Ideas please for a different closing

76066.515 at compuserve.com 76066.515 at compuserve.com
Tue Nov 15 09:20:16 PST 2005


Joelle and Tree and Koos and Lisa and Zelle and all--

Hopefully this will go to the list. Got a lot of good suggestions from you
all and I thank each one of you and all y'all (as I've learned to say here
in San Antonio (and to never say San Antone to someone from San Antonio!)).
Apparently some of my responses yesterday went just to the people who sent
their ideas to the list rather than to the list as I had intended. I just
do not understand the foreign systems I am having to use while away from my
computer! So I hope you will forgive me for mis-sent messages! And
espcecially I hope you will know how I thank each one of you for your
contributions.

So here is what we did (and you will see your influence in the whole):

Susan Hughes helped me go over to the Alamo and walk around the grounds and
find an appropriate plant. It was a hummingbird bush (Susan can tell us the
scientific name and correct what I say here--Susan?). It is indigenous to
Texas and grows wild all around. It attracts butterflies (we saw a few
wonderful swallowtails) and bumblebees. It's seed pod, when ripe, bursts
open and scatters seed on the wind. This sprig we used for our listening
stick.

We started with a few moments for people to review their notes (reports are
all on line at http://www.openspaceworld.org ) or to just enjoy the
silence. A few people busily wrote notes, some closed their eyes.

Then we brought out the listening sprig, Susan explained it, and we placed
it in the center. It never made it back to the center but once or twice,
flitting to and fro like a butterfly, landing in each person's lap by the
time we were done. I had invited singing and one person sang and invited
others to sing with her.

Earlier in the day I had asked if anyone was good with scissors. Lucy
volunteered and cut out footprints from half sheets of paper. She even drew
in toes and put polish on the nails!

So after the listening sprig made it back to the center, I passed around
markers and Lucy's footprints and everyone took one of each. I asked each
person to think of one word to say what they wanted to take from our two
days together and out into the world, reminding us of Sheila's closing and
how Sheila spoke of taking these people in our circle with us out into the
world. I asked that they take the first word to come to mind. When they had
that, they wrote it on the footprint, got up, took their chair with them,
and put their footprint up on the sticky wall (the wall is an invention of,
I think, as well as a gracious gift to be able to use from, Diana Lewis and
La Leche League), and then stacked their chairs along the wall. Perhaps Ted
Ernst has already posted on the website his pictures of the sticky wall of
footprints and the stacks of chairs.

With this, our circle was opened, and our possibilities widened beyond our
individual dreams. It was over.

Except for the feasting and celebrating later that evening at Mi Tierra.

:-Doug. Germann
With whom would it be fun to converse? What better time than now?

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