When we disentangle ourselves from our plans so we can see the next object as it is, we open up Goethe’s “new organ of perception in us.” Literally, the next object and our new organ of perception create a new milieu for us both to inhabit. More neurons form, lightest touches are felt, we grow more plastic.
:- Doug.
You might come alongside and ask the person walking “Which is the better side on which to walk? Which is safer?” Later, “Which is safer for the drivers coming by?”
:- Doug.
A way to persuade is to start with something that tastes agreeable. Then go bite by bite till we’ve eaten the whole elephant.
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Windsm # 1633
Some will understand. Some will need. A reason to voice.
Please pass it on.
© c 2016, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
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Loving conversation
re-thinking the world
raising small voices
life’s unexpected essence
our part to play
:- Doug.
Could large business be established with the guiding principles of developing genius in both our employees and our customers, generosity, and gentleness? Where profit was not among the purposes of the enterprise? Could we even imagine such an organization, we could make it. Could we dream of a group of humans being humane to other humans? Could we have a purpose of being life-enhancing? Our current way of doing business, of thinking, says only self-aggrandizement makes sense. If that makes for the ills we see inflicted on us, could we find a better way if we but put our minds and hearts to it.
:- Doug.
A higher purpose of conversation is the loving-kindness that effective conversation requires. We must want the good of our every conversational partner.
:- Doug.
Perhaps we really should take things for granted—all things. Granted as in a blessing, a charm, a grace. So look on whatever happens as neutral, a given, not bad because it was not what we planned. All potentially good. Take it as life, granted to us, to be welcomed and even celebrated.
:- Doug.
The undefended heart
the first step
doors of perception
a person
wildness
and thought
out there
far away
into the heart of the world
consciously receive light
eyes of a child
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Windsm # 1632
What kind of a project might we attempt which would take many lifetimes? In the middle ages, they constructed cathedrals. In every age, people plant trees. One is an easy one day task that nature takes over; the other requires concerted efforts by many people over generations. Both require vision, trust, generosity. Maybe not much else. But these in large measures. Trust in generations before and after our own: that they will see the vision, and carry it out. Generosity to create a vision that will be a gift to the later generations. A vision that will engage and be engaged by several generations. How big can we be?
Please pass it on.
© c 2016, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
Please publish in your print or electronic periodical, with the above info.
To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word “subscribe” to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com
It’s not a question of what you are meant to do in this lifetime, rather what you are meant to do in this lifetime next. Next: not a whole lifetime: less than that—and more.
:- Doug.
To see differently
To see more
Is destructive
Of the small, the crusty,
The merely human
:- Doug.
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