FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1760

When young
there is plenty of time later

When seasoned
time washes

Time later
starts to course into
time now

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1759

In your wind we are wind
blown to be!
In your thunder we are thunder
startled to be!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1758

Dying is a time to come close to one another, to round out our togethering. We cannot know what that will mean till we get there, and yet we do. We can practice this part of our dying this day by seeing one another, saying the moment’s truths, arguing well, holding hands.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1757

Grands can start re-scoring our games. Rate the beauty of the arc of the pass. Praise the extension of the player in that catch. How well did this player help other players perform to their best—whichever team they are on? How did this person improve? Point up the beauty and grace of execution. Currently the Olympics demonstrate scoring technical and artistic elements. Subtle nuances evoke deeper humanity. In this way grands can help the grandchildren become ever more aware.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1756

As we become elders, we become less and less, more and more. Less physical, more real, expanding, more diffuse with each breath, a morning mist blending into the sunlight, floating on the breeze. Often mist-ified, sometimes mist-ical.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1755

An elder may hold back something of the story: allowing for the hearer to discover; allowing the story to cup its power.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1754

About the divisions the country is feeling: It is natural there be differences of opinion. We need to recall that there are many more of us now, each with strongly held opinions and even ideologies. Every community of people needs two things: stability and growth. These are opposing needs. If we grow, then things do not stay the same. If things do not stay the same, we are not the same as we were, we risk disappearing. On the other hand, if we do not grow, we fall apart through attrition or lack of fresh blood. So we need both, we need to include both. Beyond weighing one against the other, beyond balancing one with the other, including and honoring each. It is normal, it is healthy, it is necessary.

Here is the thing about those two: we must keep the two conversing. We must keep conversing. It is the only thing that works. Or we kill all of us.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1753

Grandchildren should be seen and especially heard.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1752

I have left meetings “blown away” by the power of what was shared. Life after may not have changed perceptibly, but what passed through us was profound. Could this be akin to what a first peoples person means by “powerful medicine?”

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1751

Our world is reliably unpredictable.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1750

If it is complexity we face, it is with complexity we must meet. We cannot afford to pull apart, for that means death of our species—of our grandchildren.

Some see America as their enemy and so they think if we war with ourselves it is better for them. They see a small part of the world. If we do manage to find unity in our diversity and freedom in our complexity, all humanity will succeed to this inheritance. This will. Take work. This is. A noble calling. For the grandchildren.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1749

Some will just shut off the lights; some will see the stars.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1748

A person aging attentively—an elder—must complexify: adding years adds experiences, some of which will require learning, that is changes which broaden and challenge awareness, making one more nuanced. One takes more into account. One’s world is juicier, richer, meatier.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1747

Hurry up! You’re not good enough!
This is a disease
That by these we heal—
Whenever it starts is right
Whoever you already are is perfectly you

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1746

You look up and see a human before you
Yet you cannot know who there stands
The loves and fears, hopes, imaginations.
There is a way to know: in love and intercourse, but not as you think:
To open, to share, to nothing hold back
Until you fall into each other’s arms
With tears and laughter: “Brother!” “Sister!”
It is true—all—too—in the mirror.
What are the dimensions of the one you are?
Infinity! Eternity!
Can you grasp even the hem of her dreams?
Can you embrace all of his love for any one person?
She is a child of G-d
He is a birther of G-d.
They shine and throb as the stars.
How many emotions does this one have?
How many values?
What shape do all their dreams make?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1745

If you can’t think of something better to do, take a nap.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1744

Consider looking the other direction
Inviting in place of extruding
Children calling forth parents and families
Starstuff attracted out in the Big Beckon
God everywhere pulling out all this

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1742

Elders live messages not authorized by the dominant culture.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1741

Expect people to dismiss. Expect people to get nervous, to fight it. Expect people to ridicule. Care when people do not react, are not disturbed. Reach out: expect your hand to be slapped. Hard. Do not stop if it is not. Or if it is. Do not be attached to either as your stopping point. It is a valuable gift. Whether and how it is received is not your concern. You have come only to give it.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1740

You’re an elder at 30 when you endeavor
to decide who will raise your children
if you cannot & how

You’re an elder at 40 when you taste
adversity & choose not to let the bitter
go into your words

You’re an elder at 50 when you forgive
yourself for the fishing trips
you’ll never have with your buddy

You’re an elder at 60 when you bury
your parents and stand in the
withering winds of grief

You’re an elder at 70 when you give
your best self to your grandchildren
and silently pray they were hearing

You’re an elder at 80 when you see
you still have work to do and
gifts to give

Mostly you’re an elder when you give
your best for the good of
the generations

Elder is not an age
Elder is a state

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1739

Such beauty in the azure of the sky and the floating white of the clouds! In the flowers and scents and sounds and abounding! Our highest response is not so much thanks or praise, but recognition and joy and taking care to pass it along to our children and those who are so beleaguered they cannot lift their eyes to see!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1738

What is the poetry of a cloudy day?
What lives in clouds
Flies in them
With them
With blue above and green below?
Do clouds encourage us to look
To the holy in each other
In the mud and the weeds
For what is possible
Just here, just now?
Birds still fly
Squirrels still get into mischief
Water still runs downhill
Into still pools
And we still have work to do
Love to make
Friends to meet
Love to make

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1736

A tree in winter
bare of leaves
why do we use such pictures
as metaphor for elders
when buds are already on the grow?
How about dew on morning’s grass,
a field in bloom, a mother at term?

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