homeless OST meeting

Raffi Aftandelian raffi at bk.ru
Tue Oct 4 12:07:13 PDT 2005


No, homelessness did not end, there were no breakthroughs. But after a
four hour OST meeting at a Moscow municipal shelter for
homeless people today there was that twinkle twinkle in the air. More
expansion of consciousness. More hope. An opening. What I have called Breema
for the soul.

Some 30+ people gathered to discuss new ways of working with homeless
people. They included directors of municipal shelters, homeless
people, social welfare department regional directors, NGO's working
with the homeless, Russian Orthodox church services working with the
homeless, a Russian Orthodox deacon, and others.

The fire behind this meeting is Marina Perminova of CARITAS (a
Catholic charity). She learned of OST - as many have- by "accident".
She liked what she saw and decided she wanted more of it. I think it
helps that she lives in os.

Another such 4 hour meeting is scheduled in two weeks. That one I hope
we'll co-facilitate.

Watch this space in the coming months. She just may make her way here
onlist even though she doesn't speak English...yet.

While holding space I went for a walk, stumbled into a cafe out of
curiosity, checked out the menu. There in the menu was the name of
proprietor: "Dzhakhangir"-- I think that's Azeri (and Persian) for
"World getter." Get the world? Hold the World? Hold space for the
world? Hmm.

I remember how long it took me to "get" OST. I think with the
stated intention here in building an OST practitioner community we are
creating an energy field that helps for people to "get" OST much more
quickly.

I remember when I started out, I only had this list to go to for help.
OSlist was and is a very important source of spiritual support.

And it's great that today more of us here in Russia are helping each
other with OST work. Those stories may not make it on this list, but
they're out there.

Judi, I used the "What wants to express itself?" for the first time.

Marina had an answer to that: "This OST meeting is an invitation to be
human, to step out of our roles as social workers, directors,
bureaucrats, homelessness people and engage with each other as
people."

It was great to be working with Marina, I don't think I could have
crafted a better invitation for the meeting- a very clear, concise
description of OST. I had never seen as clear a description of OST in
an invitation before.

Are we just lucky or is the energy field here changing?

Oh and she already knows about the Map. So, once she's done co-ing the
next meeting, hope she'll put herself on the map.

I would want to write about the Moscow homelessness situation which is
a lot about denial.

Warmly,
from a still unseasonably warm Moscow,
raffi

p.s. Good luck Christine with the Girl Scout OS and strategic cafes!


                          mailto:raffi at bk.ru

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