An eclectic assortment of relevant inspiration that anyone may add to . . .
Change is Dead
From the blog posting [[http://wordgravity.blogspot.com/2009/05/change-is-dead.html">http://word...|Change is Dead]] by Wendy Farmer-O'Neil:
"And how do we respond to [the ever-emergent flow]? With self-organization, like we always have. Like there was ever anything else. Only now, we can choose to do it consciously. We can choose to learn and create processes that leverage the power of emergence, of context, of relationship, of questions."
"We are simply in the flow of the ever-emergent. We shape our present and future through our collective intention. Might as well step up and start taking responsibility for what you care about and see who else shows up."
"The journey to this place is not simply one of mind. To thrive here, we need integrated mind/body/heart/soul systems. We need all channels online and functioning. "
(Quoted on Art of Hosting list)
Hotei's Bag
From: docisin@suite501.com
To: "Toke_Paludan_Møller"
Cc: "AoH List"
Subject: RE: [AoH] Fwd: Hosting Defined: from Sera
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:41:49 -0700
Good morning - I can't resist offering something here - one of my favorite images, especially for retreat work, is HOTEI'S BAG. This is a gift from the Zen tradition, offered here quoting Bernie Glassman in a great little book called BEARING WITNESS (p. 72-73):
...Since we wish to make peace in all areas of life, we need to make use of every tool possible, each bit of knowledge and technological advance. What we want is Hotei's bag. Hotei is a Zen Buddhist character in the last of a famous series of pictures about the road to enlightenment. The quest is long and arduous. The final picture shows Hotei returning to the marketplace carrying a bag over his shoulder. He is ready to work with all people and with whatever comes up. His bag contains everything he will ever need. So if he meets a beggar he reaches into his bag and takes out coins. If he finds a child lying sick on the road he reaches into his bag and takes out a bandage. If he encounters a garden full of weeds he takes out a rake and a hoe...When we let go of our ideas about how to fix ourselves and others, we'll know naturally what to take out of our bag.
Lots of methodologies, lots of practices - as I think about it, choosing appropriately is part of the work of leading, also being ready to change based on the flow of energy of the actual group - but to do this we do need to have lots of stuff in our bags, ready to be used!
Gratitude for all these rich reflections - peace to each - Peggy
The Artful Practice of Not Working Alone
From: Chris Corrigan [mailto:chris.corrigan@gmail.com]
To: Art of Hosting list
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 5:34 PM
Echoing some of the things that have been said. I feel that the Art of Hosting is not any one methodology but rather the artistic practice of what it takes to hold apace for processes that help groups find collective wisdom through emergence and participatory pratice. For me it is the art of doing work while caring for a creative and generative social filed in which personal relationships deepen and make sustainable innovative ideas and practices. In short it is the artful practice of not working alone and as such it can be practiced with many many methods and designs. It is all about a deeper consciousness to the integrity of a container that helps groups meet their needs.
On Co-Entanglement
Posted by Tenneson Woolf on the Art of Hosting list, 20 July 2009:
What I like about this is that it comes from many years now of work in the area around conversational leadership. I also like that it names as practice in form and in value of some very basic things that most systems want. It's good, direct language.
I also would add a bit further through another lens. Hosting is what we do to create basic conditions so that the energy of people in the room can co-mingle and entangle. Co-mingle is to mix, to invite a shared wholeness and creation. To entangle is to become a new entitity and remain as such in some manner. It is an emergent entity. I heard Edgar Mitchell, founder of IONS speak this recently, "resonance is nature's way of transfering information." Hosting, from this view, is about giving us access to each other's resonance. It is often in the form of conversational practices that are deliberately focused on particular questions. However, it is more -- the silence, the play, the shared inquiry, the poetry, the agreements, the listening, and the like -- each creates additional ways to come into a shared resonance. From the living systems view of "people support what they create" this means that hosting is about creating conditions so that this resonance sharing can happen, and thus support of what is created.
Why we need pictures on this site
"Who has time for a thousand words?"
-- Bootsy Haller, photographer
each of us is at the center of the universe
so is everyone else
e. e. cummings
[[Jay Cross]]
There are also quotes in some patterns' +other fields . . .
