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<DIV><FONT face=Georgia color=#800000 size=2><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>Chris's words that <FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#008000 size=3><EM>presence is no mere accident. It is the result of years
and years of practice...</EM> <FONT color=#800000>remind me of the idea that OST
has both form and essence. It seems to me that authenticity opens to
essence, pours into essence.</FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>As I reflect I realize how much I love working with
form. One word for this is craftsmanship (& surely
craftswomanship). I wonder what specific parts of working with the form
you love? For me, I love circling the chairs, both the big circle and
all the smaller ones. I experience a deep aesthetics around discovering
the center of the circle and setting up the chairs. Those who have worked
with me know that I can't talk to them or even listen to them while I'm doing
this (which is why I like to arrive so early & be alone so as not
to appear rude). There is a visceral moment when the circle is just right,
and the feeling of a particular smile born of that moment appearing on
my face.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>I also LOVE making the space-time matrix.
I prefer to do this after personally setting up the chairs at all the
breakout spaces, because then each of those spaces is already alive when I write
the name of the space on the post-it notes (and sometimes the spaces "tell me
their names" as I am setting up the chairs).</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>My experience of the opening is similarly
aesthetic. Instead of chairs and windows and markers and paper, the tools
have become words and silence and walking and eye contact. These
things are aspects of form, while <EM>invitation </EM>and
<EM>authenticity</EM> point a finger at the
essence.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>And then, as has been shared on the list before, comes
the pulsating blissful moment of <EM>stepping out of the
way.</EM></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006><EM></EM></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>So this message is about honoring form and about the
gift of craftsmanship through practice. I think back on my first OST as a
participant, which was at the OSonOS in Monterrey. I kept watching the
facilitators speaking and walking in the focus of all that inspired human energy
in the room, and hearing stories of giant high-profile events, and
thinking, as the quite-shy person I was, "These people are
fearless!" And then it is as though I picked up the form of OST and held
it in my hands like a flute, and over months and years I just started
playing. The more music came through, the more I appreciated the feel of
the instrument in my hands. My heart connects with the music and my hands
connect with the instrument. Until the day came when I could stand up and
play and the presence of a whole lot of brilliant people in the room didn't
evoke any fear because my fingers trusted the keys and I knew that the music was
coming from everybody.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006>Chris</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#800000 size=3><SPAN
class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Georgia color=#800000
size=2><SPAN class=068403105-30052006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT face=Georgia color=#000080 size=2>Chris
Weaver<BR>Springbranch, Inc.<BR>Asheville, North Carolina USA<BR></FONT><A
href="mailto:chris@springbranch.us"><FONT face=Georgia color=#000080
size=2>chris@springbranch.us</FONT></A><BR><A
href="http://springbranch.us/"><FONT face=Georgia color=#000080
size=2>http://springbranch.us</FONT></A></FONT></DIV>
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