FootprintsintheWind.com

It is between us that it all happens—not at us, not in either of us—precisely in that thread that sometimes runs from being to being. Here is that knowing glance. Here is where it all is, where the world sprouts.

:- Doug.

What would you change? We’re all leaning in, hanging on your words. Someone pulls up a chair. Ideas pop around the circle. We roll up our sleeves, our feet jangle. This is bigger than one person. This matters. We can. We will. We.

:- Doug.

What is the magic in the middle? In the middle of the muddle something arises, it sparks. We see ourselves as part of something larger, a whole. We see we can make our neighborhood, community, city, and world better in some concrete way. The spark gets our sleeves rolling up, it jangles our feet.

:- Doug.

What do you want to change? What needs a group working on it?

:- Doug.

G*d is the Big Bang
So small, containing all

:- Doug.

Many people have the license plates “In God we trust”—because you sure can’t trust their driving!

:- Doug.

The Way of our Conversation is not a given, but a discovery, a working toward. Not only diversity; not only richness of intricacy; not only looking for our creativity; we need also that our conversations be causes, that we become causes. We need to somehow figure out how we can be causes of the world we have and the world we want. We need to see that we are in charge.

:- Doug.

What’s new about this is that we did not think there was any value in together, we thought of it as merely a collection of individuals; we have seldom thought of a group as having its own. Its own existence, its own spirit, its own direction.

:- Doug.

Sometimes parts of our conversation have gone deeper and have been more inclusive; the question is can we invent ways to get more of that kind?

:- Doug.

Listen—work at listening for—intricacies, nuances, richness. Listen, hear and ponder. Allow our higher thinking out.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 871

The distinction between problem solving and possibility is the distinction between fixing a broken bike and writing a symphony.

Please pass it on.

© c 2008, 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

Appeal higher.

The higher court is that in people which says there is more, there is the aspirational. We can love and live and do-be-do. We can be part of a larger life, the human community, the universe of life. People want to live there and not in the mud. We have the mud and need to live there, too. But this is sure: if we do not muck around in the mud we do not have life; and if we do not touch the more, we are not human. That life is mere animal and passes the way of all dust, profiting none.

We need no perfectly aligning of deck chairs. We need to ask where the ship is going. We need to ask if there is more to be seen here than the little of the ice berg above the water. We need question and story and dream as well as instruments and cutting apart and percussing at each other. We need to pray and pass out the shovels.

:- Doug.

People need to—
Be heard
Contribute
Create
Be part of the larger whole

What happens when—
Our population is compressed?
Our interconnections become intricate?
Our world grows complex?

Do we need people who need, too?
Do we need—
More voices?
More mind?
More points of seeing?
More inventing and fitting?
More—us?

:- Doug.

If you will talk with people we will find a way.

:- Doug.

What are the gifts of street people?
What are the resources of poor people?
There are none
There are only the gifts of people
There are only the resources of people

:- Doug.

Explaining, arguing, selling are not where my time is well spent; it is better spent on starting who can start. Start dancing and singing!

:- Doug.

A small group can change our now. It is important that we cause our world. It is important that we work on the now: hope is now, and born of action. Small groups are where everything starts.

:- Doug.

Community belongs to people. Let’s get together.

:- Doug.

Necessarily
Futurity
Demands of you and me
—This Now—the
Impossibility

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 870

What am I willing to do for which I will not be paid?

The real power in life comes not from a paycheck, but from giving beyond sacrifice.

Please pass it on.

© c 2008, 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

People authorize people to cause the world anew.

:- Doug.

The blessed community includes all.

:- Doug.

We show our belief in the future by acting in the now.

:- Doug.