butterflies and bumblebees

[Chris Corrigan]

I was waiting on this question to see who would answer it, and by God, I
got some new language to use.  Thanks Marei.



At the Practice of Peace conference last month, I ran into Harrison one
morning and said to him out of the blue, "You know if there is one thing
I think is an absolute gift about OST, it's the butterfly.  And I STILL
can't really explain how that role works."



And his reply to me was something along the lines of "I like the role of
the butterfly because it allows me to be me."



Amen, HO.



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 Marei
Kiele
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 5:15 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: butterflies and bumblebees



"Rich Foss" <richfoss at plowcreek.org> schrieb:
Last Saturday I did my first OS faciltiation... "That's fine," I said,
"We're going to use the law of two feet so you can leave any time you
want." (Instead of describing OS in the preparatory session we pastoral
elders had simply said that we were not going to use our traditonal
format of all sitting in a circle listening to one person at a time
talk).

Dear Rich,

congratulations on your first os from one beginner to the other. Any
other first timer's out there??? And I very much liked the tone of your
answer to the man's question very much - feels totally accepting. Thank
you for your story :-)


I have a question. I've seen references on the list to butterflies and
bees but haven't been able to dicipher the meaning.

As no one of the elder's has answered your question yet I dare
explaining the butterfly and the bumblebee. They are methaphors for what
appears, when people follow the law of the two feet: Some may act as
bumblebees do in nature, fly from flower to flower (or group to group),
never taking all the nectar (never staying long) and people may think:
what a mess they are making, how chaotic - but like bumblebees in nature
just incidentally they take the pollen with them, they crosspollinate,
they take ideas, thoughts, feelings, atmosphere from one group to
another and connect and enrich the whole system.
Butterflies are those people who don't join a group at all, who stay at
the snackbar or outside or go for a walk - who seem to do nothing
"useful" in a normal way - exept: they are beautiful.
(By the way: At first I found it difficult to say beautiful because I
could not see the beauty in them, myself. Now I do: How beautiful when
somebody is able to give him/herself the freedom not to join in!)
They seem to be doing nothing important or useful for anybody or for the
group but they do: They help opening the space - and, as Michael M says,
in systemic thinking they are places of inactivity - meaning that
nothing is planned or expected - so everything is possible to happen.

Just think that the best preparation to be surprised may be being a
butterfly myself?!
I'll try that out in "normal" life!!

Marei



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