Archive for December, 2008

Footprints in the Windsm # 917

Footprints in the Windsm # 917

I too have a dream—a black woman and a yellow man and a red elder and a white youth are all sitting down together—at no table—in a circle—all equals—hearing—leaning in—working together—inventing conversation—inventing our world—and you are among us—and he and she—we stand boldly and scared—in the face of complaisance and fitting in—daring to be neighbors—daring to invent neighboring—vulnerable and risking to try—getting our hands dirty—an interactive society—growing on—

I too have a dream—government not abdicated to “them” but claimed by us—pockets and pockets of people in every place—making change—living justice and compassion—taking charge—causing a world people love and live and are all they can be—not everyone taking charge for some have no interest or are ill or weak—

I too have a dream—people inventing conversation—deep enough to include the darkness and the light—wide enough to include all voices wanting to be heard—intricate enough to weave them all together to match the intricate dangers and opportunities of life—causally enough to be able to say We did it ourselves—committedly enough to count on each other—

I too have a dream—enormously tangled problems—put right and whole—by distributed mind and heart—a single community mind and heart made up of all who care—a single mind and heart intricate enough to match the tangle—beyond what we used to try to tackle with one leader or head-bashing politics—communitying: giving together—

I too have a dream—sacredness in the physical world—something more—holiness distributed among us—in each of us—accessible to each of us—in-forming each breath we take—G*d entangled with our human life—G*d whose name is conversation—a divine calling in each action we make to include and open and do—

I too have a dream—that this society—this intricacy—this activity—this taking charge—this justice and compassion—this conversation—can happen not in some possible and hoped-for future—because we need it now—I dream that this can happen now—

I too have a dream—that you will make this dream not just mine—make it ours—and so I leave open for you this dash—


Please pass it on.

© c 2009, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com

Published in: Conversations, FootprintsintheWind/sm | on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

What do we need in order to converse?

What do people need in order to converse? Another person. Agreement to collaborate on the subject at hand. Attention. Looking forward. A shared desire to make things better. Something to work on bigger than one person. Willingness to try. A story.

These suggest ways to invite conversation: Tell me your story; What in the world could be better?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

How we make our world

Conversation matters: It’s how we make our world.

Do the work: converse. About what do we need to converse? Everything. About what do we grumble, wish someone would do something?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

Through an airplane’s window

Interesting that I can look through the airplane’s window and another person can do so too at a different angle and the light rays do not bump into each other. If you did the same with water, the streams would. Touch and smell similarly. Taste too.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

The most important?

The first leg of the plane ride on the way back home had me seated next to Alex from Haiti. He is a civil engineering student in Portland, Oregon. We talked a lot about the differences between Haiti and the US. I was going to ask him what was the difference between what was most important for Haitians and what was most important for Americans, but he volunteered it first (recall that Haiti is the “poorest” country in the hemisphere): For a person from Haiti, it is family; for a person from the US, money.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

Where?

Where is our heart?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

We are a mystery-loving, more-more loving species…

We are a mystery-loving, more-more loving species. We grasp to know more, to organize it, to capture and manipulate it, and yet…we want more. There is more of a story to elicit. The truth is we love the unknown, reach toward it, rush toward it. The unknown is pregnant, the question calls us to quest, the answer leaves us unsated. The poet, the mystic, the dreamer are our reaching edge.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

The pendulum’s anchor and cord…

We see the pendulum weight swing, but what of its anchor and its cord? What are they? What might we find them signifying? What can we make of them? A still point of a world not able to make up its mind—or a still point of a world that connects all (apparent) dichotomies. A cord that holds us together—weight and center and cord all one—telling us if we have eyes that we are all one. Certainly more.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

Do this

Do the work

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

Poems do not prove

Poems do not prove
We suggest
Pregnancy is proved
In birthing
Humans are proved
Togethering

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 30th, 2008 | No Comments »

We are to be about this

We are to be about inviting gathering.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

openly, widely

Invite openly, widely

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

What have we not learned?

What have we learned? What are the most significant things we know beyond book learning? More to the point, What are the most significant things we still have questions about? What don’t we know? What are we guessing about?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

Speak our language

Make the effort to turn our attention, again and again, to natural beauty, truth, goodness, wholeness, oneness. Speak the language. Speak our language.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

What do we value?

What do you value? What do we value?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

The hubris in use value

It takes a certain hubris, maybe subtle, to insist upon a use value for everything—What good is it? is a way of asking What good is it to me?

How do we move ourselves beyond use value? Even the How question is based at least in part on use value—this use is better than that.

So we move ourselves there by continually bringing our attention back here. Maslow says that other ways of seeing the world do not make sense to the fully human. They either do not see, are not attracted to, or consciously ignore dichotomies, use-based thinking. We think in B-values—Being & Values.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

Grandparents’ rewards

What are the most rewarding moments of being a grandparent?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

Love to do?

What in the world would you love to do?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

How converse to matter?

How can we have conversations that matter?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

in our own life’s story

Can we see the wisdom and power of our own life’s story?

Why is this important? Because then we can act upon that wisdom for good. Because that discovery asks the question, What can we do with it? What shall we do?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

Footprints in the Windsm # 916

Footprints in the Windsm # 916

Gentle little waves lapping our boat
Reminding us we are in a larger body
Protected expected needed desired
This sea—humans—alive, consciously moving
We dip our oars & exchange a glance
The sea responds to each one
& each to the sea
All is moving & each must move
But when each is aware sea becomes symphony
Meeting is a way of life


Please pass it on.

© c 2009, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com

Published in: FootprintsintheWind/sm | on December 27th, 2008 | No Comments »

Boomers have 30 years

We’ve got 30 years: How can we Boomers improve the world?

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 26th, 2008 | No Comments »

Speak to me the words

Speak to me the words
Of poetry beauty mystery
Of what is possible for humankind
Of the sacred just possibly arising from the profane
Then I am lifted
To being
To action

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on December 26th, 2008 | No Comments »
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