FootprintsintheWind.com

Not the tool
is crucial to the art
but the art
coming the artist
through

:- Doug.

What if in each development of life, we open the doors of perception most relevant now? So in child-rearing time we see what is good for the children, good for earning keep for them. In old age we see the past and the future and the world larger, longer term. We see beyond our own noses and bellies. Not simply a bigger view, a touching of what is beyond. A mystery.

:- Doug.

This child
senses the livingness
of all he meets
it fills him with wonder
at the magic of it all
and us at the gleam
in his eyes

:- Doug.

The issue with a multi-generation project is that it takes away the sense of a tangible end point, now. We, these egos, will not reach the finish line. At once this kills our self and enlarges it.

And yet…. The difference between the 200 year cathedral and “Creating a better future for the seventh generation” is more than tangible-intangible or concrete-abstract. It stirs human blood. It gives us something larger than my one life’s small needs to fill. It is about a sense of moving that something forward.

:- Doug.

Goals require a time statement: We will do what by when. So what if our time horizon were stated in multiples of lifetimes? Do we have the imagination? The guts? The persistence?

:- Doug.

In loving-kindness
converse: re-think our world; shh:
unhoped, small voices

:- Doug.

When we disentangle ourselves from our plans so we can see the next object as it is, we open up Goethe’s “new organ of perception in us.” Literally, the next object and our new organ of perception create a new milieu for us both to inhabit. More neurons form, lightest touches are felt, we grow more plastic.

:- Doug.

You might come alongside and ask the person walking “Which is the better side on which to walk? Which is safer?” Later, “Which is safer for the drivers coming by?”

:- Doug.

A way to persuade is to start with something that tastes agreeable. Then go bite by bite till we’ve eaten the whole elephant.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1633

Some will understand. Some will need. A reason to voice.

Please pass it on.

© c 2016, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/347-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

First principle: What you know beyond knowing is significant.
Second principle: That you communicate it is more important.
Third principle: It is not communicated until said with loving-kindness.

:- Doug.

Worlds within worlds
Wheels within wheels
The businesses, the egos,
The children two footed and four,
Finned, winged,
The worms, the beetles, and viruses
Each have a right
And duty
To live
Interlocked, nested, feeding back,
Immersed, embedded, making new harmonies,
Eating and creating waste,
Emerging alive, dying,
Ejected, eliminated if not helping, in that way helping
Food for the whole system
Worlds within worlds
Wheels within wheels

:- Doug.

Loving conversation
re-thinking the world
raising small voices
life’s unexpected essence
our part to play

:- Doug.

Re-see the world: accept the unexpected actual.

:- Doug.

Raise ineffective voices: do the next small thing.

:- Doug.

Rethinking is seeing that what you are seeing is important.

:- Doug.

It is necessary for us to do the small thing here now.

:- Doug.

See what we see, take in the unexpected, it is for good.

:- Doug.

Could large business be established with the guiding principles of developing genius in both our employees and our customers, generosity, and gentleness? Where profit was not among the purposes of the enterprise? Could we even imagine such an organization, we could make it. Could we dream of a group of humans being humane to other humans? Could we have a purpose of being life-enhancing? Our current way of doing business, of thinking, says only self-aggrandizement makes sense. If that makes for the ills we see inflicted on us, could we find a better way if we but put our minds and hearts to it.

:- Doug.

Touching gentle.

:- Doug.

A higher purpose of conversation is the loving-kindness that effective conversation requires. We must want the good of our every conversational partner.

:- Doug.

Perhaps we really should take things for granted—all things. Granted as in a blessing, a charm, a grace. So look on whatever happens as neutral, a given, not bad because it was not what we planned. All potentially good. Take it as life, granted to us, to be welcomed and even celebrated.

:- Doug.

Be expectant of what might come, see the actual, speak the deeps.

:- Doug.