leverage points

Therese Fitzpatrick therese.fitzpatrick at gmail.com
Mon Jun 20 20:25:20 PDT 2005


Everything, it seems, depends on context.  The word 'right' in the
principle 'whoever comes are the right people' is not the least bit
judgmental to me, it is a consicous embrace of who is present in the
moment. . . and a conscious embrace of who is present in the moment
embraces those who were invited and felt like coming AND it embraces
those who invited themselves and it embraces someone who stumbled in
without a clue that they were even showing up at anything.

I was just telling a friend today that I have had a lifelong
experience of finding myself inwardly called to do certain work or
participate in certain movements only to be shunned aside because I
needed an invitation.  I have been treated as NOT one of the right
people way much too much.   "Whoever comes are the right people"
radically embraces and values whoever shows up; this principle
radically trusts that even the traditionally excluded are the right
people. .  . IN THE MOMENT.

I know that none of my experiences are unique to me.  The principle
'whoever shows up are the right people' leads me to ask myself, all
the time as part of my inner practice, who else
would/could/should/might have something to contribute that I didn't
think to invite.  We don't know what the world would look like if
everyone trusted in each moment that the persons in front of them or
the persons-seeking-to-be-in-front-of-them-even-without-an-invitation
and there are no simple, perfect principles that apply to everything
all the time.  But I am resolutely certain that this single principle
of open space could transform human existence.  There would be a lot
of chaos if everyone adopted this approach instantly. . . but that
would be OK because whatever happened is the only thing that could or
should.

Lately, I have become increasingly aware of invitation-only events.  I
am especially confused when people who present themselves to the world
as being on the edge of evolution actually convene initation-only
events to discuss evolution/emergence/consciousness.  Riffing just a
bit off the word 'evolution', I am wondering what Darwin would have
found in the Galapagos Islands if nature had convened an
invitation-only evolutionary path which excluded the possibility for
the right animal-and-plant life-forms.  How can the right people show
up at important conversations if there is no intention to embrace the
occasional butterfly?

Thanks for your thoughts, Paul.  I disagree with what you wrote about
'right' being judgmental in this principle. . . . but, hey, it's all
good for me.

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