Everything is Moving: An Invitation to Join the flow (longish)

ELEDER AURTENETXE PILDAIN eleder.aurtenetxe at gmail.com
Mon Aug 23 01:30:32 PDT 2010


Hi Harrison,

this is an empowering piece, least I can say.

I myself I´m still coming into and out of water once and again, and this
Monday Morning message is one that really invites me to accept that
everything is moving. I´ll enjoy more of life, sure,  as I, fearless, accept
it and flow with it.

I took the message and re-formatted it for this blog that I called one day
"Flow and Show"
<http://flowandshow.blogspot.com/2010/08/harrison-owen-on-life-open-space-flow.html>and
that I use as a personal notebook. Let me know if it´s ok with you, please.
(Otherwise I´ll delete this post, no problem.)

This message comes to me the week before we are moving from Bilbao to live
in a small town on the coast, called Mundaka. Now I think it´ll be easier to
leave the dock ;-)!

Eleder


2010/8/22 Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>

>  Our friend Suzanne Daigle sent me a note saying that it seemed I had been
> very quiet on OSLIST. It is true that I appreciate silence, but the real
> truth is, I was just thinking. Dangerous I know, but what follows is the
> result – and you can blame it all on Suzanne (Joke!). So what do you think?
>
>
>
> **************************************************************
>
>
>
> A long time ago a good friend, Ralph Copleman, was to be found in the
> middle of a large circle of peers dressed in a flowing cape and repeating
> the words, “Everything is moving, Everything is moving.” Odd to say the
> least and some doubted Ralph’s sanity. Some still do, but that image has
> stuck in my febrile brain ever since – and as time has passed it occurs to
> me that Ralph had it precisely right: This is an energetic cosmos. The
> problem arises when we (and that includes all of us some of the time)
> desperately want everything to  stop and stand still. So desperately in fact
> that we have created a mental image of our environment exclusively populated
> by static things which include everything from mountains to super nova along
> with the oddments of our life like professions, chairs, relationships,
> organizational structures, corporations, countries and empires.
> Unfortunately this mental image is a radical illusion, one might say
> delusion. Ralph is right. Everything is moving and what we perceive as
> stable structures are but the momentary, slice in time, freeze-frame
> constructs of our imagination.
>
>
>
> Heresy? Psychobabble?  Advanced esoteric insight? – None of the above, I
> think. As a matter of fact, Ralph’s observation is nothing but a short
> (poetic?) version of the (now) standard scientific understanding of the
> nature of the cosmos. Starting with the Big Bang it is all flowing energy,
> albeit now clumped in momentary configurations – but still flowing energy
> for all of that. Scratch any rock hard enough and its essential nature comes
> through – a whirring bunch of quarks and neutrons doing the cosmic dance.
> Doubtless my physicist friends would take issue with my phrasing – but not,
> I think, with the core message. Everything is moving.
>
>
>
> So what does all this have to do with the price of eggs? Or for that matter
> – Open Space and our role as facilitators and consultants? A lot, I believe.
>
>
>
> Starting with Open Space which is many things to different people. For some
> it is a Large Group Intervention. Others might see it as an aberrant
> phenomenon peculiar to a cultish few. For myself Open Space is a trial ride
> in the flow of life which has a lot of similarities to my boat.
>
>
>
> My boat is smallish in size (32 feet) but definitely larger than the
> average punt. She is very seaworthy and shares a common heritage with the
> local Lobster Boats here in Maine. We have many visitors, most of whom have
> never been on a boat such as the Ethelyn Rose. When you walk on board,
> things look sort of familiar. Chairs for sitting, a comfortable nook for
> dining, and even an oriental rug on the floor – excuse me, sole. If you look
> further there are the standard amenities such as a shower and commode, all
> sequestered in their separate quarters. Even a complete landlubber will feel
> more or less at home.
>
>
>
> But the moment we leave the dock the world changes – apparent stability
> yields to constant motion. Everything is moving even if it seems to be
> staying in the same place! In the harbor motion is minimal, but the moment
> we clear the breakwater marking the harbor entrance the experience can be
> radically different. Sea swells from the open Atlantic Ocean take us up and
> down in distances measured in yards, and should we have a good cross wind
> the surface chop adds an interesting side to side motion. The Ethelyn Rose
> is right at home, but some of our visitors have a different impression. And
> navigating in these conditions is a definite learning experience. Even a
> simple walk through the main cabin can be a challenge. Hand holds that you
> had carefully plotted at the start of your journey suddenly changed position
> relative to you as you made your way. What was up is now down and who knows
> what is happening in between. Interesting, and as they say, It ain’t Kansas.
>
>
>
>
> Most people meet the challenge and after a few educational bumps to
> various parts of their anatomy they learn not to fight reality. No matter
> what you may have thought you were going to do, the only useful option is to
> go with the flow. And the next level of learning is that when you do that
> well (flow) you can actually arrive where you need to be. Wonderful! Sounds
> a lot like Open Space.
>
>
>
> We start in the static stability of a circle. This may seem strange to
> some, but there is a place for everybody and everybody finds a place. A
> familiar and enduring structure for sure. Then it happens. The circle
> crumbles in bits and pieces as people come to center, announcing their
> passions – only to be briefly restored as they return to their seats.
> However the restoration is but momentary. Shortly everybody leaves their
> seats to join a chaotic gaggle at the wall. So much for static structure,
> and it goes downhill from there.
>
>
>
> Ebbing and flowing, groups form and reform all without benefit of the
> standard constraints essential for orderly organizational life—or so we
> might have thought. Pre-arranged agenda (sometimes called Mission, Goals,
> Objectives) is nonexistent. The Schedule might be posted but never followed
> – things start when they start. Assigned participation is nowhere to be
> found, and yet the right people show up. And to make things even worse, the
> air is filled with buzzing and flutters as Bees and Butterflies do their
> thing. Madness! To be sure there may be a few people who are utterly
> flummoxed as the hand holds they may have expected (see above under “Ethelyn
> Rose at Sea”) disappear . . . or reappear in unexpected places. Their
> condition is not helped, for should they ask what to do the answer is likely
> to come back as a question – What would they care to do?
>
>
>
> A trifling few will lose heart and head for the shore – perceived
> stability. But the vast majority, as we have seen over the years and around
> the globe, will be totally captivated by the moment, and a smaller group
> will experience that moment as total exhilaration. They are doing what their
> prior life experience taught them could not be done – seriously and
> intentionally going with the flow. And rather than being rank hedonism, the
> experience proves to be massively productive and fulfilling. Doing well and
> good – and feeling great. A hard to beat combination.
>
>
>
> And then we come to Monday Morning. Back to reality, as they say. But is
> it? The truth, I believe is rather different. They have experienced reality
> and come to the edge of shedding illusion/delusion. In the words of friend
> Ralph, “Everything is moving” – and this is now a fact of life to be savored
> and enjoyed. No longer a terrifying unknown, it is to be affirmed and
> embraced. Not without a few “white knuckle” moments to be sure – but
> infinitely better than hanging onto the (illusory) rock of stability.
>
>
>
> So what about us – those privileged folks who have accepted the honor of
> opening space in people’s lives? Short answer: Invite our guests over the
> edge. Please note I did not say, Push them over the edge.
>
>
>
> Crafting this invitation is always a matter of personal style and must come
> from the heart. The invitation I have in mind never  appears on a piece of
> paper (or the electronic equivalent). It arrives in our personhood – who we
> are and how we present ourselves, which is to say, from the heart. Not to be
> confused with a gushy valentine or formulaic presentation, the invitation
> manifests in our simple presence, revealing our own acceptance and joy in
> the moving flow of life. Without words we express the swimmer’s call: Come
> on in, the water is fine! Of course you have to be in the water for that
> call to have any credibility.
>
>
>
> It is perhaps easier to say how NOT to create this invitation. First off,
> it is not a matter of rational argument and presentation of facts. Most
> people already know the facts at some level, and I think the case could be
> made that it was “rational argument” that has gotten us into the bind we
> experience. Given the “fact” of a moving, changing world which can be very
> uncomfortable, it is quite “rational” to define that world in terms of
> controllable static chunks that may be contained, or better, bent to our
> specifications.  This has led us to such wonderful things as “Flood Control”
> which works until such time as Mother Nature and Old Man River decide to
> take a different course. It turns out that The River is not a static,
> definable thing but part of a vast ever changing system. Effective Flood
> Control would require close management of the Planet’s atmosphere to say
> nothing of the cosmos beyond. Good luck!
>
>
>
> Also under the heading of “NOT to be included” are well intentioned efforts
> to sugar coat the pill, as it were. Which is to say that we might propose
> certain limitations that will restrict the  possibility of change in Open
> Space. Some of us have called these “givens” but so far as I can tell the
> only given is change itself. And to suggest otherwise is not so much to
> violate the “Spirit of Open Space” but rather the essence of the cosmos
> itself. Ralph had it right: Everything is moving. In this context, Open
> Space Technology is a minimal consideration.
>
>
>
> I am by no means suggesting that our invitation look like the back panel of
> some medication listing every possible adverce reaction, if in fact
> unexpected change is such an adverce reaction. And truth to tell I find the
> appearance of unexpected change in the midst of an Open Space to be one of
> its (OS’s) most delightful consequences. I also think that it is important
> to note the OS is not the engine of change. It simply provides the space for
> change to show up and the cosmos (or whatever) takes care of all the heavy
> lifting.
>
>
>
> For me an invitation to Open Space is an opportunity to include friends and
> strangers in the deepest experience of (my) life. It has little to do with
> selling a product, doing a process, excersizing some sort of professional
> competence – although there are doubtless elements of all of that.
> Fundamentally it is my invitation to experience life at its fullest in which
> chanagability is not the enemy to be suppressed but rather the rich tapestry
> of an evolving future. I don’t make it, I can’t predict it – but I can
> participate both as a sojourner and a co-creator. Stuart Kauffman speaks of
> being “At Home in the Universe.” That is my elemental experience, and I am
> always looking for playmates.
>
>
>
> Harrison Owen
>
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
>
> Potomac, MD 20854
>
> USA
>
> Phone 301-365-2093
>
> www.openspaceworld.com
>
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
>
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