Necessity of space

[Brendan McKeague]

beyond knowing, beyond words...this poem speaks 
to me of such a space...cheers Brendan

Learning to pray without words
by Fredrick Zydek

You must turn away from the speech center
until the desire for language slips beyond
the weary orbits of vocabulary and definition
into that place where wordless desires and urges
become the parents of deeds. In that moment,

a sacred place will seem to open and envelop
you like a room, but you will know it has been
there all the time. You will know without words
that you are suddenly doing more than just passing
through and that you have not so much entered

anything as regained an awareness of a place more
comfortable than your favorite pair of old shoes.
If you doubt this, try to remember that a kind of
chatting goes on all the time between trees, rocks,
clouds and the great I Am. The oceans know

when the moon pulls at them and the fishes too.
There is an understanding that goes on between
everything that is and what’s happening around them.
Call it discussion if you like. I think of it as prayer­
that stuff that looks for the slightest chance or hope

for knowing it is alive. It’s what we want whether
we make poems or just burrow beneath the sand.
The moss growing on the north side of trees knows
this. It doesn’t take words to lean into the wind
and know that something living has come your way.

Fredrick Zydek lives in Omaha, Neb.
From: “The Mennonite” a periodical of the Mennonite Church USA.


At 11:49 PM 7/05/2009, you wrote:
>Christy--
>
>Wow! You have left me saying Wow!
>
>What an evocative notion--the space is alive. Is this true? Can we make
>it so? Can we at least meet it so?
>
>There are excerpts of Alexander's 4th book here:
>http://books.google.com/books?id=6CIHB3_1tLMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=christopher+alexander+nature+of+order#PPA1,M1
>
>I have found his writing evocative as well. His books are huge, and sell
>by the pound. Now I have to mortgage my house to get these books....
>
>What do you suppose might be the recursive structures built up in open
>space?
>
>Harrison said that it takes a lifetime to explore open space, and here
>for me is a new main artery.
>
>Catherine, I like your image of a porous embrace. How do you see time
>fitting into this living space of recursive structures? Could you say a
>little more, please?
>
>Still pondering....
>
>                         :- Doug.
>
>
>
>
>On Tue, 2009-05-05 at 23:09 -0700, Christy Lee-Engel wrote:
> > Hi dear Doug,
> >
> > Well, your question reminds me of hearing friends talk about architect
> > Christopher Alexander's work, in which he emphasizes that "space must
> > be considered an almost living entity ­ a kind of stuff which,
> > depending on the recursive structures that are built up in it, becomes
> > progressively more and more alive."
> >
> > So that space can be more alive or less alive.
> >
> > I haven't read Alexander's 4-Volume "The Nature of Order" yet, and so
> > I don't know what "these fifteen properties" are - but this quote from
> > a book review makes me want to read it and find out!:
> >
> > "Systems in space which have these fifteen properties to a strong
> > degree will be alive, and the more these properties are present, the
> > more the systems which contain them will tend to be alive."
> >
> >
> > http://natureoforder.com/overview.htm
> >
> >
> > love & blessings,
> >
> > Christy
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 5/5/09, douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com> wrote:
> >         Hi space dancers:
> >
> >         Recently someone pointed us to a poem about how open spaces
> >         are
> >         necessary for a fire. It has had me pondering.
> >
> >         At first I said, Sure, she is speaking of oxygen. Fires need
> >         oxygen. Now
> >         I am not so sure that is what she meant, or at least what is
> >         true. So I
> >         am asking you my friends, what you have observed.
> >
> >         Just how important is the physical space for opening space? I
> >         am not
> >         talking about amenities like chairs and windows and air, nor
> >         about the
> >         exact number of square meters needed per person (this is
> >         cultural: some
> >         cultures want to be close enough to feel each other's breath;
> >         some want
> >         more distance). In Open Space Online we have a metaphorical
> >         space for
> >         our chats; in face to face, we have that physical space. Is
> >         that space
> >         in the center of the circle a separate, unnoticed but
> >         essential, element
> >         in conversation?
> >
> >         The flames need to lick upwards, the heat needs someplace to
> >         go, the
> >         light needs to escape. The betweens are necessary to give
> >         birth to the
> >         what and who is emerging from our collective. What is the role
> >         of space?
> >
> >                                        :- Doug.
> >
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