FootprintsintheWind.com

Cooperation on the way in: people dodging in & out, cutting across multiple lanes to find one that is momentarily faster. Yet the traffic works because people are cooperating and those doing those other things are the biggest threats to the safety of the whole. This does not mean we need to be dumb driven cattle, but we can be kind, opening the way for a stranger, we can relax and pay attention. We can be with the other drivers and accomplish good—getting there.

:- Doug.

We are
Each of us
& especially
All of us
Living poetry

:- Doug.

Honor your eldering insights—Write them down! Share them! Open a window: let them fly in, let them fly out!

:- Doug.

When the world
wants to treat your illness
as if you were machine
or a chemistry experiment
or you as if you are only this illness

Remember,
we are flesh
we are blood
Remember,
we are we

:- Doug.

Whom can I help?
Sit by that person

:- Doug.

The world is our donut
Filled with G*d
Biting in, something
wonderful oozes
onto our chin!
Lick, enjoy,
share!

:- Doug.

Intimacy requires opening our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This is the hardest thing to do, and therefore it is the strongest thing we can do. Yet intimacy also means showing our nuances. Shades of grey to darkest shadows and all the subtle colors, bold or pastel or washed out. Many sides have we.

:- Doug.

We are given only one day to live
—Today

:- Doug.

Find a way

:- Doug.

Find where the spirit is moving
and join that
or stir the spirit of us

:- Doug.

I invite you to be the voice that sparks.

:- Doug.

Let us boldly go
where no man has gone
and few women….

:- Doug.

In our times, we are bringing heart to law.

:- Doug.

It also takes heart

:- Doug.

Feeling old is optional
for you, elder
of fuller life

:- Doug.

The difference between a top of charts band and a local great band is not musical skill or entertainment skill or breaks. The difference is asking the larger audience to hear: claiming the right to be in the light. Given quality and heart, the responsibility to the world must be respected.

:- Doug.

Savor even these moments. Taste!

:- Doug.

Let’s not worry about what we have lost or might lose; let’s take fewer pictures to preserve the times of our lives and make more times to live in our souls.

What does it take to live in our souls? For me? I need to savor. I was going to say “be present” but savor pulls that into my mouth and gives my tongue something to play with, my teeth something upon which to chew. Savor this moment, in my soul, in my spirit. Look for what there is to savor.

Savor the juicy, meaty, life-giving.

:- Doug.

I found myself pondering last night about moments and how we can live in moments of varying lengths and widths and breadths, of how life can be here with us, of how we can pay attention, of how life is pleading with us to live.

:- Doug.

Make memories I said in my youth
Now I want to make only moments

:- Doug.

We will stand in the face
of the wind and buffeting rains
beside you
hold you up
when we can barely stand
scream with you
for you have lost your baby!

:- Doug.

Apple orchards, apple trees
Into the orchard behind our country house
I would throw the oranges
My mother sent in my lunch box
When I tried to peel them
Their juice would only burn my fingers
Where I had been biting my nails

Into the orchard beside my grandmother’s house
When I was staying over to sleep
In their big feather bed up in the attic
Into that orchard I would call from the bathroom
For my Grandma’s help
Before I knew how to use the toilet paper

Down the street from our house in town
Lived a crab apple tree
And one year I bit into its fruit
And spit it out surprised at its dry bitterness

The apple orchard at my grandmother’s house
So squarely and perfectly planted in rows it was
Is now gone. The new owners wanted it for yard
Or maybe the trees grew old
And the one behind my parents’ house is also gone
To be a farmer’s field
And my grandparents and parents are gone, too

:- Doug.

Humans multiply
But it’s not good for us to divide
We do well to add one to another
Subtracting a human diminishes all
Rends our fabric
Stalls our growth
The calculus of life calls for
Coming together

:- Doug.