Lovely Lisa, fabulous access queen, thanks so much for your email. A little gift for you - the dancing queen at Belgrade wosonos in 2014 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAZitrDz_fk> Jon brought on behalf of you for the Silent Auctions All the best ge
<https://www.loci.it/fare-il-facilitatore/iaf/facilita/facilita2019> Office: Via A. Volta 6 - 20121 Milano – Italy Phone: +39 3293281343 -Fax: +39 02 87151318 - Skype: gerardodeluz *x...@loci.it <x...@loci.it>* - *www.loci.it <http://www.loci.it> * <http://www.scuolafacilitazione.it> *Please consider the environment before deciding to print this e-mail* This e-mail (and any attachment(s)) is strictly confidential and for use only by intended recipient(s). If you are not an intended recipient(s), please notify it via e-mail ati...@loci.it <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/blocked::mailto:i...@loci.it> promptly Il giorno sab 13 giu 2020 alle ore 00:02 Lisa Heft via OSList < oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> ha scritto: > 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 and removing 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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