FootprintsintheWind.com

Thinking, thinking, thinking
And my left thumb the only remains
After Parkinson’s
Pain too: unbearable, faithful
I am so trapped I do not ask
To whom I can offer my
Thinking, thinking, thinking
This would give purpose to my days:
Offering my counsel to our
Nurses, friends, teens,
Churches, leaders
Or working on some big question
Of philosophy or society
These goods I can do with my
Thinking, thinking, thinking
But I need your help
In this direction to open my
Thinking, thinking, thinking

:- Doug.

Woman, 92,
Strong mind, strong will,
Body visibly frail
Why do we get the disease of
Living too long?

:- Doug.

The capacity we seek:
We already have
and devalue
Is written in a vocabulary
we do not yet possess

:- Doug.

The life unsolved
Businesses want to solve everything
As if life, my life, were a problem
As if every problem had a solution
To get exactly what you pay for
Means no more lagniappe
No mystery, no silence, no life

:- Doug.

What remarkable things have you seen in Open Space, particularly those which bring us to spirit, holy, larger, oneness?

:- Doug.

What is the life of a butterfly?
How much work in the wind?
How much fun it would be to glide
But butter takes a lot of churning
How often have I seen them glide?

:- Doug.

What is the underlying, deeper question of my work? It is How to find and release the larger within people, within the people. We are more than we are, and I have touched that. More of us can touch.

:- Doug.

There is something larger, holy
Within us
That’s not wholly within us

:- Doug.

Here,
This is a safe time
Grow quiet
You have the reserves
Stay, gather
You can go out
From here

:- Doug.

What is possible I have seen
People dare, people do, people know things beyond their history
People lean into one another
So the circle opens out
They throw down their lives for strangers
We are and move the unmovable
We touch and are the unholdable

:- Doug.

This is my workshop
This is where happens
All the magic

:- Doug.

To give my life to the larger
Is easier than to
Give my work
This is the question
I must live

:- Doug.

The long moment: take the long view, the long view held in a moment. A hundred years from now, what difference? A hundred years from now, what difference were you, did you, this moment?

:- Doug.

We can’t give away—
There is no one else to give to
And yet—

:- Doug.

Are we not educators all?
Leading out those around us
—And us if we attend—
Into a larger world?

:- Doug.

We need to connect this to something larger
Lead out us to something larger
Of which we are

:- Doug.

One field is the air around us
Wind and birdsong
Leaves atwitter collecting sunlight
Phones ringing
Bustle of office churning churning

:- Doug.

It is not lack of time
It is lack of energy
Maybe energy is attention

:- Doug.

Bringing holy to life, life to holy.

:- Doug.

Holy emerges

:- Doug.

Holy this day
Sacred my efforts

:- Doug.

Why are academics afraid of verbs?

:- doug.

Beyond not resolving the question
Emily’s poetry
Offers us a message

:- Doug.