FootprintsintheWind.com

Miss them
with them

:- Doug.

I don’t know
nor does any body
what speed then?

:- Doug.

Be less than you can be
like you
I’ve wondered about choosing

:- Doug.

Some say we will soon eradicate death. If we abdicate death what will become of us, our meaning, our humanity, our compassion?

:- Doug.

What does it mean to be a poet? What is the connection to old?

:- Doug.

Is there anyone who can say any ten years of your life went exactly as you expected?

:- Doug.

We’ll get serious quickly, always attuned to fun along the way.

:- Doug.

An elder is one who is continuously pondering the tasks of eldering; and ….

:- Doug.

Live into your dying.

:- Doug.

Live your dying.

:- Doug.

Don’t deny dying. See what’s there. Meet.

:- Doug.

We can be in the dying, with the person, with our own dying. It is living up to our dying and our loved one, attuned to the larger in life. If we die mostly as we have lived, if we want a large-view dying full of meaning, we need to seek the meaning in our days.

:- Doug.

There is a focal point
out beyond money
meet me there

:- Doug.

Living asks of us
Dying asks of us
Grieving asks of us

:- Doug.

This lady needs our help. Together. And help is not always in the shape of money.

:- Doug.

I am going to die. I am not conscious of dying at this moment. What can it mean to these days to remember my death, my dying? I want to converse at that time. I want to not avoid the truth. I want to grow closer to my spouse, my children, and my grandchildren. I want to easily, smoothly, kindly turn away from them when I must and proceed.

:- Doug.

Seems to me that the fear of death and dying in this culture is at least a fear of talking about them, of conversing through these rapids.

:- Doug.

There is not a ready vocabulary for this dying.

Will I be able to express this with my course-mates? With family? Friends?I can only try. I can only take a breath and see what comes up.

:- Doug.

Let the silence
snow down upon us
a blanket saying Shh

:- Doug.

You cannot see it if
You cannot say it
And yet…
There is a shh
That speaks to our knowing

:- Doug.

One of the things a poet works at for the rest of us is developing a language for things for which we have no language. For instance, death.

:- Doug.

Let us have a conversation with death.

:- Doug.

Being in the dying room the task is witnessing. You witness my dying, ask me about what is going on, what I’m thinking with a far away look. I witness to you my thoughts, prayers, wishes, needs, and not having needs, so your time will be known a little. Thus we love one another. Parent, child, spouse.

:- Doug.