdough starter, which is the piece of bubbling
yeast and flour that bakers use to get sourdough bread to rise.  As long
as you keep feeding it, the starter keeps living, and lots of loaves of
bread keep getting made from the same jar of stuff..

And at the risk of Harrison jumping in with another New Testament
allusion, I'll also say that vinegar starts with a "mother."

ANYWAY.

OSLIST mothers an awful lot of stuff for me.  And sometimes my
engagement here is very strong and other times I go away for a while and
do other things.  But in my own life it has spawned many interesting
things like the wikis, the non-guide, my weblogs (and other people's!),
collaborations with people like Michael Herman, Avner Haramati, Brian
Bainbridge, Peggy Holman, Joelle and Paul Everett, Julie Smith, Dan
Chay, Judi Richardson, Ashley Cooper, Birgitt Williams and it has led to
many face to face conversations with countless other people, often over
food, in places like Toronto, Vancouver, Bowen Island, Fairbanks,
Bellingham and Whidbey Island.

And most importantly, this list got me started, and with very kind and
careful attention from Larry Peterson, Dianne Gibeault, and Harrison I
took my first steps into OST seven years ago or so.  So I have never
forgotten that, and it's always led me to treat this list, and the
community of this list, with great care and affection.

So, like I say, if there's a moose under the table, to me it still looks
a lot more like a food cache than a problem!

Chris

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com
(604) 947-9236

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Judi
Richardson
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 12:22 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: mother list

Chris, Tova, Ashley and others.

Many thanks for the deep contemplation and challenging languaging.  In
watching the posts over the last week or two it is evident that a few
feel at a crossroads -- and only individuals can know if that is
personal or community.  This list, for me, is organic, it becomes what I
need it to be over and over.

I, too, experience this community as a source of professional and
personal challenge -- expanding my capacity.  It can be an "energy leak"
if I choose for it to be.  When I'm on the road, reading the postings
can be like finding old friends.  Sometimes I long to have the time to
write an observation of work with a group while I'm already on my way to
another group.  Those postings that challenge me I can choose to respond
to or not.  I appreciate the many stories started and expanded on this
list and often wonder how they are spinning.  For some of us this may be
one of the few places we tell a different story -- perhaps from our
original voice.  I see expansion of stories here and, in my experience,
stagnation occurs when we tell the same story of limits over and over --
like continually placing our hands on a hot stove, or spend all our time
teaching each others our complaints.

I think someone mentioned there are over 4,000 people on this list --
seems to me we will all make it what we choose for it to be.  I see an
OST event like a cosmic mirror -- the participants, if they are open to
it, can see habitual patterns, see how they affect others in their
organizations.  It is like a Time Out Of Time (TOOT) -- a reflective
tool, out of our natural reactions we can choose to respond.  The
quality of "beginner's mind" that offers when someone new comes to the
list never ceases to amaze me, as well as the quality of our
disagreements! <grin>

ciao
Judi Richardson

www.ponoconsultants.com
www.emergentfeminine.com

----- Original Message -----
From: chris <mailto:chris at springbranch.net>  weaver
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 10:53 AM
Subject: mother list

Tova wrote,

I believe our energy as a community was and is so powerful that a lot of
seeds had enough wind and spirit to go very far and enough warmth and
nourishment to sprout in many places. I believe that now we are on a
crossroad of our story, the question is what is the new being of 'mother
list' we wish for, where do we take our story ?

What do you think?

Dear Tova,

You have stated this beautifully:  wind, spirit, warmth, nourishment,
and sprouting seeds, yes.  I count myself as one whose daily work and
life would be entirely different without the gifts and professional
connections born out of this list over recent years (when I see the
sprouting seeds, they're on the muddy back of a turtle!)

I don't have a feeling that we are at a "crossroads," however, because
to me the list is a river rather than a road.  A river has its own life,
and a powerful river is beyond any human efforts at engineering.  Yet a
river is supremely receptive.  As Sheila Chandra sings, "the Ocean
refuses no river -"  and the river does not refuse its tributaries...the
tributaries are received...and then the opposite pattern unfurls, as the
river divides into a delta, with separate, more-focused streams spinning
out their own fractals...?

So I think the multi-focused aspect of the list seems likely to be its
way and its nature.

I am curious about what you describe as "energy leakage," and I think
maybe I understand.  To continue with the metaphor, the OSLIST, big and
wide-focused as it is, is usually not the right river to spin my own
little waterwheel.  As my own daily work has focused on the care and
feeding of a small "Open Space Organization," I have devoted my
attention mostly to my local work relationships in real time and real
space, where we are all focused and busy weaving waterbearing baskets...

The OSLIST is more like a sort of cyber-Ganges, where I go every few
days before dawn and jump in.  I continue to be amazed that something so
Big can be so responsive.  And I continue to be surprised at how often I
emerge dripping and watch the sun come up as a transformed person.

My thanks to Reinhard & Ashley for the spark (takes a little flint &
steel if you want to cook a moose), and for all the fine responses.  I
spent two hours on this extended thread this morning, thanks to the
river, which rose into the sky last night, and froze, and blanketed
these mountains with enough snow to close all the schools & block my
road to Cherokee.
Chris Weaver
Swannanoa, North Carolina, USA
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