AW: mother list

[Catherine Pfaehler]

Dear Judi – how very true. In every OS-conference I’ve ever attended (those
used to last for a full week), I got answers to the key questions I was
wandering with, on a very deep level. In the same way, the ongoing
discussion holds treasures for me, even if I don’t respond to the list that
often.

Thank you everybody for the quality of thoughts and openness – it’s truly
wonderful. Be well – Catherine

Catherine Pfaehler
Kellersriedweg 8
CH - 2503 Biel
T/F/B ++41 - (0)32 - 365 68 41

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]Im Auftrag von Judi
Richardson
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 4. Dezember 2003 21:22
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: 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 <http://www.ponoconsultants.com>
www.emergentfeminine.com <http://www.emergentfeminine.com>

----- Original Message -----
From: chris weaver <mailto:chris at springbranch.net>
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU <mailto: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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