Hello, dear colleagues. I just cut off all my hair - so now I am wearing many hats. Among others, I have a tiara (as Access Queen) and a crown of oak leaves (as the current Poet Laureate for OSLIST). I write to you today as Poet Laureate. I am not a poet - or rather, we are all poets. As we all are healers. As we all are brave and wise. We just don't know it all the time. But I suspect that each of us is amazing. For today's piece of poetry, I submit to you another 'found' poem. Our wonderful colleague Laurel Doersam (Canada) first brought a found poem to our OSLIST when she herself was Poet Laureate. I love the idea (you can see another found poem if you look in the archives for "Found Poem - March 1-4, 2006 -- Touch the Now"). A found poem takes bits and phrases and puts them together in a way that pleases the poet. Perhaps you remember the recent conversation about the Mystery of Open Space.?
__________________________________________________________________________ The Mystery of Open Space "Found" Poem, May 10-14, 2006 Mystery: [Middle English misterie, from Latin mystrium, from Greek mustrion, secret rite, from musts, an initiate, from mein, to close the eyes, initiate.] The American HeritageR Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition-- Copyright C 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Close your eyes. and begin. Twenty one years ago, the first Open Space took place Since then 60,000 times 120 countries millions of people groups of 5 to over 2000 people local environmental planning designing new polymers redesigning manufacturing processes sharing knowledge across disciplines understanding each other across differences weaving peace 21 years in Open Space one wonderful, continuing, natural experiment the results have been consistent across facilitators, cultures, organizational types you would think that Open Space is the newest riskiest most avant-garde way of doing business. Something is definitely strange! Even the name sounds a little weird People speak of doing an Open Space with a sense of mystery and wonder usually associated with walking on the moon, raising the dead, or eliminating gravity There are lots of mysteries. Mystery. Eludes understanding. Unexplainable. What supposedly happens when you use it defies imagination. Just couldn't happen! But it does. More than that, it has happened thousands of times It continues to happen every time a group of people are invited to gather in a circle around a major issue of common concern Order happens, all by itself. They simply go to work. No fuss, no bother, no organizing committee, no facilitators nothing but people doing what they care to do relative to a subject of genuine concern. Mystery. Secret rite. As if anything in Open Space is secret. It is all there for you to see. And feel. Literally anyone can participate to fully bring ourselves to any and all conversations A space where we as participants feel we can easily choose to be ourselves. The real mystery is - Why is Open Space a mystery? The clues for solution lie right there in plain sight We stumble over them every day which only deepens the sense of mystery! Mystery. Miss the trees. Maybe we are trying hard to see a forest and we are missing the trees. Humans. They have this need to know. To explain the unexplainable. To define the indefinable. Something is definitely going on What does it mean? How does it work?? (we need to know) To some, it feels.unsettling. If nobody is in charge, maybe we all are Paradigm shift is a most painful and traumatic event. But what is the new paradigm? What is the new theory? What does it all mean anyhow? Some see it as pure magic that what happens could even happen. Some see no "magic" at all. Just the working out of complex systems which self-organize. For some of them, it's no big deal and in fact is just what complex systems do For some social network theory gives evidence and explanation of what happens. For some, the ability to allow the emergence of spirit and new collective consciousness blows them away. Other people, with different experiences, are going to tell other stories. What is a "mystery" is based on how you interpret your experience. When your theory is at odds with your experience, that would be some reasonable indication that a change in theory might be a good idea. I love the many mysteries. It is all questionable, It is all conversable. And in the mean time, the Space rolls on! Maybe if we just close our eyes and breathe we know without naming defining analyzing verbalizing it's okay to just know or to just not know Close your eyes. and begin. -- by Harrison Owen, Raffi Aftandelian, Larry Peterson, Joelle Lyons Everett and Lisa Heft May 14, 2006 ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e <mailto:lisah...@openingspace.net> lisah...@openingspace.net <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist