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

Mon Aug 23 06:57:43 PDT 2010

Eleder you (and anybody else) are welcome to use the piece in any useful
way. That of course is the “OSLIST Way” where sharing is always the name of
the game. Your point about coming in and out of the water is important. We
all do it. And after all, a day on the beach is not to be sneezed at (unless
it is cold.) But I think it is useful to remember that even on that lovely
beach, Everything is Moving. I remember lying on Cannon Beach in Oregon and
suddenly recognizing that I (along with everything else) was definitely
rocking and rolling. Earthquake of course, but a useful reminder that the
beat goes on.

Harrison

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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From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of ELEDER
AURTENETXE PILDAIN
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 4:31 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Everything is Moving: An Invitation to Join the flow (longish)

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
<http://flowandshow.blogspot.com/2010/08/harrison-owen-on-life-open-space-fl
ow.html>  it for this blog that I called one day "Flow and Show" 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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