open space and synchronicity

[Tree Fitzpatrick]

I just convened a four day, evolutionary salon, which was a four day open
space.  I was not the only convenor but I did open the space on the first
day.  One of the other primary convenors was Peggy Holman, who many on this
list know and love.  Well, anyone who knows Peggy loves her.

There was a pre-salon which was not in open space but having a pre-salon
gathering meant that all the organizers were on site at least one full day
before the salon began.  I was the main logistics person and Peggy was my
main backup.  We knew before the salon began that the synchronicity level
was very, very high because we had that one day of pre-salon activity and
everything, every detail, fell into perfect place.  This happened over and
over.  Snap, crackle, pop.  Each time a detail arose from the cosmic smoosh,
demanding our attention, it smoothed out before our eyes.

I was responsible for locking up the main meeting space each night.  For
some reason, on the evening of the pre-salon, I was sitting in the middle of
a lecture at 8:30 p.m. and I got an overwhelming urge to leave the room and
go over to the main hall and lock up early.  I had previously indicated that
I would lock up at 9:30 but no one was in the main hall that evening and I
had this demanding sense of urgency to lock up early.  I almost felt like a
zombie, the command to do this was so strong.

Just as I arrived at the front door of the main hall, a food supplier pulls
up and asks me if I know Chef Patti.  "Well, yes, Chef Patti is about to
feed sixty people for the next four days, I told him.  She is my chef."  "I
have a food delivery for her and it has to be refridgerated."  He went on to
tell me he was based far away, off the island where we happened to be.
Well, I let him make his delivery.  But he had been scheduled to deliver at
8:30 a.m. the following morning.  If I had not walked up just when I did, he
would have been unable to make his delivery at all.  And it might have
messed up my logistics.  A small detail but it signaled to me that all the
details of the salon were being held in the best kind of synchronistic open
space.

And every detail went just the same way.  When I packed for the week, I had
impulsively tossed in a box of birthday candles.  Then someone at the salon
said it was her birthday.  so I ordered a birthday cake to feed my whole
salon.  I had $70 left in my petty cash.  The cake cost $68.

I tend to like the more humble examples of open space synchronicity, like
the petty cash for the birthday cake, but there were many examples of
synchronicity in this salon.  One man who lives in Auroville, India heard
about the salon and got a strong impulse that he should come.  He has
written a book about the evolutionary story and when he heard about the
salon, he had an impulse that told him he might meet the people he needed to
meet to get his book finished and published if he came to the evolutionary
salon.  So he came, even though it was a highly complex challenge for him to
get here.  He left the salon with an illustrator for his book, an artist who
was already painting the pictures he had already seen in his mind's eye.  He
also left the salon with commitments from other published authors to help
him get published.  It seems like such a simple story but this guy knew
nothing about the organizers or about open space or anything:  he
synchronistically heard about the salon and he listened when he had the
impulse to come and get his needs met.

I think Harrison has already suggested that synchronicity is always
available to us, although I may not have correctly reported HO's words.
Synchronicity and open space are close to synonymous (sp?) to me.  We can
choose to see synchronicity with awe and reverence or we can just take it
for granted.  We can choose to live in open space or we can choose not to.
In my humble opinion, the more we consciously choose open space, the more we
see that which was always there, the deep self-organizing nature of reality,
which is always present, always organizing, always holding us.  Or we can
choose to see boxes and hierarchy and structure.  But the basic structure of
the nature of reality, which I believe to be a deeply loving,
self-organizing power, is always present.

Now, as to Phelim's bumblebees on the front page of the newspaper.  I'm a
believer, Phelim.  It was synchronicity.  Yes, it can be reasoned away but I
prefer to live inside a reality that sees the miraculous synchronicity. . .
. and since I live in open space, deep inside my being, I choose to see the
bumblebees as a sweet example of the deep, self-organizing nature of
reality.

Whenever I am getting ready to attend or hold an open space, i see
butterflies everywhere I look.  In my mind's eye, each time I see a
butterfly, it becomes a part of my inner work of holding the space for the
event.  In my mind's eye, I am carrying a butterfly net, gathering
butterflies to set them loose in the circle when I open it.  In my mind's
eye, everyone is a butterfly looking for the next place upon which to light
and have a butterfly conversation.  In open space, I can choose to see this
way and the next person is free to choose to see whatever they wish.
-- 
Warmly,
Tree Fitzpatrick
Hearthkeeper

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