FootprintsintheWind.com

When we enter that sea as one of its drops we become not dissolved but whole, the whole, completed and complete. No loss to fear, gain with whom to play!

:- Doug.

Because it implies marching against, overcoming, struggling with, maybe we should not pray “in the name of” any thing or any one. Perhaps we can pray “in the light of” something or some one. Then we no longer rend apart but are part of the whole.

:- Doug.

A tree chopped down is dead for ever
You can say it shelters humans
But did you ask its permission?
You can say it rots or maybe sprouts again
But what might it have been
For birds and microorganisms?
What sun collect, what oxygen create? What life?

:- Doug.

We do not win if we beat life.

:- Doug.

Always remember: life is an alias of G*d.

:- Doug.

I set before you a choice: seize life by the throat, or dance with her.

:- Doug.

How do we control the world? It will not. Try this experiment: tell a two-year-old what to do. Do you meet with 100% success? If then you cannot control a two-year-old, how much less the world?

Where is our effort likely to meet success—in seeking control of the uncontrollable—or in meeting it?

There are some things we can control, but by and large, others and forces have sway too. For me I say better to dance with.

I am still learning to dance. It is fun. It is work. It is lively.

:- Doug.

We often live in a world of control. We drive here, we program our computer, we write checks—and something happens. Something we intended. Even our prayers are to a God we demand pull some strings for us. Yet there is another way to live—we can live in a world of responses: of world to us, us to world, us to one another; in short, in conversation with. Which is uptight, which is relaxed? Which boring, which limitless? Which strangling and dead, which living?

:- Doug.

Marching
to demand
that the government
overthrow
its
policies

And working
to gain a seat
at the
table
where decisions are made

Both branch from the
same bush
ceding
power
to others

Tend with
us
the whole
garden

:- Doug.

Not important who gets credit
Important the new idea gets
Set at large

:- Doug.

Not sacrifice
But a fair share

:- Doug.

We live in times of change so rapid our heads want to spin—or go take a nap. Has this sensation happened in other eras? When and to whom? Was it meaningful when it did?

:- Doug.

We were blind
We did not see
All the lights
In which we walked
But now…?

:- Doug.

We need to disorganize our thinking
—especially the part where we puzzle it out alone
Look in & look out through new paradigms
together we see more
If we are to get somewhere new
Does everyone have enough?
Does everyone love enough?
Do we We enough?

:- Doug.

There is a paradigm at work, a point of view, which says there is someone who holds the keys and is keeping them from us. Our jailer is ourselves. There is always something we can do: a brow to cool, a load to help carry. It is said by some that when creation was done, God’s light shattered and the shards were spread all over the world. Each creature had or was part of that light. We each, each!, reflect that light, carry that light. It does not take a very big mirror, nor even highly polished, to show the sparkle. So the question is, are we using our light? Are we willing to put it to work? Will we get up off the couch even when we are dog tired and do our part?

Our part is our essence. It is different for each of us. Since we were given life, we were given, as our minimum gift, creativity. We can make something happen. But that does not mean we do it alone. All the others have a piece of that divine light and it will take us working together—wherever two or three of us are gathered—to put that divinity among us to work.

:- Doug.

Invent the new:
Better not to bring your answers
rather open our questions

:- Doug.

The world is changing
There are fewer & fewer city halls
To march against
More & more
Friends to gather

:- Doug.

Is Jesus your hero?
Did he seek a seat at tables—
or overturn them?
Did he recruit mayors and rich men,
or fishermen and even women?

:- Doug.

Does everyone have enough?
Enough food, clothing, shelter, transportation?
Is each heard, well enough?
Do all participate enough?

:- Doug.

G*d is the stuff among us that does the impossible.

:- Doug.

Am I retired? No, and I plan to not “retire.” But I am living life more each day on my own terms.

:- Doug.

I love my work and want to keep doing it as long as possible.

:- Doug.

Last night, a vision: humans disrobing from the inside out, tentatively reaching out to the world round about, each layer getting them closer to touching, being touched and participating: The first layer, thick and seldom clear, is communicating; the second is discussing, a way of throwing things at one another’s screens. (If this layer becomes tattered, it is called debate.) Then follow even thinner more gossamer porous fabrics in discourse and then dialogue. Finally we reach conversing, where the naked human takes to turning and dancing with the world. Here the human being is most able to alter the course of events.

It is a terrifying process, this disrobing. The compensations are friends to encourage and warm us, and knowledge that we are making good. Seeing the garments of which we have less use now, and those still in our way, can give us courage to enter the dance.

:- Doug.