FootprintsintheWind.com

It is out of the emptiness
of this circle
that G*d begins
us new each instant
Eden tells us the world is ever new
and we are in charge
for good or ill
Easter tells us we have
a fresh slate each day
and we are in charge
of what unfolds
being the salt of the earth
we are not led
but turned loose
it will all work for good
to those who love
out of this emptiness

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

There is still something just beyond my words, tickling the edge of my thoughts. This notion of being led, of a benevolent puppet-master god who controls all the actors on the stage, who has so many fingers to control the rocks falling down the mountain and the places where the winds blow, somehow is over-simplistic. The idea that all is woven into something beautiful after the fact is closer to what I am seeing. There is something larger yet. Randomness is permitted, and willful aberrations, and surprises, even to G*d. The OT records instances where G*d’s mind was changed by what the man or woman said or did. There is relationship: G*d is touched, persuaded, changed, by G*d’s creatures, somehow. Yet this is not it fully, either. But it touches a bit of the essence. G*d is touched. G*d wants to be touched.

G*d is weaning us of God. There is a role for dependence; yet also for independence; and now coming for interdependence. Use the metaphor of becoming adult: this is still good. The dependence we need is in the nature of interdependence. We cannot go it alone; neither can we be half people, refusing to shoulder our share of the load. And that share is always larger than we think, heavier than we want.

There is mystery, there is emptiness, there are circles. There are larger wholes beyond the ones we see. We touch and then we know. We grow to someplace G*d had not imagined and we find that G*d was there just ahead of us. We are expected not just to tame the wilderness but even more to make wild the tame. We are to stir the heart of G*d. Is that a large load?

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

We live in a compost heap. We think the crap on the top has all the answers. But the heat and the work is getting done inside…by all of us together. Yet we will not accomplish anything of use with all that heat and all that work unless we spread it around and mix it up with cooler earthiness, with water, with seeds and seedlings. Then the job is just begun: the greening of the earth. We are fecund. That is our job: to be fruitful and multiply that fruitfulness.

:- Doug.

Talk it through!

:- Doug.

Just because they’re different
does not mean you’re better
just unfamiliar

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 711

This morning
no book reading
instead reading G*d

Please pass it on.

© c 2007, 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

Think Johnny Appleseed, Jesus, Peace Pilgrim. Only we are not planting; we are uncovering seedlings. When they are seen and given space, when you are heard, the world grows. By just that much. Wander. Uncover the bright and greening.

:- Doug.

In conversation persons say themselves
sell not some proposition rather
tell of themselves
(sometimes just for their own ears)
care not if others agree
—some of this is pure exploration—
or even respond
for the response they need
is to be heard

:- Doug.

Cars before dawn
chasing the light
that stays just ahead

:- Doug.

You are a bright spot for the world. The role of conversation is to open a door to seeing this light—and putting it to work. It is a generosity of curiosity. My work is curiously seeking out your sparkle and helping you set it loose upon the world. It is not about fighting uphill to make you do what you don’t want, but helping you make real your best. My spirit is generous—I have to give.

:- Doug.

What needs to happen in our community? Who else feels strongly about this, pro or con? What little thing could you do together to help?

:- Doug.

The savior is in our group. Which one of us is it? Is it you, or you, or me? Or us?

:- Doug.

Walk the earth. Find the little meetings that need to happen. Gather the people. Meet. Go on. Plant light seeds.

:- Doug.

It is possible to do larger things. Look around you: It is you. There is a job to be done and no one is coming forward. So the doer, the one to make things better, is you. The job needs doing, the work is necessary, someone must do. It is you.

:- Doug.

What kind of government do we get when we elect our representatives on the basis of how nasty they can act?

:- Doug.

Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who’s the nastiest of them all?
Nasty’s what we want in Congress
To our future we are speeding
Hate and malice we are seeding
Toward the vicious is our progress

:- Doug.

Have a conversational day!

:- Doug.

It is—what? interesting?—to see
what comes out of my pen
accept the starting line
tell the truth
if I could do that in conversation
where might we go?

:- Doug.

Election time falls upon us
a mugger in the night
all we can do is hope
soon it will all be over
All those nasty ads
show us what kind of government
these candidates will give us
—one which prizes nastiness
We are not a nasty people
—yet
O, what to do?
Do not vote for the nasty
or vote for the least nasty
and you and your group
find a way to tell ’em
we do not want government
of the nasty, by the nasty,
for the nasty

:- Doug.

When candidates fail, voters must take charge.

:- Doug.

There is an intensity to life
And here we all are
bored
repeating motions
make a fresh crack
in our shell every day
listening can get in the way
putting a coat of the expected
over old cracks
make the new cracks small
let a little out, a little in
work to understand and be understood
to savor and be tasted
in this explosive mixture
is life’s full flavor

:- Doug.

Out of stunning comes silence.
Out of silence comes meeting.
Out of meeting comes conception.
Out of conception comes life.
Out of life comes stunning.
The mesh gets finer each turning,
so each is wildly fecund.
Much waste, much life.

:- Doug.

This being stunned is what happens when we meet a truth: a truth we did not know before. There it is, looking in through our eye to see if we recognize. If we do, we must go forward for there is no back there.

:- Doug.