Blissful journey in Open Space

Fri Apr 23 20:37:32 PDT 2010

Ah, Suzanne - you do have a wonderful way with 
words!  Looking forward to more conversation in 
Berlin.

Gail

>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 timeŠor 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

-- 
Gail West
ICA
3F, No. 12, Lane 5, Tien Mou West Road
Taipei, Taiwan 111
8862) 2871-3150
SKYPE   gwestica

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