Blissful journey in Open Space

Chris Corrigan chris at chriscorrigan.com
Thu Apr 22 18:26:16 PDT 2010 

Wow Suzanne...what a gift to share that gratitude with us on this list and I second Elwin in saying that you have probably spoken for the vast majority of us.  You describe my own path in the world of Open Space quite accurately too - I see myself in your journey - and in reading what you have written I feel that kernel of gratitude for all those who have been similarly inspired by Harrison's gift and have given freely of their time and energy and tools and money to ensure that this community thrives and that we can all stay centred in our practice so that we can offer what is needed to places where the space is closed, tight, hot and sticky.  

Sometimes just taking a breath of fresh air is a radical act, the act of starting over with beginner's mind, beginner's appreciation, beginner's gratitude.  Thanks for reminding me of the feeling.  

Chris
----
Chris Corrigan
chris at chriscorrigan.com
http://www.chriscorrigan.com


On 2010-04-22, at 6:24 AM, Suzanne Daigle wrote:

> Dear Open Space friends, I was going to send a personal thank you note
> to Harrison (who I'm glad to say has become my friend as he is to all
> of you and all of us). Instead I decided to just put myself out there
> again in this community and send it to everyone.
> 
> As I prepare for my upcoming trip to Berlin, celebrating my first year
> of Open Space following wonderful training by Diane Gibeault in Ottawa
> in April last year, I just decided to share my story and my feelings
> with all of you.  I am truly in awe that Open Space is celebrating 25
> years this year in the city where the Berlin Wall used to be.  I
> cannot help but feel it is significant -- significant thinking of all
> the Berlin Walls that should fall in so many places in our world where
> people feel overwhelmed by the things that seem to be crashing down
> around them.  Yet I feel that this deep pain is possibly the signal of
> a collective and global rebirth.  But to notice and see, we must open
> up space in our lives.  As we do, we realize that what matters most is
> what's inside of us.  It's why I am as drawn today to Open Space as I
> was the first time I "met" OS a year ago. So today I decided to press
> the "send button" ....thank you Michael Herman that it's working so
> well allowing me to share how I'm feeling on the eve of my trip to
> Berlin.   I can't wait to meet so many that I have been reading here
> and others who I know already. I feel such gratitude to have the
> opportunity to be there. I've even decided to do a second training in
> Open Space in Berlin to deepen my practice and learning with many from
> other countries.
> 
> Now for my note that I had intended to send to Harrison:
> 
> 
> Hi dear friend Harrison,
> 
> My « bliss » journey continues and I know you said Thank you not
> required.   But I still want to say thank you.
> 
> You see for me I’ve connected that the “song” (from mythology) leading
> me here came from my first encounter of Open Space. It “caught me”
> then and without knowing in the darkness of it all, I chose to make it
> my life path. Hugely unsettling as it made me question so much of who
> I was and had done in my career and in my life.  It led me to a deep
> searching, so much reading, throwing myself into Open Space as a
> practice every chance I could finally leading me...inside myself.  As
> I started to go there and for me this is just the start, I realized
> that by just 'being' instead of 'doing', life around me was changing!
> My relationships with my mom, my dad, daughter and siblings, friends
> and others are so much richer.  I’ve met so many people this past year
> leading to so many “big talk” conversations instead of small talk --
> conversations where it feels like we're  Expanding our Now.  (a
> Harrison book).
> 
> Often, I felt like I needed to go into my cave disconnecting, knowing
> that I will be reconnecting with quiet purpose following my bliss in
> the years ahead.  Not easy to do in a society that expects us to do
> more and more with less all the time. Plus there is this little thing
> called paying your bills. Yes, it has been blissful, easy no!
> 
> As I have embarked on this journey, I read what you’ve and many others
> have written, great thinkers and many authors you spoke of in your
> books.  Myth, philosophy, science, etc.  Like a kid, reading Hardy Boy
> mysteries, it’s been magical.  And through it all, I think of Open
> Space, its principles, its law and what it awakens in many people
> inviting them to Freedom and Choice, to the place inside of them that
> makes you feel like a kid again that is your life..
> 
> Everywhere around me, I see people racing, running, worrying without
> ever having time…or taking time.  By opening space, wherever and
> whenever I can, 24X7 (for me once a month participating or
> facilitating: this weekend with the Girl Scouts), I feel I can do a
> small part for people to perhaps discover as I did the magic that is
> within them.
> 
> In my continuing words of thank you, a brief paragraph from one of
> Joseph Campbell’s writings captured in the book Pathway to Bliss
> talking about Arthur’s banquet hall with all the knights around the
> Round Table. To me, it spoke Open Space.
> 
> “They thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in  a group. Each
> entered the Forest Adventurous at that point which he himself had
> chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path.” You enter
> the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there’s
> a way or path, it is someone else’s path; each human being is a unique
> phenomenon.  The idea is to find your own pathway to bliss.
> 
> Harrison when I sat in a circle for the first time, it felt like a
> scary dark forest for me – someone who had lived in hierarchy all my
> life, career and otherwise seeking to do what others defined to be
> “living responsibly” in a command-control sort of way. I felt it then
> and I feel it now that by opening space, there is a big chance that
> Open Space will "catch others" too. I don't know if you can find this
> place alone, by yourself. For me, I found it sitting there with others
> in my first Open Space when I was in  Canada. I believe with Open
> Space, we can discover ourselves and what we're passionate about and
> from that place, we create community, a new community where people can
> just be themselves, give of their individual gifts, appreciate others
> and create in a new way, paying attention and noticing what matters,
> expanding their now.
> 
> So folks, now I press the send button feeling a bit vulnerable,
> questioning as I always do if silence is not more effective because in
> the end knowing our journeys are always unique and personal, I know
> that it is not by "telling" that we find our journey but in
> discovering it ourselves.
> 
> I know had I been reading this before I "met" Open Space leading me to
> my path, it would have scared me to read this as if someone was
> pushing a religion on me.
> 
> And yet here in this community which feels like home, I felt it was ok
> to share especially now less than a month away from the Berlin WOSonOS
> with OS happenings in Australia as well and Brian Bainbridge in our
> thoughts.
> 
> Love to all, Suzanne
> 
> 
> -- 
> Suzanne Daigle
> NuFocus Strategic Group
> 7159 Victoria Circle
> University Park, FL 34201
> FL 941-359-8877;
> CT 203-722-2009
> www.nufocusgroup.com
> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
> 
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>From  Thu Apr 22 22:02:35 2010
Message-Id: <THU.22.APR.2010.220235.0400.>
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:02:35 -0400
Reply-To: 76066.515 at compuserve.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: doug <os at footprintsinthewind.com>
Subject: Re: Blissful journey in Open Space
In-Reply-To: <p2la36b0b7e1004220624x14d1c8bak30ed11afc4e5f00b at mail.gmail.com>
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Suzanne--

Wonderful! You keep us all chasing our bliss in this world work.

I especially like your turn of phrase, "Big talk."

			:- Doug.



On Thu, 2010-04-22 at 09:24 -0400, Suzanne Daigle wrote:
> Dear Open Space friends, I was going to send a personal thank you note
> to Harrison (who I'm glad to say has become my friend as he is to all
> of you and all of us). Instead I decided to just put myself out there
> again in this community and send it to everyone.
> 
> As I prepare for my upcoming trip to Berlin, celebrating my first year
> of Open Space following wonderful training by Diane Gibeault in Ottawa
> in April last year, I just decided to share my story and my feelings
> with all of you.  I am truly in awe that Open Space is celebrating 25
> years this year in the city where the Berlin Wall used to be.  I
> cannot help but feel it is significant -- significant thinking of all
> the Berlin Walls that should fall in so many places in our world where
> people feel overwhelmed by the things that seem to be crashing down
> around them.  Yet I feel that this deep pain is possibly the signal of
> a collective and global rebirth.  But to notice and see, we must open
> up space in our lives.  As we do, we realize that what matters most is
> what's inside of us.  It's why I am as drawn today to Open Space as I
> was the first time I "met" OS a year ago. So today I decided to press
> the "send button" ....thank you Michael Herman that it's working so
> well allowing me to share how I'm feeling on the eve of my trip to
> Berlin.   I can't wait to meet so many that I have been reading here
> and others who I know already. I feel such gratitude to have the
> opportunity to be there. I've even decided to do a second training in
> Open Space in Berlin to deepen my practice and learning with many from
> other countries.
> 
> Now for my note that I had intended to send to Harrison:
> 
> 
> Hi dear friend Harrison,
> 
> My « bliss » journey continues and I know you said Thank you not
> required.   But I still want to say thank you.
> 
> You see for me I’ve connected that the “song” (from mythology) leading
> me here came from my first encounter of Open Space. It “caught me”
> then and without knowing in the darkness of it all, I chose to make it
> my life path. Hugely unsettling as it made me question so much of who
> I was and had done in my career and in my life.  It led me to a deep
> searching, so much reading, throwing myself into Open Space as a
> practice every chance I could finally leading me...inside myself.  As
> I started to go there and for me this is just the start, I realized
> that by just 'being' instead of 'doing', life around me was changing!
> My relationships with my mom, my dad, daughter and siblings, friends
> and others are so much richer.  I’ve met so many people this past year
> leading to so many “big talk” conversations instead of small talk --
> conversations where it feels like we're  Expanding our Now.  (a
> Harrison book).
> 
> Often, I felt like I needed to go into my cave disconnecting, knowing
> that I will be reconnecting with quiet purpose following my bliss in
> the years ahead.  Not easy to do in a society that expects us to do
> more and more with less all the time. Plus there is this little thing
> called paying your bills. Yes, it has been blissful, easy no!
> 
> As I have embarked on this journey, I read what you’ve and many others
> have written, great thinkers and many authors you spoke of in your
> books.  Myth, philosophy, science, etc.  Like a kid, reading Hardy Boy
> mysteries, it’s been magical.  And through it all, I think of Open
> Space, its principles, its law and what it awakens in many people
> inviting them to Freedom and Choice, to the place inside of them that
> makes you feel like a kid again that is your life..
> 
> Everywhere around me, I see people racing, running, worrying without
> ever having time…or taking time.  By opening space, wherever and
> whenever I can, 24X7 (for me once a month participating or
> facilitating: this weekend with the Girl Scouts), I feel I can do a
> small part for people to perhaps discover as I did the magic that is
> within them.
> 
> In my continuing words of thank you, a brief paragraph from one of
> Joseph Campbell’s writings captured in the book Pathway to Bliss
> talking about Arthur’s banquet hall with all the knights around the
> Round Table. To me, it spoke Open Space.
> 
> “They thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in  a group. Each
> entered the Forest Adventurous at that point which he himself had
> chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path.” You enter
> the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there’s
> a way or path, it is someone else’s path; each human being is a unique
> phenomenon.  The idea is to find your own pathway to bliss.
> 
> Harrison when I sat in a circle for the first time, it felt like a
> scary dark forest for me – someone who had lived in hierarchy all my
> life, career and otherwise seeking to do what others defined to be
> “living responsibly” in a command-control sort of way. I felt it then
> and I feel it now that by opening space, there is a big chance that
> Open Space will "catch others" too. I don't know if you can find this
> place alone, by yourself. For me, I found it sitting there with others
> in my first Open Space when I was in  Canada. I believe with Open
> Space, we can discover ourselves and what we're passionate about and
> from that place, we create community, a new community where people can
> just be themselves, give of their individual gifts, appreciate others
> and create in a new way, paying attention and noticing what matters,
> expanding their now.
> 
> So folks, now I press the send button feeling a bit vulnerable,
> questioning as I always do if silence is not more effective because in
> the end knowing our journeys are always unique and personal, I know
> that it is not by "telling" that we find our journey but in
> discovering it ourselves.
> 
> I know had I been reading this before I "met" Open Space leading me to
> my path, it would have scared me to read this as if someone was
> pushing a religion on me.
> 
> And yet here in this community which feels like home, I felt it was ok
> to share especially now less than a month away from the Berlin WOSonOS
> with OS happenings in Australia as well and Brian Bainbridge in our
> thoughts.
> 
> Love to all, Suzanne
> 
> 

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