FootprintsintheWind.com

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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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1735

Is our country of value to you? E pluribus unum, out of diversity one, needs aired out, fluffed, freshened. We have suffered a propaganda attack, one that was subtle, nuanced, professional. Previously we celebrated our polyglot of languages, dialects, cultures, foods, and colors. In a period of two years, with only a few thousand tweets and posts, we have moved to despair over our divisions. See, it is everywhere you turn—America is more divided than ever. Despair has been fueled. Fear comes, and soon hate. We must invent a new celebration of us. Yes we are cosmopolitan, of the world! Out of diversity, still one. Celebrating!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1734

Peace will happen when we get people working together. Let’s find an excuse to work together.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1733

The crisis of crises
The cord running through
Global warming & violence
Whatever is new—is
Our thinging of people
Suppressing our souls
Not trusting each other
Just fearing our fearing

Giving and touching
Life courses—hear—in us
Calling us to us
Demanding response
By giving and doing
By loving, by living
I am needed in meeting
The meeting of you

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1732

Cleanliness is akin to Godliness
we are told
when the rains bathe the world
ever the streets are
sanctified

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1731

I have taken just the right amount of time reading, conversing, and meditating this morning, leaving just the right amount of now for the others I need to meet.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1730

Popcorn finally heated to turn us inside out, finding we contain more volume than we thought, unimagined shapes—fractal-like undefinable edges, known and unknowable, emergent—we elders! Again, Jack Frost on a window pane, broccoli, river systems, coastlines, lightning bolts, mountain ranges, heart sounds, neural networks, pulmonary vessels, DNA, cracks of beauty in a face!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1729

Wonderful greens
outside my window
shadows and movement
sunlight cutting through
separating the yellow greens
above from the darker below
where a cat softly

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1728

I am my own measuring instrument
in this work she said to me a little
scary but no calculator can give me the
measure of a human being nor
answers for our difficult needs

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1727

If we let the other person’s
words beyond words
sound the depths in us
how much further we both go

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