Sometimes you just can’t tell. It seemed like such a good idea when I met up with my friend, mentor and colleague Harrison Owen in Melbourne, late 2002. We put the Practice of Peace on the calendar for this month. More than a year later, I went for some months promising an invitation to those who emailed to inquire. Along the way, I even talked with Harrison and others about postponing or just blowing it off altogether. Finally when old friends and total strangers started sending me checks, I got an invitation mailed out. More checks came in and last week twenty of us gathered at the Carleton Hotel in Oak Park for the Practice of Peace workshop. Surprise.
This is where words really run out for me. (Surprise, again!) I told the group on the morning of day one, that clearly this workshop wanted to happen. And we’re still, a week later, perking on all the reasons why. We expect our experiences to inform and invite our work, and only some of the ways have yet come clear. It seemed to touch all of us quite deeply and I’m grateful to be receiving some marvelous notes and reports as people return to local life. There is a real sense of going forward more together than ever, in spite of everything we don’t and can’t yet know. As much as ever, we are living in Open Space.
The proceedings notes we compiled are not private, but I’m inclined not to post them publicly, either. I’m not sure they would mean anything to those who weren’t there. That said, if you’d really like to see them, just email and I’ll send them along.