my friend birrell walsh posted this to an email list i’m part of. it captures well how i think of our work in open space…

>
> “How do I say, in your language,
> to allow a space to open
> inside oneself, no - *as* oneself -
> and in that space to have
> such welcoming that others
> come there too, not as images,
> no, but *as* themselves;
> and in unfolding as themselves
> within the spacing you are being-as
> they find ease and freedom (by the way)
> to be well. How do I say that,
> in your language,” he, moving his tongue
> around unfamiliar syllables, asked
> so he could teach me.
>

if you like this, you might like some of his other poetry. he has a book posted at lulu.com. there are two of his favorite poems there, on the lulu product page.

in case you’re inspired to purchase, it’s worth noting that given the weird economics of publishing right now, he makes more money from the download (US$5.00 to the purchaser) than from the printed copy (US$22.00 plus shipping). but of course, hardcopy is still hardcopy. the book itself is beautiful, very well and sturdily made, and with a remarkable cover photograph from the collection of another friend, one radmila krieger, of munich.

if you want to know what birrell actually looks and sounds like, or just want somebody to read poems to you, he read twelve of his poems into his webcam and posted to youtube.

or maybe it’s enough just to enjoy this one, that seems to understand our work so well.

this weekend i did a number of small things that i’d like to think must be part of some grander solution. perhaps you’re doing some of these same sorts of things.

on saturday morning, we woke up to a pile of new snow. so i shovelled our house and six or seven neighbors, plus the park on the corner and the lawrence avenue bridge across the chicago river.

later that day, we bought faucet parts from a tiny little local 30-year-old family shop where adam runs a service counter almost buried in every imaginable faucet part, old and new, as a steady stream of customers line up six deep for his help fixing or finding parts for all kinds of old faucets. on the way home we stopped in at the riverbank neighbors mid-winter planning meeting. then we loaned our folding chairs in support of a baby shower across the street.

tonight, i wrote and mailed a letter to our new governor recommending somebody for appointment to the metropolitan water reclamation commission (the folks who manage the river at the end of our street). this week i’ll send out an email reminder for our block’s next monthly potluck dinner. last weekend i distributed 1000 neighborhood newsletters to 30 block delivery people. it’s also time to make and distribute flyers for the neighborhood winter social event.

less locally, this week i’ll also have conversations about organizing meetings for the future of buffalo new york, the future of the credit union industry, and some other important projects where i might make some small contribution to others’ larger success. more personally, we’re still chipping away at a number of plumbing projects (with some borrowed tools) as we refinish an old house, still slogging away at the triathlon challenge mentioned a few posts back, and just getting started on painting the kitchen so we can finally order cabinets and counters.

mostly this doesn’t seem so much like working as just living. and when i stop long enough to notice, it seems quite lucky that i’m able to do any of these things.

olympic champion buddy lee teaches jump rope. unbelievable moves here. there really is a jump rope in that picture somewhere! power and ease. linear and circular motion. mutuality. flow. a few more buddy lee videos at crossfit.com.

Being visible in the practice of open space technology brings a number of inquiries and requests for training and coaching and such. Being visible on this web, these come from everywhere around the world. It’s been a fun way to connect with people, or sometimes, discover connection.

Today I was chatting with Pete terHorst about open space and invitation. I mentioned that some of my approach to that comes from what I learned from my Dad, who worked at Ford in Governmental Affairs and Public Relations. He used to write things ended up in state legislation or on the bronze marker at Henry Ford’s birthplace, stuff where words really matter. So this is some of the sensitivity I bring to the crafting of invitations.

Well, it turns out that Pete’s dad worked for Ford, as well. Same group, different city, a ten-year overlap with my dad. I call home and ask, and sure enough, Pete’s dad is somebody well-known to my people. And this is some of why I don’t blow off any of these random requests for training and coaching.

Awoke to a small blizzard today. Watched a neighbor clean several inches of snow off his SUV, waving his brush in gentle swooshing strokes and little detailing moves, with the grace of a great concert conductor. When another neighbor came out, he cleared her car too. It was all just that much fun. Later in the morning, in the course of a wide-ranging conversation about Open Space and Unconferences, friends and projects and writing books, Doc List pointed me to Wisdom. After lunch, Wyatt Sutherland and I had lots of good laughs about rebuilding old houses, and hatched a bit of a plan for YellowCello Young Artists to play in open space. Finished just in time for training home with Jill, to Jerry’s moroccan stew and a gaggle of neighbors at the monthly potluck. A great warm day, even with the thermometer running on empty.

This is the strongest, clearest public statement I can remember hearing in a long time. Maybe ever. This video of an interview on al-Jazeera, shows Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American woman, working as a psychiatrist, living in Los Angeles.

She addresses the “clash of civilizations” as a sort of Muslim excuse and challenges Muslim culture to, in so many words, grow up. Unbelievable… “…We have not seen one Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. Three great Buddha statues have been reduced to rubble. We have seen not one buddhist destroy a Mosque.”

via Carla Winterbottom

My friend Birrell Walsh is a technician for public television. He recommended this show, for the kindness and generosity of the host and performers, as much as the beauty of the music. He says this show wins the technicians’ award… the sort of show that technicians, who have to watch lots of television, actually want to watch. Check this out…

A hypnotic performance on the marimba by sixteen-year old Joshua Jones of Chicago, Illinois kicks off Season Two of From the Top at Carnegie Hall. And don’t miss the third segment on that same page, when a young trio plays Haydn with “happy” and “angry” and “rock and roll” faces.