What a facilitator does when she holds space

[Raffi Aftandelian]

Folks,
A clarification here-- I was not the one leading that OST meeting
after which the God metaphor came to me. I was a
participant, a little troublesome one.

It was the first time in an OST meeting (or quasi-meeting in this
case, if we are going to be purists) that I didn't post a topic I
initially intended. It was like an idea was not quite ready. Rather
another topic then came to me.

The OST meeting topic was: Professional aspects of training and consulting.

My topic was "A Waaalk or the Butterfly hangout/herd". Spelling "walk"
was kind of a play on how Muscovites speak Russian. Imagine spelling
"walk" as how a New Yorker says the word.

This topic
brought on near-panic on the faces of the two facilitators (both of
whom have pretty good Warrior energy). I imagine because it could be
possibly be downright confusing to people new to OST: you have your
butterflies (except in the format of our OST meeting, there was no
coffee zone) and here Raffi is "organizing" butterflies.

My topic came from the heart (or was this more of my unconscious
challenging authority?). I was overfull from all the workshops I had
attended (one had taken us into an altered state) and I needed fresh
air, but I wanted to go for a walk with someone else, for the
potential aimless conversation. (By the way, the topic idea was
inspired by reading the "proceedings" from the Berlin OSonOS and
seeing your "report" from your walk, Frau Lisa Heft-- remember the
photocopied leaf?)And it was a great walk. The right person came--
another Warrior-- and we got a beer and had a great talk.

The facilitators were rather insistent that each session have a
report.

Our report from the walk:

[oops, it looks like they didn't include our report in the
proceedings; how did that happen, I wonder?]

But it was something like this:

1. You cannot cut salt with a knife.

2. The bar does not sell carbonated water without water.

3. There is a disagreement as to whether the joy a father feels when
he deals intimately with his daughter's stool (i.e. poopoo) is indeed
beyond words.

[There were a few more things too].

So, yes, Doris, sometimes God can be controlling (have a certain
je-ne-sais-quoi-Old-Testament kind of energy to Him).

Chris Corrigan, do you accept bribes to facilitate content placement
on your blog?  : ))

I imagine Moscow will soon experience a rocking chair shortage.

This message brought to you by the letter "R"
Sesame Street rules!

                          mailto:raffi at bk.ru

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