FootprintsintheWind.com

Today even elders don’t see their wisdom, don’t value their insights and longer view.

:- Doug.

Though I am just
a young
elder
I can see
there is a blooming
coming
possibly

:- Doug.

Let us to search for a softer, gentler, friendlier word.

In our culture we, unthinking, use discussion as a synonym for conversation, dialogue, and the larger engagement.

Discussion rhymes with percussion and concussion; it is way too violent for my ears. (It shares the same root, too, one of striking asunder, breaking up, dashing to pieces, agitating.)

I personally prefer to converse, which carries the thought of roundness, turning, as in dance, as in turning a compost heap. The images are much more fruitful, contemplative, opening.

There are other words we could choose that might be fruitful too: dialogue, deliberation, discourse, powwow, exchange, confer, engage.

I invite us to consider friendly alternatives in our converse.

:- Doug.

What can we do? What can this handful of people do?

:- Doug.

I was looking out over the valley from a different angle and could not see the mountain from here.

:- Doug.

Journaling with others in the same book might take us to new lands.

:- Doug.

The parts participate in the whole
each needs and grows the other
relating, one

:- Doug.

I don’t mind being told I’m wrong as much as being wrong.

:- Doug.

Wider!
Loosen!

:- Doug.

Open!
Open, my heart!
Open, my spirit!
:- Doug.

On inventing (perhaps in both meanings of invent: find and create) truth: Truth does not exist only in the pre-existent, but is living, grows and fades and flows, accreting and changing course. Truth as a flow is interesting, and raises the question of how there can be an opposite, the great and opposing truth. Perhaps a lie is a dry bed with no flow, and the great other river only seems to be opposing.

:- Doug.

Standing in the woods earlier: it sounded like a rain shower. It was leaves falling! Comforting and spirit-lifting!

:- Doug.

The dough be kneaded
enfolded in each other
truth, beauty, goodness: all

:- Doug.

Does this only flow from that?
Is there a pre-existing cause for everything?
Could this flow to that?

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1650

We are intimately interlaced
More than plugged together
No need to connect up
Intimately we were born
When we die we are not ripped
From the fabric but still part
A family is but pearls appearing
Along the string
The string’s the thing
Some when back there one yarn
Some when up ahead more
This now
More even than genetic or sidereal intimacy
Some grow from the seed of Lincoln,
Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus, Moses
If we could step back far enough, we’d know
We are intimately

Please pass it on.

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Over the head of another say about them something true and beautiful and good: bless him or her.

:- Doug.

Now I am moving into something true. Explore more.

:- Doug.

They are more blessed than we. They have offended us and have moved on. We are stuck in the hurt, the might have beens, the repair. We can choose to move on and be at peace.

:- Doug.

What do you know for sure that’s not (any longer) so?

:- Doug.

What questions might expand your wisdom?

:- Doug.

Write a list of your wisdom.

:- Doug.

Thank you for knowing when to unsubscribe.

:- Doug.

How could you put your wisdom to work in a way that stretches yourself?

:- Doug.