Notes from NYMF 3-18-18 Tenth Anniversary Celebration
Thirty-four attendees participated in the tenth anniversary celebration. Larry Hurst’s welcome was followed was followed by a brief attunement led by Susan Deisroth. Cynthia Callsen recalled the beginnings of Metro Focusing ten years ago. She expressed her gratitude to Robert Lee, her teacher in the focusing certification program. As her certification project, she conceived the idea of an organization that would bring together focusers from many walks of life in a community to explore the diversity of focusing. She also thanked by name those who were instrumental in bringing the organization into being and nurtured its development.
Cynthia told us that her focusing training with Robert was infused with Gene Gendlin’s philosophy of interaction first and the forward movement of life, the idea that every phenomenon implies within it a next right step. Her hope and intention was and is that Metro Focusing embody this.
After Cynthia spoke, Naomi Glicken gave a brief overview of the evening to come. Then Rachel Alexander introduced the Gallery Walk. A trail of colorful posters ran along three walls of the room. Each sheet bore the title, name of facilitator, date, and a brief summary of a prior Metro Focusing meeting, fifty-two in all, arranged in chronological order. Rachel invited the attendees to walk around the room and peruse these, while maintaining a focusing attitude. People were encouraged to do this in their own way at their own pace, taking in what felt right to them.
After about half an hour, Larry invited participants to return to their seats for a short period of guided solo focusing. His guiding included suggestions to consider what comes for you right now, what part of the experience opened up something inside, and what more wants to come.
After the solo focusing, a participant shared that she had the sense of “us all being travelers to the light.” Another participant recounted her response to particular words in the meeting summaries. While some words attracted her and others brought up negative feelings, what stood out for her throughout was the word “focusing.”
The last part of the formal program, “Creating our Future Together,” was facilitated by Marcella Calabi. Marcella began by emphasizing that the future of Metro Focusing belongs to our entire community. She asked the participants to think, feel, and sense radically, with ownership, into what about Metro Focusing was meaningful to them and what NYMF can do in the future.
Some of the responses included the appreciation of the community conversation as something unique that Metro Focusing has been developing, the hope that the community could be more intergenerational, and the idea that inner felt sensing would be protection against “groupthink.” There was also appreciation for the way that Metro Focusing events have provided space for the development and testing of Focusing related ideas. There was recognition of a tension between simple topics which lend themselves to a focusing conversation and more content-rich specialized topics. The participation of the attendees was recognized as a crucial part of the meetings. One person said “My understanding got bigger, not just from the facilitator and the topic, but also from the people who spoke and reacted in the meeting.”
There was discussion about next steps. One participant asked for time to sense into and process what had come up today. By consensus, our next meeting (on June 3) will include a continuation of the focusing conversation about NYMF’s future. In the meantime, everyone is invited to write their thoughts to contact@nymf.lists.com
Notes prepared by Marcella Calabi, Susan Deisroth, Diana Kirigin, and Diana Scalera
Thirty-four attendees participated in the tenth anniversary celebration. Larry Hurst’s welcome was followed was followed by a brief attunement led by Susan Deisroth. Cynthia Callsen recalled the beginnings of Metro Focusing ten years ago. She expressed her gratitude to Robert Lee, her teacher in the focusing certification program. As her certification project, she conceived the idea of an organization that would bring together focusers from many walks of life in a community to explore the diversity of focusing. She also thanked by name those who were instrumental in bringing the organization into being and nurtured its development.
Cynthia told us that her focusing training with Robert was infused with Gene Gendlin’s philosophy of interaction first and the forward movement of life, the idea that every phenomenon implies within it a next right step. Her hope and intention was and is that Metro Focusing embody this.
After Cynthia spoke, Naomi Glicken gave a brief overview of the evening to come. Then Rachel Alexander introduced the Gallery Walk. A trail of colorful posters ran along three walls of the room. Each sheet bore the title, name of facilitator, date, and a brief summary of a prior Metro Focusing meeting, fifty-two in all, arranged in chronological order. Rachel invited the attendees to walk around the room and peruse these, while maintaining a focusing attitude. People were encouraged to do this in their own way at their own pace, taking in what felt right to them.
After about half an hour, Larry invited participants to return to their seats for a short period of guided solo focusing. His guiding included suggestions to consider what comes for you right now, what part of the experience opened up something inside, and what more wants to come.
After the solo focusing, a participant shared that she had the sense of “us all being travelers to the light.” Another participant recounted her response to particular words in the meeting summaries. While some words attracted her and others brought up negative feelings, what stood out for her throughout was the word “focusing.”
The last part of the formal program, “Creating our Future Together,” was facilitated by Marcella Calabi. Marcella began by emphasizing that the future of Metro Focusing belongs to our entire community. She asked the participants to think, feel, and sense radically, with ownership, into what about Metro Focusing was meaningful to them and what NYMF can do in the future.
Some of the responses included the appreciation of the community conversation as something unique that Metro Focusing has been developing, the hope that the community could be more intergenerational, and the idea that inner felt sensing would be protection against “groupthink.” There was also appreciation for the way that Metro Focusing events have provided space for the development and testing of Focusing related ideas. There was recognition of a tension between simple topics which lend themselves to a focusing conversation and more content-rich specialized topics. The participation of the attendees was recognized as a crucial part of the meetings. One person said “My understanding got bigger, not just from the facilitator and the topic, but also from the people who spoke and reacted in the meeting.”
There was discussion about next steps. One participant asked for time to sense into and process what had come up today. By consensus, our next meeting (on June 3) will include a continuation of the focusing conversation about NYMF’s future. In the meantime, everyone is invited to write their thoughts to contact@nymf.lists.com
Notes prepared by Marcella Calabi, Susan Deisroth, Diana Kirigin, and Diana Scalera