FootprintsintheWind.com

Time is not a commodity, not a thing on a shelf. It is a concept by which we separate out little segments of our being, saying This far and no farther, This much of me and no more. Instead say Yes! Invest yourself prodigally: hold nothing back. No stoppers, no limits.

:- Doug.

Let us find the rabbit hole in time.

:- Doug.

Invite boldness beyond
our present sagacity
to the raw edge
look over, shudder
then jump anyway

:- Doug.

Imagine
inviting 2 or 3 others
to work on what you love
to serve the world
Imagine
sitting expectantly, silently
touching divinity and humanity
Imagine
freeing yourselves
to invite others
to find
to create
a larger whole

:- Doug.

Settled convictions convict us
Unsettling as it does, imagining frees

:- Doug.

The world will come to an end, yes:
But not necessarily this ball of dirt:
Rather our constructs made out of disproportion:
We have, you do not:
We have taken from your mouth:
And so we have no choice, we must ask:
Are we waiting (in our luxury, on our couches, in front of our TVs) for this world to end:
Or are we working it to overthrow:
Now?

:- Doug.

Risk, wager, hazard
A new meeting

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1224

A call to imagination, commandments are: Imagine a town without killing, a neighborhood without thieving or spouse-eyeing. Imagine if we took a day off to meet one another—and the holy—and did not use it to concoct fresh ways of getting our hands in others’ pockets, did not grasp nor protect, but simply trusted & existed & met.

Please pass it on.

© c 2012, 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

Crotchety is okety-fine
when conversing:
just stand clear of
our itty bitty egoity
keep to our universality!

:- Doug.

I hear, I speak, therefore I am. I meet, therefore I am.

:- Doug.

Hearing demands more of us than listening, gives more.

:- Doug.

I-It is about technique and manipulation. These are useful in our world, but they are not real life. There is no technique to living fully: you simply live fully. You meet—life, which is to say the betweens you and the others in your life. Thus there are two ways to go through your years: with whatever technique you can devise; or meeting meeting. One is separation and the anxiety of it; the other is being whole, full and round, relaxed.

:- Doug.

Bare your vulnerabilities, sand your fingertips
Speak & hear & answer if you would live
Meet & meet & meet

:- Doug.

We must speak and hear and answer in order to live.

:- Doug.

Only two responses to the world
—Fear or love—
Choose

:- Doug.

Could we diagnose a conversation from different angles, a series of continua? Might this approach suggest paths through the woods?

It.....................Thou
surface................depth
generalities...........specifics
at.....................with
propound...............changed
scripted...............unexpected
formulaic..............new
avoiding...............candor
pasted-on smile........gritting the teeth
talk-talk-talk.........silence arises
feel smallness.........produces expansiveness

:- Doug.

Sometimes a hammer
Sometimes a bell
Sometimes a song
A screwdriver to turn the turner
An awl, a brace, a lance
A hoe & a spade
Some space
Build & grow
A home a conversation a people

:- Doug.

Job tells us
God is not moral nor just
But God comes face to face

:- Doug.

The world holds at its center
This holding is God

:- Doug.

Labels divide
Do you want to be split?

:- Doug.

A new conversation
might be generated by
yearning & insistence
rage & alienation
resentment & guilt
How do we risk so?

What if I answer with
destruction, anger?
or demand you do right?
Does that bring
a new conversation?
Disputing may just draw
you to me

What if I destabilize you
question your security
your place in your precarious world
your role in the life you’ve lived
up to now?

What if I change your subject
not as politicians do
but displace and marginalize
your questions because
you miss the larger?
Not dismissing but opening

I might name your ghost
name you & free you from fear
assure you, change you, help you
show you my pain caused by your absence

I could get in your face
compel you to respond
ask for your remorse
or share my own

Might I demand you
speak
hear
answer
so that I can breathe
so that we can exist
so that all can live?

Any of this will
transform our conversation
& through our conversation
our world
Will we use our spine?

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1223

Speak the word authorizing.

Please pass it on.

© c 2012, 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

There’s a kind of a buzz
running through all humanity
something going on here
and there
a buzz that wants to lift all
and fly
let’s pay our attention here
for once or twice
touch cheeks and hear the buzzing
become buzzing
join, make more whole
the tune

:- Doug.