Dear Catherine-my heart opens wide, wide, wide when I hear your story of such loss and deep sadness.
Here is Rumi: "your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror up to where you're bravely working." In honour of your courage and grief and your openness to what is happening, when it's starting, when it's ending and all those who are with you now, Kathryn Kathryn Thomson -------------------------- Proteus Communications prot...@shawbiz.ca Some doors open only from the inside Hafiz _____ From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Catherine Pfaehler Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:35 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: AW: Living Peace- an invitation Yes, I will submit something. Thank you for asking, Raffi. I haven't told OSLIST yet because there were so many emails as a consequence of it, but here we go: My two daughters Andrea (17) and Sarah (15) as well as their father and his new beloved have died on October 13 in that Nam Thaloo cave in Thailand which got suddenly flooded due to heavy monsoon rains. Had it not been for the Open Space principles, I would have despaired and gotten lost in resistance and fury etc. All the more since I have been consciously and daily dedicating my life to the divine for the past few years, it couldn't be anything else but: "Whatever happens. Whoever is there. When it starts. When it's over." Living with those principles since 1989, they have already carried me through my divorce from their father in 1995/96, and now through their leaving. It seems to me that somebody softly, yet definitely and decidedly closed the door of parenting in my life. There must be another big task waiting, and it will show itself. We got the news when on holidays in Spain, in Granada, on Sunday evening, October 14. On Monday, we were scheduled to arrive at Florian Fischer's home in Rodalquilar, Andalucia, only 3 hours from Granada. We couldn't have come to a better place. He and his family were wonderful, warmhearted and most compassionate hosts for us. You might remember: Florian was my Open Space mentor for the first big Open Space I was responsible for as a facilitator in April 2006 on the health of gay men, which in October 2006 led to an Open Space for people living with Aids. He coached me through all the preparations with the Swiss preparation group from Rodalquilar or Berlin via telephone or email, but then had to tell me he couldn't come to co-facilitate with me (I was meant to do the French part, he the German part) only two days before the April event for serious health issues. There also: Whatever happens. "the universe seems to think I can do it without Florian, so here we go." I learned a lot, especially regarding my energy reserves when an OS lasts for an entire week-end and I have to translate a lot more than expected. Of course I am sometimes very sad. And the part of me who has lived for over 11 years without my children half of the week now helps the sad mother in me, too. AND this brought me very close to the cancer patients and their relatives I was holding space for on November 10. So Open Space really is an ongoing spiritual journey for me, deeply rooted in my everyday life! Peace for me begins with my own peace of mind. The principles of OS are a big help in that for me. Love and gratitude to all of you - Catherine Catherine Pfaehler Senn lic.oec.HSG Open Space Begleitung Kellersriedweg 8 CH - 2503 Biel +41-(0)32 - 365 68 41 c.pfaeh...@bluewin.ch _____ Von: Raffi Aftandelian [mailto:raffi_1...@yahoo.com] Gesendet: Dienstag, 20. November 2007 03:06 An: c.pfaeh...@bluewin.ch Betreff: Living Peace- an invitation Living Peace: the open space of our lives An invitation November 18,2007 Dear Catherine, We are writing you to invite your contribution for an e-book, tentatively entitled Living Peace: the open space of our lives. OST facilitators from around the world, experienced and people new to the practice, are being contacted for this project. Harrison's last book was The Practice of Peace. It was a thoughtful, playful, compelling, and engaging invitation to consider that the everyday practice of Open Space in organizations is the practice of peace. If that is so, then perhaps, taken together, those who work with OST have something to offer the world about living peace on a day-to-day basis? <file:///C:\DOCUME~1\RAFFIA~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image002.jpg> There have been many conversations about the personal practice of open space, but to our knowledge this has not been captured as a book. Chris Corrigan and Michael Herman have elaborated an invaluable perspective on that practice. And I credit them, Wendy Farmer-O'Neil, Birgitt Williams, and Harrison Owen as inspiration for this book. This book aims to deepen the conversation about the personal practice of Open Space. For the book, we'd like to invite you to answer one question: "What is your practice of Open Space?" This is an inquiry into how each of us bring open space into our lives, how we live Open Space. In addition, you are invited to submit resources for a resource section at end of the book on practicing Open Space in life. We welcome any materials you see as valuable in deepening the personal practice of Open Space. A maximum length of two pages for each contribution is suggested, and this is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule. We'd like to ensure a broad representation of voices in the book, both in terms of perspective, experience, and geography. This invitation will also be posted to English-language OSlist and other OSlists around the world. If you have any particular suggestions of people who should be contacted to participate in this initiative, let me know! If you think you will be able to make a contribution, please email Raffi at <mailto:ra...@bk.ru> ra...@bk.ru (or <mailto:raffi_1...@yahoo.com> raffi_1...@yahoo.com). We'd like to receive submissions by February 1, 2008. Your piece can be anything that can be presented on a printed page, a story, an essay, a parable, a word, a sentence, a picture, a diagram, anything that can convey on paper what you understand your practice of Open Space to be. If you'd prefer to share your practice of peace in a telephone conversation that can be later transcribed into text, we'd be more than happy to do so. The book will be made available for free online. Perhaps at a later point, it might be available for sale in print form, in which case a significant (50% at least) of proceedings will go to support the spread of OST around the world. Contributions will be selected by a committee (anyone with experience of OST is welcome to participate in its work). All pieces will be available for reading online, regardless of whether or not they are chosen for the book. Vera "Dyomka" Vakulenko, a Moscow artist and community activist who designed the Open Space on Open Space XIV logo and brought much spirit to that conference will be illustrating this book. The drawing in this invitation is hers! We intend to publish the book in both English and Russian. If you can circulate this invitation in other languages, it'd much be appreciated. Your thoughts, questions suggestions and collaboration in this project are welcome! If you can submit something for this book, please let us know by email! Respectfully and in appreciation, Raffi Aftandelian Vera "Dyomka" Vakulenko * * ========================================================== 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 * * ========================================================== 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