FootprintsintheWind.com

High trees wave to me
Stirring up breeze, sending it
my way; I wave: Friend!

:- Doug.

Friend, now for your Now, I accept your invitation!

:- Doug.

The city is venue for holy work.

:- Doug.

Why can you not take 3 days to get to better life, justice, community? What do you fear? What do you think conversation is doing? It is true conversation is a waste of time (you are willing to “waste” a day or half a day, why not 2 ½?) if we are talking like we usually talk. But if we are talking like we never have before, then the time is concentrated and we are more productive than we could be in 6 months. We can guarantee you the opportunity and the invitation to talk like you never have before.

:- Doug.

If Conversation and Love are the same thing, and if Justice and Love are the same thing, then Justice is Conversation, Conversation Justice.

:- Doug.

Conversation is slow (3 days!? We can’t take that much time!), is merciful and accepting and gathering of all voices, and is nonviolent because it gets beyond calcification and screaming.

:- Doug.

Justice is more difficult than love, for we think loving is loving our friends and those who love us.

:- Doug.

How are we ever going to do justice if we don’t talk with one another?

:- Doug.

What do you want to happen in our city? Why don’t you see to it?

:- Doug.

Conversation does not sit still: its feet jangle to get to work.

:- Doug.

Put your word in motion: invite.

:- Doug.

Invite people together. Into conversations to make better.

:- Doug.

The work is in the city, this city, and is inviting conversations to see what we can make better.

:- Doug.

Be inviting: always inviting the conversations.

:- Doug.

Find specific people and invite them together.

:- Doug.

By reading, writing and meditating first thing I am giving my first fruits to the highest and best we can touch in our world.

:- Doug.

Invite conversations to see what we can make better.

:- Doug.

It’s not about spreading the word but the action of conversation. This is more complex. We’ve got to invite people together.

:- Doug.

Wind invites two clouds
Each permeates the other
Which? But together?

:- Doug.

The work we all have is togethering.

:- Doug.

A city is a place growing out of humanity, an organic entity ever finding its own shape. Part of that shape is its government, but that is a late birth. People gather, then they think they should consciously shape their gathering.

We want to control and shape, for why else do we have thumbs? We want to put our mark upon the world, to keep it from getting out of our control.

But it was never within our control.

What we can do is invite, and if we invite what they want invited, then we have a party. The city comes first. The gathering comes first: we want to touch and be touched, for we are not whole until we are with. We think together. We are, together.

This together is sometimes called love. Whatever it is, it attracts us to one another. We are attracted to a human face. This together is perhaps of the essence of the holy.

Together is moving, thronging, milling. Together is creating. Sometimes it creates irritation and anger, sometimes excitement and imagination. Always creating.

:- Doug.

First the city, then the government. “A city is the natural expression of our humanity.” Here is a place for us to do holy work.

:- Doug.

What am I getting out of meeting? What am I putting in? My presence. Hearing.

:- Doug.