blogging into open space – teetering this morning on the edge of a remarkable open space… remembering how important it is to be continually doing what it is that i am inviting others to do. for this reason what is happening here seems important. anything can happen here. project updates. world news and social movements. beauty noticed and the mutuality of being. readings and ramblings digested. the regular flow of ideas and energies. not documented because not complete. not captured because not permanent. but perhaps simply noticing is enough.
this new weblog is a big open space and even with so many pages sitting behind this one little weblog, it feels precarious. this must be how my own clients and colleagues feel when they get into OpenSpaceTech for the first time. like the beginning of anything else, the first moves tip the balance. each new move apparently critically important in defining the fledgling thing. so many thoughts rush to the edge of this new open space, but what must get in? what must be heard. what will this thing be? like walking through a huge open market in asia, or anywhere, we know that we are only going to be able to take in a small stream of all that is happening there. so too here. only a small stream. humbling and empowering at the same time.
the grand open space of all awareness, of marketplace and the web touches the limits of what… attention, language, remembering, necessity or what? the thrill of the possibilities, the potential, the power. the boggle of no boundaries. an opportunity to watch mind make mind, the poetry of reality posted in crude, beautiful chunks, the world turned upside down and backwords in time, about anything and everything and nothing at all.
twice last week i was reminded, by two separate and especially wise friends Susan Fehl and Julie Henderson, that if we can develop the habit of noticing four positive attributes for every one negative, the imbalance has a real and positive effect on our physical neurochemistry. similarly, resting attention for just five minutes in a space of love, compassion, ease and joy causes levels of key immune system chemicals to rise — and stay elevated for as long as seven hours. resting for the same five minutes in anger and fear can depress those key chemicals for five or six hours. this immune system business as quoted in my friend peter frost’s book on handling toxic emotions at work, a fanatastic invitation and support for corporate compassion. published by harvard business school, btw.
i am considering now the odd possibility that simply noticing is enough. five or so minutes a day noticing, just noticing… four times as many good things as bad things… and then possibility of noticing anything at all rises as awesome… it’s all good and then it’s off to see the grocer, the mechanic, the email inbox and, of course, the dishes.
oh yes, and the blogrolling sidebar is starting to grow today with favorite links! woohoo, the web grows and grows and goes…