Family Council: something begins
One purpose of Family Council is to open space for inspired, workable next steps, in a setting where We is more important than Do, in a setting where the next steps are confused. Something begins.
:- Doug.
Archive for the 'Conversations' Category
What if, in the between?
What if God were not out there but in here: in the between? Not pulling our strings but evoking and tickling our hearts? Not above but distributed? Not doing, but delighting in us doing? Not solving for us but laughing—and crying—with us? Not above us but among any two or three of us?
:- Doug.
To listen is to listen for; to hear is….
To listen is to listen for: to have an agenda to confirm. To hear is to hear who is there. Listening is looking for limits; hearing is to notice the limits and who crosses.
:- Doug.
This, poet is the way to write:
This, poet, is the way to write:
release your words
to your hearers
release your hearing as well
release both to a larger wild
to do their original work
but you, now free, must again originate
:- Doug.
20 people sitting in the mud
Picture 20 people sitting in the mud, a rope tangled limply around ankle and elbow, shoulder, neck and foot. What accounts for their earlier struggle and their current high spirits and banter is the rope that still holds them together, connects them.
:- Doug.
If I am to die well
If I am to die well
I need you to place
my story in yours
If I am to die well
I need you to love me
:- Doug.
If our memory goes?
If our memory goes?
what do we know of G*d?
Do we yet turn, turn, turn?
Is our compass set,
or do we turn, turn, turn?
“No longer will they say
‘Remember the Lord,’”
For the Lord will
be their heart
:- Doug.
Don’t hold G*d in your fist
Don’t hold G*d in your fist
Nor press G*d like a leaf
Between pages of your book
Freedom suits G*d more
Play!
:- Doug.
Sacred essence
Everything is in conversation
Everything is conversation
We don’t need to invite participation
In a world awash in participation
We are challenged to be conscious
& on purpose about it
& not to shrink from our challenge
The sacred essence of
the world is conversation
:- Doug.
Our story has no end
It is true that our story reaches out and touches others, touches the stories of our ancestors and descendants, touches and mingles with the story of our family and tribe for years, maybe eons.
:- Doug.
We are ever given the ability to renew our futures.
We are ever given the ability to renew our futures.
:- Doug.
How do we die in our times?
How do we die in our times? Would we die heroically, meaningfully, or as many of us do, with a whimper?
:- Doug.
A tale true to life
Here is a tale true to life: A boy sets out on a road. Life offers not end, so this story has no end. Sometimes there is opposition, sometimes not. Life is open. A life might end, but life goes on. We are all always setting out on a road.
:- Doug.
A goal beyond
If you see a goal
I’ll offer a goal beyond
If you see an ending
I’ll point to a seed sprouting
If you see a vista
I’ll invite you to horizons
Rolling out before us
:- Doug.
We each have a larger view
Since I see some things in longer view than others, it is my obligation to share this longer horizon. You see other things larger than I, so you expand me. Please. Coming toward us are these permutations. The more we see, the greater our choices. The more our choices, the more we can live.
:- Doug.
Even in our last days
There are many parts to the human. Let’s take for instance head, hand and heart. All tire at different rates. The longer our view, the more that is possible to us. The more we see, the more we see. Our hand is dying, our head sleeping, yet our soul might be flying. This opens possibilities to us: things we can do, places we can go, wisdom we can impart, love we can give, essences we can be, new things we can meet, even in our last days.
:- Doug.
In this family together
We are in this family and in this setting together. Only together do we move on. Even if some of us pull away and stop participating, the whole of us must adjust and find a way forward. We might be hobbling along on three limbs. It is better whole, but we need always to recognize the freedom of each. It is, after all, dance. Dance is infinite.
:- Doug.
If you cannot find anyone you trust,
If you cannot find anyone you trust, find someone to mentor and create in them someone you will trust.
:- Doug.
If doctors
If doctors have no desire for conversation, then we can take on having the conversation for them.
:- Doug.
