Love that name STREAK. Love to you, Lisa. Love this narrative and the silence.
Know I have been in spirit connection all along. Mabuhay ka 🎉🙏🧡🙏🎉 Lucia aka luchie On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 2:32 PM gerardo de luzenberger via OSList < oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > 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 > <https://www.google.com/maps/search/Via+A.+Volta+6+-+20121+Milano+%E2%80%93+Italy?entry=gmail&source=g> > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > 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
_______________________________________________ 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