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Doug Germann quotes me to the effect that going deeper involves the
withdrawal of the facilitator (Pg 110 of the User's Guide). I checked,
and I certainly said that, but that is not all I said. I was thinking
mostly of physical presence, and therefore physical withdrawal -- as in
moving out of the spotlight, always expanding the space in which people
can find their own power. In my experience, however,
"withdrawal" is never to be confused with <i>leaving</i>. As I
withdraw I find myself more intensely present. Somewhere else, I came up
with the odd notion of being <i>totally present and absolutely
invisible</i>. For obvious reasons, we never quite pull this one off, but
we can make some real progress. And when we do, I find that amazing
things happen -- most of which we never could have predicted, and none of
which occurred because of our control. I call this, letting go, but not
giving up.<br><br>
Judi Richardson explores this strange paradox magnificently, sharing her
own sense of vulnerability. Speaking personally, I surely know that
feeling of vulnerability. Yet in an interesting way, the greater my sense
of personal vulnerability, the larger my sense of my own personhood --
and maybe even power. I find myself by losing myself. I am sure
that this experience is not my alone, and I think of my young Palestinian
friend, Carol Daniel with whom I had the pleasure to work in Ramallah
several weeks ago. She shared her experience with colleagues from around
the world who have joined me in The Practice of Peace program. With her
permission, I share them with you.<br><br>
"I'm still overwhelmed by the experience I had with Harrison
in Ramallah, he introduced the word 'Peace' for the Palestinians in a
fantastic way as if it was used for the first time and never existed
before in the dictionary. Palestinians used the real meaning of Peace all
over the training, they brought it up in nearly every small discussion
group they created, peace within themselves, peace at work, peace with
their children and later on passed to the causes of non inner peace:
sexual frustration, wrong education, how to raise children to be more
open and keen and so on. I personally never witnessed such openness
within the Palestinians and more amazingly between men and women. Until
that minute I wasn't sure about the power of the OS spirit and its
immediate influence on people. <br>
Harrison whispered in my ear the second evening that he will be leaving
Ramallah early, and asked me to continue the third day with the
participants, I was really shocked and in disbelief that I could do it
without him. I didn't sleep that night, I was happy and confused and
tensed all at the same time. When the time arrived and I had to swim
alone without my teacher, I looked at the great group of people that were
there and started to go around the circle over and over again while they
were sitting in silence, waiting for myself to feel more relaxed to open
the space and then I requested that they join me."<br><br>
Somehow, vulnerability is power of the very best sort.<br><br>
Harrison<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<div align="center">Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854 USA<br>
phone 301-365-2093<br>
Open Space Training
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</a>
<br>
Open Space Institute <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
Personal website <a href="http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm" eudora="autourl"><font color="#0000FF">http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm</a><br><br>
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