Open appreciatve community cafe world building inquiry space AND stories

[Wendy Farmer-O'Neil]

Thank you Thank you Thank you, Glory.  How well-named you are :)

I will carry this beautiful gift of a story in my heart.  I will be working
with a group of healers on Monday, who are very stuck in the pain and
despair.  Your clarity and the elegantly simple way you have framed our
choice is so helpful.

Love and blessings back to you,
Wendy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glory Ressler" <on.the.edge at sympatico.ca>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 9:01 AM
Subject: Open appreciatve community cafe world building inquiry space AND
stories


> Allow me to tell a personal story about my experience with Peck's
> community
> building process and how that 'muddles' right into my experience of
> Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Story/Conversations/Dialogue and OST...
>
>    It was a cold, grey December morning in 1992 and I was taking part in
> one of Peck's trainings in community building...     The group was filled
> with psychotherapists serving many sorts of grief and trauma needs in the
> country - the healers. Until this point, they had been all
> 'professional' -
> somewhat removed and aloof, although certainly caring and genuine.
>    We were being challenged, as a group, to go through the silence (which
> contains the pain and the conflict) to the point of 'real community' -
> where
> we actually shared deeply and profoundly with one another.
>    All of a sudden, stories of their personal pain, trauma, violence and
> incest came pouring out... I was overwhelmed... I too have my own stories
> to
> tell. I drove home unsure how I could face another day of training. It
> seemed as if, as a species, we were unable to commune (be together in
> community) in any life-affirming way... so much suffering. And then
> something truly shocking happened...
>    I returned home to the news that I was pregnant... How could this be? I
> felt as though I couldn't contain so much life and death, hope and
> despair,
> in the same moment... I looked into this abyss and truly wondered whether
> I
> wanted to support the emergence of more life into this miserable, wailing
> existence...
>    And then the choice became clear. I could 'choose' (take responsibility
> for) building on the beauty, potential and possibility or for reacting
> against the fear and pain.
>    Avalon is 11 years old today and she is the greatest gift I've ever
> been
> given - along with the strongest motivator.
>
> So - how does it all muddle together?
> ~ AI brings me to that moment of choice - what shall I look into? Pursue?
> Build on the best or...?
> ~ World Cafe has taught me to attend to diversity of experiences and
> intimacy in sharing...
> ~ OST takes me through the circle to that chaos-filled silence and
> challenges me to choose / take responsibility based on my passion...
> ~ The above, for me are all about stories/conversations/dialogue... this
> is
> the common vehicle.
> ~ Community (Peck's model I experienced plus others...) underlies it all
> because the central question of our time, for me, is how will we choose to
> 'be' together in community? To co-create our world?
>
> With love and blessings,
> Glory
>
> Michael Herman wrote:
>>>more and more we are in this open appreciative cafe world inquiry space<<
>
> Masud Sheikh wrote:
>>>Michael & other friends:
> Has anyone thought of putting M. Scott Peck's "Community Building" process
> into the muddle in the middle? In which case, it could become: "Open
> appreciatve community cafe world building inquiry space"
>
> I, for one would be greatly interested in hearing about Scotty's
> "Community
> Building" and HO's "Open Space" talked about in the in- between muddle
> Masud<<<
>
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