FootprintsintheWind.com

What are you doing, honey?
Playing.
Where did this child learn this word?
Does playing mean to the child
Doing what I’d doing when I am myself?

:- Doug.

Is God fractal? Unlikely, since our concept of G is that G is larger than our concepts, and fractal is only one among many. But our concepts of God are all we know of God and are in turn made up of our minds and things we see and things we imagine. We certainly make up concepts of God, and those we don’t, those that are “revealed,” are still some part revelation and some part our thinking. What we are left with, at core, is that we can say only God is, as the Hebrew writer put it, “I AM:” everything else is speculation.

:- Doug.

This baby giggles
in your arms: sacred moment
that cherishes you

:- Doug.

Is imagination fractal?
Each lobe self-same shape
as each other and as the whole?
Do we explore down new mazes
To find the same turns and strange edges
To find ourselves at a similar forest’s fringe?
Or does imagination make and find new shapes
And colors, scents, tastes, and surfaces
At moments unexpected, lifting the veil?
Or is imagination casting a light through the veil
Allowing us at last to see
The all there is is fractal?
Or otherwise?

:- Doug.

Vulnerable
Sitting beside, teary-eyed
Unable to take it away
Weak
In the buffeting storm, standing with
This is love
Who is love?

:- Doug.

Friend into our strangely strong vulnerable intimacy.

:- Doug.

Not much more to be said. Not much value in saying it.

:- Doug.

Is that what I saw?
The litmus of all writing
That staggers us

:- Doug.

Why do those of us who want this
Want our family around when we’re dying?
Could it be because we want
One last chance
To find our strength in our vulnerable intimacy?
To share our highest selves in our deepest tears?
To love as deeply as ever we can?

:- Doug.

Love is choreography
Love is improvised
Love is improvised choreography

:- Doug.

The game, the fun, can take us deeper. It is not surface, can be seen by all of us as deeper once we reflect. Deeper partially because of the pause to reflect, partially because of looking at things from a different angle, partially because we are giving dignity to the topic at hand.

:- Doug.

Why a game? To get us to open up; get us thinking about dying; keep fun in it all; get us thinking more deeply about conversing with our families.

:- Doug.

My shape-shifting friend
Always new
Moment to moment!

:- Doug.

Warmth from the fireplace
memory of a smile
smoke drifting from a chimney
sidereal night sky
G must be like these

:- Doug.

Rate of change
in direction
depends upon
—sharpness of the angle of change
—turning radius of the vehicle

So if you seek
to change your society
consider
—how much change you are asking
—how much people desire this change

:- Doug.

Consider the words
we would not apply
to ourselves, our society
but first
consider the words
we do:

faster
higher
stronger
wiser
better
winner
number one
aggressive
warrior

Now consider
the others:

slower
deeper
gentler
learning
equal
mate
companion
receptive
peacemaker
beauty
feminine
soft
pliable
vulnerable
flowing
intimate
fun
playing

Consider
contraries give
essence
to one another
each we need
Consider

:- Doug.

You are a community
Your community can flow together
Or fracture
You are in community
Love even though the odds are that high

:- Doug.

Conversation is about keeping each other in play
For oh! What a cornucopia of
Possibilities is each of us!

:- Doug.

A brilliant cardinal drops
out of the tree
flies straight away from me
to light a hundred yards away
and we our brightness
carry to distant
needs and close

:- Doug.

G is in the between of us
Perhaps is the very between
At the least this is holy ground

:- Doug.

The space between us
lightly hold:
this fertile ground
does not exist
until our circles overlap

here was always
awaiting us to draw close
this third person
of us
itching to spring out and say
You got me!

:- Doug.

Mixed in with bumping into each other
of persons and ideas
mixed with emergence out of the group
mixed with the grinding of rough edges
there also arises from many people
complex, diverse, and conflicting
an environment of
—proliferating variability—
safe place to try
to spout out
new ideas
useless skills
sharing fun creating
fun makes things new

:- Doug.

See the tree branches: the ones who are providing room for leaves to catch wind and sun, the ones who are promoting the life of the tree, these get the sap, these get the growth, buds become shoots, become twigs, become limbs, become branches.

:- Doug.