FootprintsintheWind.com

G*d is more
kindly, gentle,
still, small,
everywhere, everyone
than ever we were told

:- Doug.

Your new eyes
see that whatever happens
is full of life—
Could these be G*d?

:- Doug.

Do not stop at seeing that we are connected, but move on to how we are connected: the tapestry woven by each connection is infinitely varied from each other. Patterns emerge to change the world.

:- Doug.

How do you choose living while you are dying?

:- Doug.

Life and death choice points are not about choosing life or death, but choosing life and death, life within death.

:- Doug.

Density upon density
Immensity compacting immensity
For touching life
Books give way to handwritten letters
Poetry packs more in
Till words themselves are
Sucked into life’s immense denseness
Silence
Black Wholes

:- Doug.

If our neighbor has no food, dare we withhold ours? If in prison, do we visit? If caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed his children, do we insist he be thrown into prison? How does this speak to us when our neighbor is from our neighbor country, Mexico? How are we called upon to struggle with being charitable—loving—with this person, especially when we find being charitable is not a black and white thing?

:- Doug.

Whatever you do
in all that you do
serve life

:- Doug.

Is it possible that everyone is God except God?

:- Doug.

We humans are too caught up in making things perfect. Look at our antennas: dishes and bow ties, perfectly straight or exactly circular edges, nothing sticking out, parallel lines or radiating lines. Now look at a tree, how G*d puts it together: a seed, a star to reach toward, a breeze to collect food and pollen from, and a whisper, Grow. What we get are branches and leaves turning every which way, things sticking out, no perfect edges, no straight lines, pure creativity and desire to touch.

:- Doug.

These persons are
you are
the good and the capable

:- Doug.

Gather persons
“What do you see?”
break the preoccupation with the grey overcast
ask their help
“What can we do?”

:- Doug.

Hesitating
tentative
saying “I did not know”
frail
shrinking
having nothing
this person is G*d

:- Doug.

Sometimes there is cloud cover
a grey cloth cast over our eyes
so we cannot see the sky
but the sky is still there
what holds us up is the sky
as much as the ground

:- Doug.

These
are the ones
beginning
We
are the beginners

:- Doug.

Everything
we might become or do
is here in the room
all potential just here
sublime and criminal
old and creative
memory and present fact
outside can bump
or be an excuse to ignore
who
is here in this room

:- Doug.

Some have mistaken the metaphors of Christ for the message, forgetting that metaphors and similes do not in each age carry the same message, in the process deadening the message. Teachers need to work harder to uncover truth.

:- Doug.

After this conversation
how have our questions changed?
Changing questions, transforming persons
The measure of our progress is our questions

The interwoven personal
is where our world is unfolding
both essential and creating
a dance of lights

:- Doug.

G*d acts even though
G*d is already there
and we are already there
Why?
Is G*d already there?
Are we already there?
As adjectives and actions
G*d and we are ever in motion
touching, being touched, birthing
within here and now

:- Doug.

If people have a fear of talking openly in public, they have a pent up need to be heard. We need merely provide a safe place and an invitation.

:- Doug.

Gentle kindness
is the stuff of the universe
is larger than power violence
meet and embrace all

:- Doug.

What is the value of
non action?
(It is not the opposite of action
for it is an action)
It opens space
for others to act
for larger forces to act
for other possibilities
for questions
It turns our eyes toward being

:- Doug.