FootprintsintheWind.com

What are the truths that are calling to me in this moment?

:- Doug.

Still, there is some truth I have not yet said. Truth is always bigger than my words. It calls me forward to try to express, and before that to find. What is reality, and where does it reside?

:- Doug.

Wal, shut my mouth!
(I hope you will get some meanin’ out
of these helpless words—they
are the only way I can think of
to reach to you on paper)
what I was thinking wisped away
in that instant when we heard
(and knew we each heard)
an echo of what one of us said
then ever’thin’ went still
I am left with an empty
head and a new sorta
inkling away in my noodling
all the goo between us is scraped away
so’s to see the ground beneath
is solid for a dancing path ahead

:- Doug.

How to tell when our conversation is about to change the world
a person is stunned
the person made up of all our group
mouth shut by what we heard
words fail, silence incubates
life will not allow us to meet it again the same
being stunned is the space for awareness
the start of wholing

:- Doug.

The truth I want to tell revolves here. There is a story of things working under the surface, needing quiet and dark and warmth and to be left alone, not to be watched. The story involves yeast and roots and compost and marinades and something just a little beyond hearing. No, not working our brain nor the ideas, nor any activity at all. The story is about being worked and savored and allowing natural processes to unfold without turning them to purpose or spurring. This is not a “Do me” resignation, but an active part-taking, one step of which is steeping, gathering, growing in the dark. It is a time apart, a time even purposely taken to soak and ponder.

This is human. This is life. If we go all the time, we run out of gas. But our tanks are not filled with gas, rather something more complex goes on. There is participation and there is hands-off, at the same time. There is a plaiting, a weaving, a being woven, a steeping and choosing to be steeped. Here we are held back by trying to steep or dive deep—we must permit it to come to us. This permitting is activity. Active allowing, passive activity, bravely choosing to undergo a surgical procedure by which we will be changed. And we do not know in what ways.

:- Doug.

I am seeing that I need to interrupt conversations more for the silence, to call attention to where we are and what we are doing and how we are meeting, so that things can slow down a bit, so they can steep. To talk about the conversation is to talk about what is going on inside the participants, to find possible meeting spaces.

:- Doug.

Do you hear?

:- Doug.

How do your daily rounds enliven you?

:- Doug.

Yeast working
roots growing
juices soaking
large nows
our hearing

:- Doug.

Silence
Listening
Hearing
Marinating
Riddling
Being savored
Swirling
Meeting
Eddying
Spiraling
Stilling
Silence

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 710

When I was a speaker I was told to
let the important word land
for a beat
before I speak again
and keep my eyes with one person

now hearing is my life
and still the principle is true
let the important word land
in me
for a beat
before I speak
or think
and keep my eyes with one person

perhaps if I will
stop to not think
stop to hear the echoes of the echoes
of the other’s voice
let the other’s tones and rhythms savor me
then the real will be heard
and we will meet

beyond meeting there is no more

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

Beyond debate
beyond you
beyond me
beyond you and me
to group flowing
effortlessly
where work gets done
and we are real
ourselves
most

:- Doug.

In conversation there is a beyond the between
in the among
we grow when we get there
from our interpersonal
when we meet the one person more
in our midst when we meet
in that breath
out beyond

:- Doug.

Live searchingly unfoldingly
all is unfolding through you
that is what it does
You are enfolding into all
adding your peculiar wrinkle
unfolding enfolding who can tell now
which is where we are
the waves come…you have a role…
the waves come…
take responsibility but not so much

:- Doug.

Do the large thing already.

:- Doug.

Filaments
and threads to follow
Gossamer
and grey cloth covering
Ripping connects?
and the whole is pulsing

:- Doug.

With your calling what is possible?
You refuse it
You can’t believe you heard correctly so you wait for another
You accept your fate
You accept and gladly do
You are excited and rush off, adding your best to the mix
You engage others

:- Doug.

O what it is possible for you together to do!

:- Doug.

Speaking together is midwifery
Hearing, conceiving
O darkness, O silenceunderlying words,
Before conceiving, connecting

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 709

Each time you get that little glimpse that you are seeing something clearly, honor that insight. Write it down. Start a conversation about it.

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

We are holding ourselves back
Analyzing our mistakes
Wringing our hands over our sins
When we could be doing some good

:- Doug.

Come take my hand and we will run
beyond the granite where our thoughts are carved
beyond all present thinking
out here is a land where we can meet and play

The land we can call Savoring
we can call Presence
we can call Real
we can call More
we can call The Land Beyond Thinking and Feeling
we can call The Space Where We Can Be

Here is the well-spring of each and all
Here are the headwaters of conflict and partial wholenesses
Here is humanity in all its textures and flavors
Here is the challenge to love

Here.

:- Doug.

These bodies walk around inside the vastnesses of our souls
And our souls within the vastnesses of our spirits
These bodies are our souls’ fingertips touching each other’s skin
Toes in the sand, ears to catch the rustle of leaves and the katydid song
One

:- Doug.