FootprintsintheWind.com

In the presence of inviting, freeing, calling….

:- Doug.

G
weeds in pond
out of reach
people sitting
silent in worship
friends chatting
doers leaning in
stars
overcast
ordinary
meeting

:- Doug.

Clash! Sparks! Fire!
Keep a water bucket by
Or throw on more fuel?
Do we want fire
Or smoke?

:- Doug.

About people
richness releasing
do we dare?

:- Doug.

People. Conversation is about people. Growing. Becoming permeable to one another. Touching. Working together. Inventing. Life.

If that is not what you want, give speeches. Orders. Memos.

:- Doug.

Are you seeing
Something you would not have
Twenty years ago?

:- Doug.

Rage?
Dying of the light?
Fading? As the planet turns
To face the thousand stars
Blocked by the closer bit of light?

:- Doug.

Party. Old
Friends. Moving away.
Saying good bye. Saying. Talking.
Bob’s heart attack. Reading Old Testament.
Bloody battles. Slaughtering tribes.
Joyce’s broken wrist.
Drive her to church.
Less grey hair all around.
More white.
Bruce has cancer in his good eye.
Losing his sight.
Will he find another?
Tom’s cough might be cystic fibrosis.
Eight years ago he died and
Was revived. Happy now. Satisfied.
Party. Laughter.
Some beer. Less wine. More iced tea.
After. A movie. True to life.
Fifty year old woman.
Alzheimer’s.
Maybe her mumbles
An advanced language?
She has progressed
Beyond us?
Bodies giving way
To something better? More?
How could we know?
Except we go there?
Or open our other eyes?
Party

:- Doug.

One person speaking at a group is not about people but entertainment. It is about one person.

:- Doug.

If you don’t need people you can forgo conversation.

:- Doug.

If we don’t talk together how will we ever work together?

:- Doug.

People are what conversation is about. Not ideas nor plans nor experts nor stars nor money.

:- Doug

Is the wing made up of the feathers
Or does the wing produce the feathers?
Or something else?

:- Doug.

Observe, tunnel, risk.

:- Doug.

We organize a normal conference: contributing to the mindset of waiting for someone (on stage) to tell us what to do. We could organize a normative conference: unleashing people to do what’s in their hearts and minds.

:- Doug.

Do the garbage and the grass in our heap
Tolerate one another?
No! They act upon each other
So both turned, become other:
Nutrient rich soil
Humanity needs less tolerance
More composting one another

:- Doug.

Freely wondering
About ultimates
Lovers’ eyes
All there is
Wondering about you

:- Doug.

Conversation being an effort-filled process, and humans by nature being lazy, it will take special efforts to converse. It is uncomfortable. There will be no one lead-in word or phrase or sentence. Presence in the moment and inventing a way in is the only way. Conversation starts in silence but must employ courage to get up off its cushion. Observe, deeper, risk.

:- Doug.

We do not converse, not because we are frightened by it, so much as we are lazy.

:- Doug.

You cannot manage conversation. That’s why it will be forever disconcerting to people with closed minds or frozen hearts.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1518

The issue our country is having, the issue our people is having is we are pulling apart. There is little tugging us to any sort of home, little heart to our culture. We are e unum pluribus. We see our differences, we scream at each other. When we talk, we talk at, and withhold the final decision about whether the other is person or simply combatant, contestant, competitor. When we drive, we drive among these 3 Cs. Anger is the energy of the day.

So our task needs to be to find our heart, our home, our essential relatedness. Soft, gentle, reliable. To help us all come together.

Please pass it on.

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Common as ashes
And dust are we
Ashes or ashes
Dust by dust
Mingling our destiny

:- Doug.

The person’s mind with age grows hollow
This is when we should them hallow
For empty is the greater part of whole

:- Doug.