[OSList] Open Space -- Naturally

[doug]

Harrison--

Poetry, sweet poetry!

			:- Doug.



On Fri, 2011-04-29 at 11:58 -0400, Harrison Owen wrote:
> 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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>  
> 
> 
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