[OSList] Open Space -- Naturally

[Harrison Owen]

Michael's recent posting is a gem, I think. Particularly when he said,  " so
we don't so much as teach open space, but suggest that it's normal, and
useful... then it's easier to deal with some of those complex, diverse,
urgent, passionate meeting situations." 

 

It is a common phenomenon that when first experiencing Open Space we tend to
be blown away by the elegant simplicity, the ease and intimacy of
relationships, the power of the energies released, the productive creation
of new and fascinating ideas. And when contrasted with our everyday
experience it almost seemed that we had entered a new world.  The contrast
was painful and almost inevitably yielded the "Monday Morning Syndrome."
After having wandered in something like the Garden of Eden it is very
difficult to contemplate a return to the normal drudge of the typical Monday
Morning.

 

I can surely understand the feelings if only because they were my own.
However, if 25 years with Open Space have taught be anything, it is that the
Monday Morning Syndrome is a matter of choice, and the pain experienced is,
to some large extent, a self inflicted wound. There is probably no way to
change the frustrations and tribulations of the world we live in - stuff
happens. But what can change is the way we perceive all of that and seek to
deal with it.  If our response to Tribulation X and Frustration Y is to yank
the (supposed) levers of control, and then feel guilty or victimized when
our best efforts fail - as is almost inevitably the case - the misery we
experience is of our own making. And there is another way, a very natural
way. Just open space.

 

Opening space is not a matter of designing a process, even less of doing a
process. For the process pre-exists ourselves by millennia, and if anything
- the process does us. It is just as natural as breathing. Maybe it is
breathing?

 

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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