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Thanks Harrison and Harold and the others for sharing your inspiration.
It makes me smile and I can feel like the fish watching you and being
happy.<br><br>
A lesson that I draw from it is that I myself tend to want to find the
perfect wave, and my challenge is that I wait too long, never jumping
because I keep expecting the next wave to be even better. For me, it is
also important to take the jump and go with whatever I get and be happy
with it.<br><br>
Love,<br><br>
Koos<br><br>
<br>
At 09:00 27-8-2010, Harold Shinsato wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">An amazing piece, Harrison -
thank you - it was worth several readings. I concur with what Suzanne
highlighted, and at the same time - there were so many "i gotta
quote that" moments as I read it. I'm glad Eleder added lots of
literal color with his comprehensive quote of your writing on his blog.
"Invitation" is so much what Open Space is about - and it's
really an invitation to deepen - an invitation into our selves. I'll take
that invitation - and pass it on with this message.<br>
<br>
Your post title, everything is moving, evokes thoughts about Buckminster
Fuller when he said "I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary
process". I wonder where this email thread will evolve.<br><br>
Earlier this month I was in Orlando at Agile 2010, an annual software
conference that got started early in the aughts, the 00's, as a purely
Open Space Technology event - but which the organizers decided "OST
wouldn't scale". So the Open Space morphed into "Open Jam"
on the "sidelines" which people mostly pass on their way to
officially chosen events, and which has no facilitated opening, circle,
or closing. OST would make the event so much better, but I'm glad there's
at least some of that same spirit. It was great getting to meet and
interact with attendees at these more spontaneous sessions - several of
which were touted in the twitter world as "my favorite session at
Agile 2010".<br>
<br>
One of those "Open Jam" sessions was an actual 90 minute Open
Space Technology event at 7:30am the morning. To make that early hour
even more challenging, it was after the conference party. Suzanne Daigle
facilitated it - and it was wonderful. Even with only about 10 people and
just one session - it was such a refreshing process. It was invigorating
as opposed to so many other sessions at Agile 2010 which were really
exhausting. The people who showed up at our mini OST were just the right
people, even at that early hour after only a few hours sleep. The theme
was also exciting - taking Scrum and Agile beyond software - a
foreshadowing of the event Suzanne will facilitate in Phoenix next month.
<a href="http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/">
http://phoenix.scrumgathering.org/<br>
</a><br>
Since I was in Florida for Agile 2010, I was fortunate enough to visit
Sarasota and enjoy the Gulf of Mexico waters lapping gently on the
"west coast" of Florida (thank goodness there was nary a sign
spilled oil). The waves were small, but large enough to do a bit of body
surfing, and since my head was swimming with Open Space Technology after
hours of speaking with Suzanne Daigle - it's no surprise that I thought -
Hey... I'm a wave rider.<br><br>
Here are my wave rider lessons from body surfing in Florida:
<ul>
<li>Being in a gentle surf and fairly shallow water made it possible to
learn quite a few wave rider lessons very quickly. How true is that too
with OST when it is facilitated well - there is safety to bring up your
issues and not worry if no one shows up and the freedom to use your 2
feet when it's time to learn something else.
<li>Body surfing requires finding and waiting in the place just before
the waves break, perhaps I can call it "the zone". The best
breaking waves do have a tendency to congregate in the zone. So I was
using my "two feet" to get there, but the location of the zone
kept changing. Being in "the zone" is a lot easier if you don't
try so hard to be in "the zone".
<li>When I caught a really good wave - it was great fun riding it to the
shore. But catching a wave totally took me out of the wave breaking zone.
It made me realize that success, catching a wave, ends up with me laying
on the sand surrounded by foam as the shattered remnants of the wave
recede behind me back into the ocean. Once the wave is over, it means
getting up and then making a not so exciting hike/swim back to the zone.
Maybe it's good to remember that wave riding is about more than just
catching the perfect wave.
<li>It was interesting waiting for waves. Every time I caught a great
wave, there was another one just after it that was even better, so I had
some great luck letting a good wave pass to catch an even better one.
Maybe it's like versions of software... you don't usually want to jump on
wave 1.0 - sometimes the best wave is just after the first one. Maybe
it's also like that for the issue/theme you might want to work on. If you
jump on wave 1.0, maybe you'll be on the shore when wave 2.0 comes.
<li>I was so happy after just a little bit of body surfing, when I waded
out of the water I noticed these teaming schools of small fish swarming
around my legs. So much life, gleaming and darting and glittering. I
think they were there before, just beneath the surface, but I felt oddly
and serenely certain that they could sense my happiness and they were
dancing with my joy - happy finally to share it with me. How much of the
dance is happening right now just beneath the surface of the water - no
matter where we are on the wave.
</ul> Yours in Open Space,<br>
Harold (in Montana)<br><br>
<br>
On 8/26/10 4:34 PM, Suzanne Daigle wrote: <br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><br>
<pre>Harrison,
I accept the blame gladly if chiding you for being quiet led to this.
Salutations to Ralph who inspired the "everything is moving"
with you
then taking us all on a journey at sea on the Ethelyn Rose. Virtual
Wave Riding on this 25th anniversary year of Open Space. How fitting!
Of everything that you wrote here, what speaks to me most is this
sentence:
"For me an invitation to Open Space is an opportunity to include
friends and strangers in the deepest experience of (my) life."
Thank you Harrison for inviting us all as you have all these years
which has led us to invite others and each other in this big global
community. In the spirit of invitation, how I wish I could know and
hear all those who are out there now in the simplicity of this moment
whether it's sitting at the kitchen table like me so glad that the sun
is out after 4 days of gray skies and rain. If anyone feels so
inclined, I invite you to come to the middle of this virtual circle to
write a few words on one of the big white sheets of virtual paper on
the floor.
It's an invitation to everyone out there to Open a bit of Space to
share for a brief magical moment where you are, how you feel or what's
up with you right NOW, wherever you are! Not much that I know
most
days, but one thing I know for sure is that connecting with others
gives me courage and much joy!
Whimsically curious in Florida, Suzanne
</pre><font face="Courier New, Courier"></font></blockquote><br>
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