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Flow of Day 3
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Story of Day 3
by Brendan Becker (Participant) “Breaking the surface
sunlight greets lotus seedlings finding ways to bloom” ~Brendan B. Day 3 started waking to the morning light leaping through the windows. I began the day with stretching out my body and meditation followed. I don’t eat breakfast so I decided to find a place to just rest as I injured my big toe a day before. At 9am, we all gathered in the main hall for framing + morning meta harvest/check in. We spoke about what the day would include and the meta-harvest team improvised a dance to act out things that we did and memorable occurrences of the past day.After this activity we moved into the teaching on “Powerful Questions”.
“Powerful Questions” is a teaching on how to develop/ share/ explore meaningful questions that are alive in us. This acted as a primer for the “Open Space” conversations that would happen later on in the morning. We were invited to create our own list of questions. I used this time to just free write whatever questions surfaced in my mind. After compiling our questions, we were asked to share one question with a partner and have then create a question that questions the question in a sense. Then we moved into the teaching on Open Space. “Open Space” is a practice that allows participates to host questions that are important to them or that are alive in them with others. This is not the first time I’ve been introduced to “Open Space” so I was excited to experience it again. The host team did a really great job explaining all the roles that people can hold and principles of the practice. |
After the host team talked about the roles and principles, it was time to have hosts to offer their topics to the community. The open space included 2 rounds, which lasted 40 minutes each. I decided to host a question about self-care in round one. Self-care is something I’m passionate about and wanted to discover and hear about other people’s experiences with the practice. My calling question was “How does/doesn’t self-care (hosting yourself) show up in your life?”. I had 5-6 people join my group at various times over the 40 minutes. We discussed:
Once the first round was over, I decided to join a group that was discussing about how habits in life can steal away time from the things we actually care about. We discussed our experiences and solutions for habits that we want to change. It was also a very nice discussion in which I walked away smiling. After the 2 rounds of open space was completed, we held a “harvest market” where the hosts could share the insights of their conversations with the greater community. Overall, the open space was the highlight of the day for myself. Afterwards, It was lunch time.
After lunch the participates began learning about “2 Loops of Change” practice, which was a bit more abstract than the other things we had learned about up to that point. It was about how “dominant systems” (the status-quo) come into contact/conflict with “emerging systems”. The hosts discussed the role of “stewards” (reinforcing the old system) and “innovators” (playing with new systems and bridging the gap between the old and new). The hosts also discussed the roles of the “hospice”, where people from the old system are helped into the new emerging system. Also the “compost” where aspects of the old system are recycled and reused elsewhere if needed. I felt that this teaching didn’t resonate with me much since I don’t consider myself working to change any system through my work or life. I did however notice that there were a lot of people who found this teaching interesting and the host held the space well.
After learning about the “2 Loops of Change”, we moved on to the “Reflection Walk”. During the reflection walk, we ere invited to walk around in nature for 30 minutes and thinking about what is one thing that you want for yourself to “bloom” and another thing that you’ll “let go”. There was also an invitation to be aware of the ways nature can teach oneself. During this time, since I jammed my toe, I decided to just go back to my room and begin this reflection on the day as a whole. Once we gathered back together we moved into the appreciative inquiry practice.
The Appreciative Inquiry practice was held by the hosts of the practice really well and was clearly explained/demonstrated. During this practice we were broken up into group of three. We were invited to hold 3 different roles throughout three separate rounds. The first role was that of the storyteller who was in charge of sharing a story of conflict, which moved into connection. Then there was the witness, which was focused on sensing the energies and body language of the storyteller. The witness was also the time keeper of the group. Lastly, there was the listener who listened for the practices that supported the change from conflict to connection in the story being offered. I really enjoyed this activity in all the roles since it gave me the space to really focus in on specific during a story that I don’t have conscious attention for. Afterwards, we had dinner and a party to celebrate the program as a whole.
During the “The Art of Hosting Talent Show” there was music, drinking, food, and good company throughout the night. The talent show started with a guessing game, in which the lead participates of the party read aloud clues and people needed to guess which person of the hosting team they matched with. Then they had that member of the hosting team come up and receive words of appreciation from the participates. Afterwards, there was singing, playing of instruments, and a few other activities. The party lasted till midnight. That concluded day 3 of the Art of Hosting Program.
[The longer uncut version is here.]
- How does self-care show up in your life?
- What specifically are some practices of self care in your life?
- What are the challenges that come up when practicing self-care?
Once the first round was over, I decided to join a group that was discussing about how habits in life can steal away time from the things we actually care about. We discussed our experiences and solutions for habits that we want to change. It was also a very nice discussion in which I walked away smiling. After the 2 rounds of open space was completed, we held a “harvest market” where the hosts could share the insights of their conversations with the greater community. Overall, the open space was the highlight of the day for myself. Afterwards, It was lunch time.
After lunch the participates began learning about “2 Loops of Change” practice, which was a bit more abstract than the other things we had learned about up to that point. It was about how “dominant systems” (the status-quo) come into contact/conflict with “emerging systems”. The hosts discussed the role of “stewards” (reinforcing the old system) and “innovators” (playing with new systems and bridging the gap between the old and new). The hosts also discussed the roles of the “hospice”, where people from the old system are helped into the new emerging system. Also the “compost” where aspects of the old system are recycled and reused elsewhere if needed. I felt that this teaching didn’t resonate with me much since I don’t consider myself working to change any system through my work or life. I did however notice that there were a lot of people who found this teaching interesting and the host held the space well.
After learning about the “2 Loops of Change”, we moved on to the “Reflection Walk”. During the reflection walk, we ere invited to walk around in nature for 30 minutes and thinking about what is one thing that you want for yourself to “bloom” and another thing that you’ll “let go”. There was also an invitation to be aware of the ways nature can teach oneself. During this time, since I jammed my toe, I decided to just go back to my room and begin this reflection on the day as a whole. Once we gathered back together we moved into the appreciative inquiry practice.
The Appreciative Inquiry practice was held by the hosts of the practice really well and was clearly explained/demonstrated. During this practice we were broken up into group of three. We were invited to hold 3 different roles throughout three separate rounds. The first role was that of the storyteller who was in charge of sharing a story of conflict, which moved into connection. Then there was the witness, which was focused on sensing the energies and body language of the storyteller. The witness was also the time keeper of the group. Lastly, there was the listener who listened for the practices that supported the change from conflict to connection in the story being offered. I really enjoyed this activity in all the roles since it gave me the space to really focus in on specific during a story that I don’t have conscious attention for. Afterwards, we had dinner and a party to celebrate the program as a whole.
During the “The Art of Hosting Talent Show” there was music, drinking, food, and good company throughout the night. The talent show started with a guessing game, in which the lead participates of the party read aloud clues and people needed to guess which person of the hosting team they matched with. Then they had that member of the hosting team come up and receive words of appreciation from the participates. Afterwards, there was singing, playing of instruments, and a few other activities. The party lasted till midnight. That concluded day 3 of the Art of Hosting Program.
[The longer uncut version is here.]
Teach: Powerful Question
Open Space Technology
Teach: Two Loops
Further resources:Two Loops Video, Activity Note
Reflection Walk
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