[OSList] Thinking...

Sun Nov 5 21:34:07 PST 2017

Hi Rob,

Harrison’s words are very welcome reflections on life, but, Rob, I am shocked to hear what you have endured. Curiously, what doesn’t surprise me is positivity and energy with which you write about your cancer, surgery and chemotherapy. These are the very same qualities that impressed me way back in 2002 at Marysville when you led a guided tour of the Aussie bush and imbued it with your wisdom and knowledge.

You are an inspiration to us all!

David

Dr David Smith
BSc(Hons) PhD FRSA
Trading as imaginACTION 

50 Sweyn Street
Balwyn North
Victoria   3104
AUSTRALIA

t +613 9857 8688
m 0411 444 048
david at imaginaction.net.au
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iA

imaginACTION
Winner 2016 Victorian Community History Award 

for Historical Interpretation

Duldig Studio Documentaries Volume 1

Overall  Winner,  
Australian Achiever Awards
Victorian TV, Film, Audio and Video

From: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of R Chaffe via OSList
Sent: Monday, 6 November 2017 9:57 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Cc: R Chaffe
Subject: Re: [OSList] Thinking...

Hello Harrison,

Thank you for sharing and restating the core things we struggle with when we meet.  Sometimes the chap in the mirror struggles with the basic facts of effectively living.  Yes life can be seen as a series of “questions” that each day when we wake we make choices as we decide the right thing to do.

Those of us who shave each morning are confronted by the reality of the others in our lives starting with that chap in the mirror.

You raise again the issue of the one certainty of life as death.  Yet in death we have life and the cycle continues.

So often when we gather we see it as an event almost totally forgetting that nothing exists in isolation in the complex system called the world.  Taking an opportunity to explore options(issues and opportunities) is being “mindful” or our place.  Just as you drifted down the lake you used the opportunity to identify one thing that is essential to a discussion “why”.   

There seems to be a fixation on time in the modern world that is dictated by a mechanical, now electronic device.  What a nonsense.  As I explore my options I am continually drawn to Ecclesiastes where there is an expression of time as action.  Time to live, time to die, time to plant, time to harvest and so on.  There is no mention of “clock” time.

When we separate reality from life we are driven by clock time, must hurry, must be on time etc.  This becomes an obsession and we cloud our life with schedules and stuff.

In my situation as I recovered from very serious surgery both physical and radiology followed by the reality of living with paraplegia and chemical treatment for cancer along with Oncologists who struggle to define what the treatment will do to me I have reflected on the questions you raise.

The psalmist began The Lord is my shepherd . I shall not want.

Yes it sounds as trite as Open Space.  

There are shepherds who guide and protect us and in my case I believe there is one full of  love, peace, hope and joy who ensures I can live to my full potential.

The second statement is the one that is so often glossed over, it is definitively the one that says it all.  Everything that I need is provided.   We can best understand this as we gather in the circle (enough said about this natural and most powerful way of gathering) we have a chance to reveal this reality as each is encouraged to contribute (live) we are”mindful” of the changes we should explore.

Yes, I do not want.  How lucky can we be to have such abundance of goodness that surrounds us.  How lucky are we to have “Open Space” as a way of sharing the “way” to  exposing goodness and dealing with the distractions of modern life.

John Dunne captured the reality of death and the glory of life when he wrote:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow 

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 

>From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, 

And soonest our best men with thee do go, 

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. 

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, 

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, 

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well 

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? 

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. 

Living and life is so different, just as Open Space is

Regards

Rob

On 5 Nov 2017, at 11:36 pm, Harrison Owen via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

I have been asked on occasions (by myself and others) what did I do – exactly. Truthfully I’ve never really had a good answer, but I’ve been trying. The latest effort may be viewed at http://openspaceworld.com/AweOfSacred_HarrisonOwen.pdf Please share if you care.

Harrison

Winter Address

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Camden, ME 04843

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