<div dir="ltr">Hi Henri, Hi Thomas. . . . . I was quite sure that I caught glimpses of each of you at WOSonOS. . . Henri, you were one of my fireflies. Thomas, you were a wild daisy on the lawn. I am quite sure.<br><br>Thomas, you are right, we can't say for certain that it will be Berlin in 10. . . that will be decided in Taiwan 09. I did write, previously, that it was decided but I didn't actually go to the circle where they decided where the next WOSonOS would be. I was outside, in the military cemetery, feeling the wind and sun, watching the water and listening to the steady hum of traffic below.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 2:39 AM, Thomas Herrmann <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thomas@openspaceconsulting.com">thomas@openspaceconsulting.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Thanks dear Tree for sharing your
impressions and how you chose to follow your heart during WOSonOS.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">It gives juice to my imagination of how
this years large international OS community gathering was – I'd be
glad to hear other voices of how you experienced it and look forward to reading
the proceedings from the OST-meeting.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">To all of you who invested in going to SF,
thanks for contributing to strengthening our community. I'm glad to hear Taiwan comes
next – I will put my intention to going there and hope it will work out
this time. Seems to me there was no definite decision for 2010? Although Berlin still seems to be
a good tip...</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Warm regards</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Thomas Herrmann </span></font></p>
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<p><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold;" lang="SV">Från:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;" lang="SV"> OSLIST [mailto:<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a>]
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">För </span></b>Tree Fitzpatrick<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Skickat:</span></b> den 29 juli 2008 01:09<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Till:</span></b> <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU" target="_blank">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ämne:</span></b> WOSonOS 08 : there were
fireflies and wildflowers . . . and sprites</span></font><span lang="SV"></span></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Because I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I could not resist
attending WOSonOS 08. I am not doing much consulting work these days.
I've just got one client and mostly that's a love connection. I am lost
in life. Don't fret on my behalf. Yes, I am lost but I am lost in
Open Space, where only the right things happen, at only the right moments. All
I have to do is pay attention to what has heart and meaning for me. Follow my
bliss, as Joseph Campbell once said!<br>
<br>
So I followed my bliss to WOSonOS. <br>
<br>
I almost didn't go. A few days before the event, I wrote and told Lisa Heft,
the registrar for WOSonOS 08 (and the famous Access Queen) and suggested maybe
I wouldn't come.<br>
<br>
Throughout the event, I decided to leave. Then I would have a butterfly
conversation, which would lead to another butterfly conversation. . . and then
another. I was there from beginning to end. . . <br>
<br>
The highlights of my experience:<br>
<br>
Chris Corrigan's children, Aine and Finn, and John Engle's children, Daniel and
Leila (I may spell her name wrong).<br>
<br>
Watching these children (holding Leila, a six-month old beauty) restored my
soul. One evening, Aine and Finn danced while wearing some cheap neon
necklaces that I had brought to the party. There were thirty of these
necklaces and the children had almost all of them wrapped around their wrists,
ankles, neck and waists. I was reminded of fireflies glowing in the dark
of the cosmos that evening. During the day time, watching the children
bowing and bending through the day, I was reminded of watching wildflowers
bending in a meadow under a light summer breeze. <br>
<br>
Suddenly, all the participants at WOSonOS began to appear to me like fireflies
and wildflowers.<br>
<br>
We met at a very beautiful location, at the Presidio, which used to be a
military base. The venue was high on a hill overlooking the very
beautiful bay, with the Golden Gate bridge within view, as well as Alcatraz (an island famous for once housing a prison!!)
and the jewel of the city of San Francisco. Blustery winds, soft breezes,
blue skies and white sailboats dancing on the water.<br>
<br>
I didn't go to any sessions but one. I attended the Open Space
Institute/USA session, which serves as our annual meeting, which we are
required to hold.<br>
<br>
I had a wonderful, fantastic time.<br>
<br>
But there were some rough moments. It is these rough moments that I wish
to report.<br>
<br>
I kept having a wonderful time, beautiful moments in which I glimpsed the
sparkle of love, much like I kept catching glimpses of sunlight dappled on the
bay. I would remonstrate myself, telling myself that I "should" go to
some sessions, I should act professional, I should do this and I should do
that. I would tell myself that since I wasn't going to sessions, I ought to
just go home. Each time I came to this turn in my thinking, one of the people I
already knew and already loved would appear and talk me 'down' by reminding me
that in OS I didn't have to go to any sessions.<br>
<br>
It can be tough, scary work to follow what has heart and meaning. It had
much heart and meaning for me, over these several days of WOSonOS 08 to be like
a firefly in the night and a wildflower in the daytime, bending in the
breeze. When I succeeded, when I surrendered to just showing up and just
being alive in the space, I was just fine. Bending, bending felt good.<br>
<br>
What if, by finding my right place in each moment, what if I really am
contributing to the whole of humanity? And what if everyone was able to find
their right place in each moment and to then find the next and then the
next? Would everything that 'needs' to be done get done? Would someone
harvest the fields and maintain the roadways? I think so. I hope
so. I don't know, not for sure, but I had these moments. . . these
magical moments when I completely knew that self-organization is the central power
of the universe and self-organization is love and if everyone extends
themselves in love, guided by the quickening that moves us from one room at an
OS event to the next, from one moment to another. . . . I have these fine
moments when I am sure that all is well. . . or, at least, all will be well
soon.<br>
<br>
I don't really know what happened at this WOSonOS. I scarcely heard any
of the Evening News or the Morning Announcements. There were people making
merry, children bobbing in the sunlight and Ms. Lisa Heft making me feel
special just because, lucky me, Ms. Lisa Heft glanced at me.<br>
<br>
And I glanced back.<br>
<br>
It might have been my imagination but each time anyone looked at me or looked
at someone else, it seemed to me like rays of light, like love rays. What
does draw people together to accomplish shared goals? What drew the first
circle of humans around the first fire? I submit that love draws us
together. <br>
<br>
I think many of us would edit the 'principles' of OS, rewrite Harrison's
initial inspiration. It wouldn't really matter if we did such a rewrite. . .
and, of course, people present suggestions all the time, on this list.
Me, when I hold space, when I open space for a group, I always want to talk
about love and trust, hope and faith.<br>
<br>
It is a beautiful, warm-but-not-hot, sunny-and-not-humid perfect day in Mountain View where I
live, where I am writing this. I am not sure if the glow I feel is the
glow of the sun or the glow of the magic of the space we created at WOSonOS.<br>
<br>
I love Open Space.<br>
<br>
WOSonOS 09 will be in Taiwan!
WOSonOS 10 is planned for Berlin.
Mark you calendars. Show up if you feel called to show up. Open Space. Then
open some more.<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
Love rays,<br>
Tree Fitzpatrick<br>
<br>
<a href="http://thecultureoflove.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://thecultureoflove.blogspot.com/</a><br>
<br>
. . . 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<br>
<br>
1335 Montecito Ave Apt. 35<br>
Mountain View, California 94043<br>
(650) 967-9260</span></font></p>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Love rays,<br>Tree Fitzpatrick<br><br><a href="http://thecultureoflove.blogspot.com/">http://thecultureoflove.blogspot.com/</a><br><br>. . . 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<br>
<br>1335 Montecito Ave Apt. 35<br>Mountain View, California 94043<br>(650) 967-9260<br>
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