FootprintsintheWind.com

You are all children of whatever is sacred
Jew, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, all others
Pray for one another:
Open your heart, make room.

:- Doug.

How shall we change how life is lived?

:- Doug.

Light a conversation to dispel the darkness….

:- Doug.

In conversation we know one another. In conversation we know ourselves.

:- Doug.

In conversation we say things we never thought before. In conversation we say things we never believed before.

:- Doug.

What if instead of the metaphor of conquering the elements, we dared to speak of humanity marrying nature?

:- Doug.

Flip a coin 100 times in a row. Now the same 100 flips with a goal: heads. Or even all heads. Same results either way: the coin ignores your goals. And interpretations of results. Optimism and pessimism are lke these goals and interpretations, but at an odd angle. Neither have the final say. Life does. Life gives us many “failures” and “successes,” intermixed. Neither “wins.” Life does.

:- Doug.

To my good friends–

What is the important stuff to have a conversation about? What does deep mean, practically?

This morning it seems to me that deep is as deep as people go, to recall to mind what Ian Percy told me years ago. But I think we can put a finer edge on it than that. Deep is to talk about things that matter to the people, live questions, what people are struggling with. In our society, that means struggling with alone. So it could be politics, it could be a business challenge, it could be how to make good things happen at church or in our club. It could be relationships between people or between peoples. It is talk with a content. From there, we can get on our wetsuit and go deeper and deeper. Only here, the air gets more breathable the deeper we go.

But is that all there is to be said, that it is a topic that holds water? It is not just about the topic, but what we do with it: we meet it and the others with an open heart and an open inquiry. We meet the others as persons who matter. We meet them moreover as persons who can change us. We are willing to allow that change to take place. This is beyond an open mind, it is more visceral, it is a lowering of the shields.

So we have a topic that has meat, and an openness. But it is necessary to get to where it matters to our life. If we do not resolve this, we die. It is beyond gutsy: we place our life on the line.

Also, I see that as we place our life on the line, we must continue to place our life on the line. When we get to that current in the water, that place of warmth, we can and we must continue to follow it on pain of loss of life of the people. It is all of us, and it is life at risk.

And then we come to a place where it is as deep as we can go–for today. We need to stop, take a breather, leave the next descent to the next day. Or the next person. Which is the point where I am at the moment.

Still, I want to go deeper. Who can help?

So we have: a topic that has weight; open shields; life at risk; spiral down and rest, down and rest, breathe in and out.

:- Doug.

Let us tell each other our dreams. That is as good a starting place as humans have.

:- Doug.