Living Peace- an invitation

Tue Nov 20 17:20:45 PST 2007

Dear Catherine-my heart opens wide, wide, wide when I hear your story of
such loss and deep sadness.  

Here is Rumi:  "your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror up to where
you're bravely working."

In honour of your courage and grief and your openness to 

what is happening, when it's starting, when it's ending and all those who
are with you now,

Kathryn

Kathryn Thomson

--------------------------

Proteus Communications

proteus at shawbiz.ca

Some doors open only from the inside
Hafiz

  _____  

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Catherine
Pfaehler
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:35 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: AW: Living Peace- an invitation

Yes, I will submit something. Thank you for asking, Raffi. I haven't told
OSLIST yet because there were so many emails as a consequence of it, but
here we go:

My two daughters Andrea (17) and Sarah (15) as well as their father and his
new beloved have died on October 13 in that Nam Thaloo cave in Thailand
which got suddenly flooded due to heavy monsoon rains. Had it not been for
the Open Space principles, I would have despaired and gotten lost in
resistance and fury etc. All the more since I have been consciously and
daily dedicating my life to the divine for the past few years, it couldn't
be anything else but: "Whatever happens. Whoever is there. When it starts.
When it's over." Living with those principles since 1989, they have already
carried me through my divorce from their father in 1995/96, and now through
their leaving. It seems to me that somebody softly, yet definitely and
decidedly closed the door of parenting in my life. There must be another big
task waiting, and it will show itself.

We got the news when on holidays in Spain, in Granada, on Sunday evening,
October 14. On Monday, we were scheduled to arrive at Florian Fischer's home
in Rodalquilar, Andalucia, only 3 hours from Granada. We couldn't have come
to a better place. He and his family were wonderful, warmhearted and most
compassionate hosts for us. You might remember: Florian was my Open Space
mentor for the first big Open Space I was responsible for as a facilitator
in April 2006 on the health of gay men, which in October 2006 led to an Open
Space for people living with Aids. He coached me through all the
preparations with the Swiss preparation group from Rodalquilar or Berlin via
telephone or email, but then had to tell me he couldn't come to
co-facilitate with me (I was meant to do the French part, he the German
part) only two days before the April event for serious health issues. There
also: Whatever happens. "the universe seems to think I can do it without
Florian, so here we go." I learned a lot, especially regarding my energy
reserves when an OS lasts for an entire week-end and I have to translate a
lot more than expected.

Of course I am sometimes very sad. And the part of me who has lived for over
11 years without my children half of the week now helps the sad mother in
me, too.

AND this brought me very close to the cancer patients and their relatives I
was holding space for on November 10.

So Open Space really is an ongoing spiritual journey for me, deeply rooted
in my everyday life! Peace for me begins with my own peace of mind. The
principles of OS are a big help in that for me.

Love and gratitude to all of you - Catherine

Catherine Pfaehler Senn

lic.oec.HSG

Open Space Begleitung

Kellersriedweg 8

CH - 2503 Biel

+41-(0)32 - 365 68 41

c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch

  _____  

Von: Raffi Aftandelian [mailto:raffi_1970 at yahoo.com] 
Gesendet: Dienstag, 20. November 2007 03:06
An: c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch
Betreff: Living Peace- an invitation

Living Peace: the open space of our lives

An invitation

November 18,2007

Dear Catherine, 

We are writing you to invite your contribution for an e-book, tentatively
entitled Living Peace: the open space of our lives. OST facilitators from
around the world, experienced and people new to the practice, are being
contacted for this project.

Harrison's last book was The Practice of Peace. It was a thoughtful,
playful, compelling, and engaging invitation to consider that the everyday
practice of Open Space in organizations is the practice of peace. If that is
so, then perhaps, taken together, those who work with OST have something to
offer the world about living peace on a day-to-day basis? 

  <file:///C:\DOCUME~1\RAFFIA~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image002.jpg>

There have been many conversations about the personal practice of open
space, but to our knowledge this has not been captured as a book. Chris
Corrigan and Michael Herman have elaborated an invaluable perspective on
that practice. And I credit them, Wendy Farmer-O'Neil, Birgitt Williams, and
Harrison Owen as inspiration for this book.

This book aims to deepen the conversation about the personal practice of
Open Space.

For the book, we'd like to invite you to answer one question: 

"What is your practice of Open Space?" 

This is an inquiry into how each of us bring open space into our lives, how
we live Open Space.

In addition, you are invited to submit resources for a resource section at
end of the book on practicing Open Space in life. We welcome any materials
you see as valuable in deepening the personal practice of Open Space.

A maximum length of two pages for each contribution is suggested, and this
is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule.

We'd like to ensure a broad representation of voices in the book, both in
terms of perspective, experience, and geography. This invitation will also
be posted to English-language OSlist and other OSlists around the world. 

If you have any particular suggestions of people who should be contacted to
participate in this initiative, let me know!

If you think you will be able to make a contribution, please email Raffi at
<mailto:raffi at bk.ru> raffi at bk.ru (or  <mailto:raffi_1970 at yahoo.com>
raffi_1970 at yahoo.com). We'd like to receive submissions by February 1, 2008.

Your piece can be anything that can be presented on a printed page, a story,
an essay, a parable, a word, a sentence, a picture, a diagram, anything that
can convey on paper what you understand your practice of Open Space to be.

If you'd prefer to share your practice of peace in a telephone conversation
that can be later transcribed into text, we'd be more than happy to do so.

The book will be made available for free online. Perhaps at a later point,
it might be available for sale in print form, in which case a significant
(50% at least) of proceedings will go to support the spread of OST around
the world.

Contributions will be selected by a committee (anyone with experience of OST
is welcome to participate in its work). All pieces will be available for
reading online, regardless of whether or not they are chosen for the book.

Vera "Dyomka" Vakulenko, a Moscow artist and community activist who designed
the Open Space on Open Space XIV logo and brought much spirit to that
conference will be illustrating this book. The drawing in this invitation is
hers!

We intend to publish the book in both English and Russian. If you can
circulate this invitation in other languages, it'd much be appreciated.

Your thoughts, questions suggestions and collaboration in this project are
welcome!

If you can submit something for this book, please let us know by email!

Respectfully and in appreciation,

Raffi Aftandelian

Vera "Dyomka" Vakulenko

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