FootprintsintheWind.com

In the between
is the conversation
and the conversation is with G-d
and the between is G-d:
All things come into being through relation
and apart from conversation nothing comes into being.
In conversation is life,
and life is the light of humans.
The light shines in the darkness
and darkness does not comprehend it.

:- Doug.

You are whom you are. Be that one.

:- Doug.

Conversation is that which stretches persons.

:- Doug.

Do you see? This meeting is a maelstrom of ideas, meaning and creativity working itself into patterns and flows so as to make a new world.

:- Doug.

Inclusion includes separation; separation excludes. Life is inclusive, death exclusive. Paradoxically, life requires a choice to include; death can be assented to unconsciously. Love therefore can embrace hate and fear.

Love can embrace dichotomies and separation—even those it fosters but abhors. Both/and includes either/or. Love includes standing in the face of the other. Inclusivity and exclusivity are not necessarily opposed.

We need to include among the included ourselves as well.

Inclusion is life and love; exclusion is death and fear. What’s important is to keep in heart you are always drawing in to your embrace. We are not called to be forever double-sweet—we must take a stand—but we are to take our stand out of a foundation of drawing in. Be kind.

:- Doug.

G-d is flow
G-d is imagination flowing
Love flowing
Life emerging green and flesh
Fire!
Conversation coursing
Persons!

Flow is
breath
wind
air
ruach
Spirit
us

:- Doug.

People can change the world. The world ever changes. People can… and must….

:- Doug.

We can choose to live in three worlds: memory, which is simply us manipulating the past in a singular brain; here and now, which simply is, is not malleable, and therefore is fate; imagination, which is doing the good we choose. So to choose among these worlds implies that we choose imagination, because it is the only one that involves active choice.

:- Doug.

Acting together, all are capable of the universe.

:- Doug.

We are on vacation and the world has been turning without us. Yet in all truth, the world needs us to turn. To turn ourselves, to turn the world, to turn the world by turning us.

:- Doug.

This is love, to live the paradox of meeting. It is frustrating and fulfilling, it goes where you want and don’t want.

:- Doug.

Believe in all people. Each one can meet. Each two can change the world. Believe in the one born of meeting. Love each one, each two. The one born of meeting is the son, the daughter, of G*d: THE Word, THE dialogue. Unlimited exclusivity and unlimited inclusivity. Perhaps limited on this planet. Perhaps not limited as G*d.

:- Doug.

G-d is imagination

:- Doug.

G-d is inevitable
spontaneity
spontaneous inevitability
For this reason so are we

:- Doug.

We are given the right to choose what world our grandchildren will live in. What do we choose?

:- Doug.

What do the words mean, Greater things than I will you do—in our lives?

:- Doug.

There is no preparation
for conversation
take the person as
he or she comes
meet and be met

:- Doug.

Did Jesus really say “No one comes to the Father but by me?” Or were these words put in his mouth by another? By their fruits you shall know them, so what fruits are of this saying? Wars and crusades of death by some of G-d’s children against others. Are these the fruits of a G-d of love?

Was Jesus, the image of the Father, a person who excluded any people? Children, women, nationalities, occupations, sinners, even wealthy and powerful? Then neither should we. Did he free people? Then so shall we.

:- Doug.

G*d is
distributed and entangled
with us inseparable
enfolded as the living yeast
with the nurturing dough

:- Doug.

The low are exalted
because G*d is with them
spread out
among, within
all

:- Doug.

Why is there a tuggle between the structure and control people and the openness and freedom people? First, “different strokes for different folks”–some people really do need more control/openness/whatever you can name, as strange as that might seem to you. Second, there are outer limits to the orbit of human culture: there is a dance between passion and responsibility, and as each swings his or her partner out the dance also pulls the partner into the embrace. So it is necessary for us to hold our position and equally to allow our partner to hold his or hers.

:- Doug.

Move toward what makes us nervous—it is a cue for something new that wants to happen.

:- Doug.

Planting seeds is the work. Harvesting is a matter of whatever grows is beyond our control but not our influence. Sun, rain, heat, thunder, and varmints all have influence, too. Plant the seeds, tend them, give them to the world. They plant seeds too.

A forest can be carried in your pocket, in seed.

:- Doug.