FootprintsintheWind.com

In conversation, we are inviting more to emerge. We are finite, the more is otherwise. What is possible if we meet G*d? What is the product of infinity times finite squared?

:- Doug.

Sin, missing the mark is a blessing. Sin more greatly then! But do it consciously, notice where the sin takes you, what and whom you meet. Work it out for good. For this time and place. Then go out of your way. Jesus wiped away our sins because he showed us they don’t matter and they do matter. They don’t matter to worry about, to feel guilty and anxious about. They do matter because without them we do not progress, the kingdom is slowed. Do not fear: sin more greatly!

:- Doug.

We are not nouns. We are not even verbs. We are adjectives: we modify and change each other and what we thought were our selves. The way to do that is to be present—in time and place—going out of our way, place and time.

:- Doug.

Love is present. Love goes out of the ways to be present. Goes out of its way and out of the way.

:- Doug.

No one of us has the answers; together something beyond the inter-triggering of all of us can show up—in his breath.

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

Yesterday I took a fast from words: no speaking them; no hearing them; no reading; no writing; and hardest of all, no thinking them. When I first started, as I was going to bed Friday night, there was fire! from 1 am till about 5 am. Images, sounds, movements came flying. It seemed that the words had been getting in the way: in the way of G*d and people and the universe. There is certainly more out there to meet than words, and getting them out of the way opened the floodgates for this fire.

:- Doug.

You have come to bring fire—and with it light and heat.

:- Doug.

People want to be whole, complete. So: they have needs in at least three broad categories: beauty, truth, goodness. If the conversation seems stuck, or even if it does not, it is good to see if all three are fulfilled for the persons taking part.

We ask the three questions and see if we have delved as deeply as we have energy for today: What is the meaning of all this? (truth) What can we do? (goodness) What is the reality, once we have stripped away all the static? (truth) How does it all fit? (beauty) What is our role? (beauty)

:- Doug.

What do you see as some of the issues that make up the immigration crisis, worldwide?

Predatory renting
Predatory lending
Predatory retailing
Predatory hiring
Education about safety, language, ways of living
Coyotes
Health of our communities
Work that needs doing
Legality
Not like us
Economy differences
Fear and hiding
Citizenship
Families kept together, nurtured
Keeping out unwanted and unsafe—terrorists, unhealthy, criminal
Added diversity and creativity
Sharing liberty and abundance
Making a larger pie
What others do you see?

:- Doug.

Truth : meaning : Father : information : face : Jahwist : windows
Goodness : power : Son : action : work/turn : Elohist : doors
Beauty : feeling : Spirit : sorting : swirl : Wisdom : skylights

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 719

G*d hears you
the universe knows you are here
the world wants you

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

This is not just my father’s world, it is mine as well, and yours, and our grandchildren’s. What are we going to do about that? How are we going to fulfill our freedom?

:- Doug.

I will not sell; my business is to call together truth, beauty, and goodness.

:- Doug.

G*d does not want to possess us.

:- Doug.

It is the responsibility of the listener to tease out the under-spoken world.

:- Doug.

Curiosity
It is what it is not
Harvesting from the future
Teasing out the under-spoken
—these hold our hands when lost

Lord, help me travel with this
(the goal is the journey?)
help this travel me
further for this leg
tomorrow a different companion

:- Doug.

We are not brought forth in conversation: we are shattered. Whom we thought we were is gone, and the sooner the better. Breaking through our crusts, we bring forth the good in us. Pray rid me of me, us of us. We are past: the future is us.

:- Doug.

We have this message: change your minds and ways for the Kingdom is among you. We are a Ways and Minds Committee.

:- Doug.

Is it more important to unlearn than to learn?

:- Doug.

Let us each day unlearn
one thing about conversation
What do we know for sure about conversation?

To learn is to gather
knowledge
comprehension
mastery
Could our
knowledge be untrue
comprehension be incomplete
mastery be blind?

Learning too is grasping
truth comes out and plays
when our hands are open

:- Doug.

We are now 2/3 of the way through the decade of the double zeroes. Have we made it the “Oh-oh” decade, or a time of OOH! What will we decide to make of the rest of it?

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 718

It is work to listen out another. The hearer has a job: communication is not just the work of the person who has the message to get out; it is the job of the other person to work with them to figure out—fill out—the whole of the message. Sometimes we struggle to find words and even concepts. Sometimes we are not skilled in speaking our hearts. It is incumbent on both hearers and speaker to work until the message is complete and lands. We cannot assume that the other person has said fully and precisely what that person has to convey. It is as if there were a recalcitrant calf we needed to lead to the field; one of us pushes, one pulls, another may try to entice with some sweet food: none of us possesses the message; all of us are possessed of the message; each of us has the responsibility to bring it onto the field where it can enjoy full play with us:

We give the gift
beyond listening attentively
we unfold the words, silences,
stumbles, what is not said
to help each other be
fully heard.

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

What do you not know?

:- Doug.