FootprintsintheWind.com

Let’s get to the meet of the question.

:- Doug.

What is the greatest need in our community? The greatest need is community. We do not live until our voice is heard. Community is where we make the effort to hear one another. Hearing goes beyond listening: it takes exertion (here, hear, is the greater effort, not with the speaker); it takes investment of the hearer’s essence. Hearing draws life outward. To the extent we do not hear one another, our community is dying; to the extent we work to hear one another, and precisely to that extent, we live.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 707

My bathroom clock is about
Five minutes behind
And upside-down
The one in the dining room chimes about
Five minutes ahead
I live in that space
Between the clocks

Please pass it on.

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Spirit needs to be touched.

:- Doug.

People need to be heard.

:- Doug.

Some day people may look back and call us the ancients. What wisdom are we leaving to help them?

:- Doug.

One epiphany this morning wasthattheancientswrotewithoutpunctuationorevenwordspaces- whichmeanstherearemorewaystoreadwhattheywrotemaybethey- thoughttheywereconservingpaperormaybetheysawthatwaythered- bemanywaystoreaditormaybenoonehadeverinventedspacesyetin- anyeventwecouldhavemoretoreadfromitifwedidntaddourjotsand- tittlesmuchlikepoetrytellsusmorebytellingusless

Add no jot or tittle was a reminder that, for ourselves and those we teach, there is danger in trying to direct the wind—and life in freeing it.

:- Doug.

Being heard may not be the spark in living, but seems to be the receiver, the tinder.

In an effort to live, we put forth shoots and tendrils. When these find soft moist good earth (another way to spell heart; ear, heart, earth are bodily related) then the spark of life catches, then there is fire. The spark falling on unreceptive materials dies before it lives. Received goes. The ground calls forth the lightning.

:- Doug.

We want to live
to live we must bring ourselves forth
fully express
discover
share
these give no life
unless
another receives
being heard we live

:- Doug.

How does a tree bear fruit?
Necessarily?
Inevitably?
Effortlessly?
By relaxing in the sunny breezes?
By eating?
By standing in place?
By being?
Or does the fruit bear the tree?

:- Doug.