[OSList] an OS that was not called OS

[Christine Whitney Sanchez]

Thanks for the heartwarming story, Tree.  Self-organizing Love Machine - I’m adopting this as a new way to think about collective impact.

Hugs to you...

Namasté,

Christine 

Christine Whitney Sanchez
Innovation Partners International
Phoenix, AZ, USA  +1.480.759.0262
www.innovationpartners.com


On Jun 30, 2014, at 10:55 PM, Therese Fitzpatrick <therese.fitzpatrick at gmail.com> wrote:

Yesterday I volunteered at Berkeley's Karma Kitchen, run by a great nonprofit working to seed a gift economy called servicespace.org.  People pay what they want at the end, the food has no price. 

Karma Kitchen, and this happens in few cities -- not all in USA! -- takes over a kitchen on a Sunday. Pro chefs that work at the restaurant prepare a limited menu, including lots of vegan items so everyone can come. And all the work, other than cooking, is done by volunteers.

I waited on tables. Initially, the four wait persons were assigned tables but that approach quickly fell apart. We four servers, backed up by the awesome support in the kitchen and the couple of maestros whose jobs it was to keep things going smoothly.

At first, I felt territorial about my tables but it was not long before I realized my attitude was limiting. Instead of thinking that when someone else took an order from 'my' tables, I looked around to see what needed doing. And, not surprisingly to someone like me who lives in open space most of the time, the entire Karma Kitchen became a step-perfect dance in open space.

Afterwards, the lead volunteer spoke at the meal all the volunteers shared together when customers were no longer admitted. He spoke at length of the power of love. And I think he was right. Love had turned all of us into loving servers, servers to the people who came to eat, servers to one another and servers to ourselves.

It wasn't my turn to talk so I politely listened but I was itching to say "we became a self organizing love machine" and "we were in open space".

There were so many little interactions that happened in perfection, or, to use the Karma Kitchen language,things that happened in love.

Love. Open Space. Same thing to me.

-- 
Love rays,
Tree Fitzpatrick  (check out my new address)


. . . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with Augustine, "I want you to be," without being able to give any particular reason for such supreme and unsurpassable affirmation.  -- Hannah Arendt


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