<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Michael’s recent posting is a gem, I think. Particularly when he said, “ so we don't so much as teach open space, but suggest that it's normal, and useful... then it's easier to deal with some of those complex, diverse, urgent, passionate meeting situations.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It is a common phenomenon that when first experiencing Open Space we tend to be blown away by the elegant simplicity, the ease and intimacy of relationships, the power of the energies released, the productive creation of new and fascinating ideas… And when contrasted with our everyday experience it almost seemed that we had entered a new world. The contrast was painful and almost inevitably yielded the “Monday Morning Syndrome.” After having wandered in something like the Garden of Eden it is very difficult to contemplate a return to the normal drudge of the typical Monday Morning.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I can surely understand the feelings if only because they were my own. However, if 25 years with Open Space have taught be anything, it is that the Monday Morning Syndrome is a matter of choice, and the pain experienced is, to some large extent, a self inflicted wound. There is probably no way to change the frustrations and tribulations of the world we live in – stuff happens. But what can change is the way we perceive all of that and seek to deal with it. If our response to Tribulation X and Frustration Y is to yank the (supposed) levers of control, and then feel guilty or victimized when our best efforts fail – as is almost inevitably the case – the misery we experience is of our own making. And there is another way, a very natural way. Just open space.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Opening space is not a matter of designing a process, even less of doing a process. For the process pre-exists ourselves by millennia, and if anything – the process does us. It is just as natural as breathing. Maybe it is breathing?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Harrison<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Harrison Owen<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>7808 River Falls Dr.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Potomac, MD 20854<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>USA<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Phone 301-365-2093<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>www.openspaceworld.com<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Consolas'>To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:<a href="http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org">http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>