So great to hear form you Lisa. Always very inspiring to read you. Sending you big hugs from across the ocean. Christine
> Le 12 juin 2020 à 22:43, Lisa Heft via OSList > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> a écrit : > > Hello, OSLIST friends - > > I have not written anything here since 2016 - although I am still sitting in > the circle and listening in. > Some of you are dear friends from across the years (note my new email, by the > way). A few of you have mentioned that it might be nice if I wrote to the > list about how I am doing. > > This message is long, because a) I have not visited in awhile, b) I am having > a conversation with you here in my head over time, and c) in Open Space, even > a group of 1 can have a rich conversation for an entire session or longer - > and can then share their documentation of that exploration back to the rest > of the group in their Book of Proceedings. Of course you have a choice to > read it or delete it. > > Those of you who know me extra-well know that - since you have known me - I > have while working as a facilitator and educator also been very involved in > the care of elderly parents. What just a few of you know is that I have also > been living with a health condition called ME/CFS > <https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/about/index.html>. That condition has progressed. > I am fortunate that I am still able to care for myself, although here is one > way to describe this particular invisible-to-others disability: I have to > rest in-between putting on my right shoe and my left shoe. But I can still > put on my shoes ;o) (and hey, who needs shoes in COVID quarantine??) To > understand the impact of this health issue (for people who have it much much > worse than I do), perhaps your country offers access to a sobering yet > beautiful documentary called Unrest <https://www.unrest.film/>. A few years > ago I realized that true, radical wellness meant that I must release even > those things I love (love love love facilitation and teaching about > facilitation - love it). I did not feel sad releasing my client work - I felt > lighter. I still grieve not being able to teach and facilitate, and in so > many diverse settings, countries and cultures. But I knew immediately that it > was the right thing to do. Last year my amazing father died, this year my > amazing mother-in-law died, and after two decades of parental care, now my > wife and I have more time and energy to care for our selves. > > Interestingly, I never thought of myself as disabled until recent years, > because I simply lived my life. However, since my parents raised me in a > richly-diverse world, I have always had a passion for seeing / imagining / > designing with a priority of and focus on access and inclusion. So here I am > in an embodied experience exploring things I always imagined might be someone > else's experience. Fascinating. > > I write this next part simply to share my background, with those of you who > have not yet met me: I have facilitated for 40-something years. My interest > area is dialogic methods that scale up (only one facilitator needed for a > group of 5 or 3000+), that work across country and culture (without requiring > participants to learn someone else’s vocabulary; without working through the > facilitators’s own cultural filter), and in which participants frame their > own experience (rather than the facilitator doing so). When I say 'dialogic', > I mean those processes which engage participants in internal and external > dialogue (conversation with self, conversation with others). And when I say > conversation, I do not mean everyone has to speak aloud. Witnessing - fully > listening - is participation just as much as speaking. I use existing and > custom-designed processes which engage participants in silent reflection, > kinesthetic and graphic thinking, improv, role play, poetry creation, > movement, and (no surprise!) such methods as Open Space, World Cafe and > Focused Conversation Method. Here is another <http://www.openingspace.net/> > way of showing who I am (there are so very many different ways of seeing / > naming / showing one's self). > > And now I write this part to share what I feel so proud of - and because > writing this shows me back to myself, with you as witness to my "prouds". I > have much more life to live, but this is also a point of my life where I am > reflecting a bit. I am so proud of having been able to learn so much from and > with so many of you. I am amazed (but not surprised) about how Open Space (I > will call it OS) works. I have used it in over 20 countries, and within those > countries with participants of many mixes of cultures and countries of > origin. I have used it when only one person showed up, and with groups of > 3500. I have seen groups use it to figure out how to spend a billion dollars > of funding over the next several years, in a way that was different than they > did before, to bring positive impacts to programs, outcomes and communities. > Survivors of foster care or violence or disaster articulating their unique > and collective experience, grief and loss, and resilience. Communities > impacted by institutionalization, marginalization, corruption, exclusion or > resource elimination changing laws, changing narratives, changing other > peoples' minds. People in some countries (mine included) noticing how > participating in OS has given them their first experience of true democracy. > I have learned from exploring and experimenting with participant-centered > documentation design, with ways of helping groups think about, understand or > respond to the huge amounts of data generated at an OS (new thinking, new > relationships, potential projects or next steps, previously-unseen patterns), > from sharing differences in how I or others explain the principles and law, > when to call it OS and when it has been changed to become something slightly > different, what-to-do-when's (or what not to do), what-ifs, what is helpful > and what is too "helpy", and what can negatively impact or support the > outcomes and human dynamics possible with full-form OS. I am proud of > learning together with so many of you as we "unpack" OS - the doing of it, > but also the tasks and actions from pre-work to after the event. Exploring > what is true, diversity-welcoming invitation (resource generation, seen and > unseen actions, pre-work, registration design, site design, and ways of > seeing / listening / naming / honoring / celebrating / embodying). I am proud > of how my passion for documenting dialogue - both documentation design and > also participants' own hard work - has given thousands of participants back > their own amazing words and shown back to them their own system, answers, > resources, nutrient-rich unanswered questions, voices and discoveries - and > helped them integrate their experiences after (a big rest and) their dialogic > events. I have learned so much about what is action, when to separate an > event from post-event decision-making, and when the dialogue itself *is* the > action. *Is* the change. And how change does not have to be seen by a > facilitator to exist and to have an impact, in ways that many participants > have told me about long after their events. Proud of being able to access > such rich learning from some big mistakes or errors in understanding. And I > am informed by the principles and law and trusting the people and the process > being also ways of living life. > > (No, I might not answer your questions about any of these things above for > your own learning / comparing / contrasting to. Because I am way too > @$#@#&!%-ing fatigued. Writing this email has taken me quite a lot of energy > and many months to create. But if you have questions or wonderings, > agreements, disagreements with or diverse experiences about any of the above, > I invite you to give the gift of your exploration to this big circle here by > wondering out loud: Post to this list and explore together.) > > I am proud of having helped raise and share resources, traditions, > understanding, and access and inclusion for so many people from so many > countries and cultures - people of so many seen and unseen diversities - who > have sought to join our in-person tribal gatherings around the world. Proud > of being and helping Poets Laureate. Proud of helping and mentoring those who > courageously asked for help or ideas or ways of stepping in or speaking up or > being seen. Delighted at repeating explorations of (for example) > conversations in silence or in graphics or in movement - again and again > across the years - to see what we think might hold true - or not - about some > or all individuals or cultures around the world. Proud of finally making it > to an okay level of ability in Spanish to be able to teach and laugh and > explore in such a rich language and collection of cultures. Proud of engaging > in conversation with so many of you on this list - those who speak, and also > those who witness without speaking - about things with which we may or may > not agree, do or not do the same, understand or do not understand in the same > ways. Proud of our (and participants in my conferences, client work and > workshops) collective exploration to struggle to articulate the complex, the > unexplainable, the unnameable, and the unknowable, in our simple human > languages. > > I have conversations with so many of you, dear friends in my head - with each > of us sipping a beverage-of-choice and looking out into the garden and > talking about life. Or not talking, just sitting in rich nutritious silence > together. And I love both those conversations and that shared silence. > > For anyone worried (as we sometimes do when hearing about another's health > issue), do not worry: Although I do not feel pleasant and sometimes feel > worse, I am living a sweet life. I am very lucky, I love silence and have a > quiet sweet home to live in, a very supportive wife, nobody else's rhythm or > expectations to fit myself into, and some little creative > projects-without-deadlines. For example I am sewing my first-ever quilt > (blanket with patched-together fabrics and softness in-between), which began > with fabric from my father's softest shirts. I am watching some incredible > animals - including huge Bald Eagles in their nest > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyOFMZx0dTc> and a great view. (Bald Eagles > are huge - 1 meter / 6 feet long even before they spread their wings, and > when any of the eggs make it to hatching, they have cute babies. Nocturnal > animals such as flying squirrels and great horned owls visit the nest when > the eagles are away, eagle couples sing and love each other up, and chat > moderators share their vast knowledge for rich learning. And you can move the > timeline back to enjoy the sunrise or sunset in your own time, complete with > the sound of the stream below.) Molly makes me cocktails ;o) And I simply > sit, in silence, doing nothing, for long periods of time. I often think about > writing about this work that we do - so many stories and understandings and > learnings and still-unexploreds to share. But I do not hold that tightly as > it is not something my energy can include at this time. Who knows / be > prepared to be surprised / whatever happens and all that. > > I read emails but may never reply - it is often more than I can do. You who > love me know that I feel your love all the time. You also know that I feel > loved even by people I have not yet met - people I will never know. That is > how I am built. I feel lucky to have love and self-love, intuition, peace and > imagination as my navigational system. I am a big spirit in a weak body, > however / and I am doing very well. And because I am so amazing simply living > my life with such a big challenge - and because I have been given the gifts > of appreciation and being fully in the now - I have given myself a superhero > name: STREAK (for those of you who do not have English as your home language, > the meaning for this word I refer to is like a fast flash of movement). > STRength in the face of wEAKness. (I wonder, dear reader, what would be the > superhero name you would give *your* self?) > > A big abrazo / abraço / (air)hug to you, my friends. I am not going anywhere, > and yet I am everywhere, and I feel seen and sometimes unseen, and I feel > engaged and sometimes disengaged. I am prepared to be surprised and not > attached to outcome, and whatever happens is the only thing that could have. > Take very good care of yourselves, and each other. I now move back to my seat > (or to standing behind my seat and swaying, as many of you have seen me do), > as a witness in this big circle, > Lisa > > As I will be transitioning email addresses, thank you for sending emails now > to lisah...@gmail.com <mailto:lisah...@gmail.com> and removing > openingspace.net <http://openingspace.net/> from your contacts. > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
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