FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1327

In those days
We feel most flat
Lacking being
Start conversing
For each person
Adds to us
A dimension

Each a new dimension
But do we allow
Only more flatness
Or that which runs across
Our grain
Or which produces a new & different
Light note?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1326

We’re here to do the good we can while we can—& part of the good we do is accepting the good others do for us.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1325

Everything is sacred
Everyone is holy
Bow, befriend, remove your shoes

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1324

O beautiful day, to you, for you, I am thankful. The seeds on the little maple are deep burnt orange, starting to hang long, and the green of the leaves is showing. The little pear relatives have white puffy flowers all over. Spring is showing off!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1323

The world is nuanced
neither oo nor ah
late nor soon
unity nor diversity
more and combinations of more
suggesting suggestive
open opened opening

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1322

We have come a long way
We have come here to play
Maybe we are not strong enough,
wise enough, good enough
But we shall do & maybe we shall see

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1321

We quickly uncovered the Boston Marathon bombers. Yes, we: law enforcement people used all the cameras that abound and the memories of people and the alertness of people to find these perpetrators. The ending was in violence and bloodshed, but those might some day be influenced as well by inclusiveness. All of us together have gotten us this far; all of us together can take us further.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1320

Maybe the Boston Marathon bombings teach us to be caring for each other—before something can happen. Be observant. Report suspicious things. But more than that: be kind to strangers, the other, the disaffected. Kindness of strangers might take someone off the path to terrorism—or get them psychological help when needed. A kind voice, an openness to hear, an observant heart willing to act—who can tell their power?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1319

What of the role of the family and others who love the dying person? Are they merely empty conduits for the carrying of information? How can we love our families in the ways we choose to die?

Should we for instance take into account the different, maybe violently different or extreme, views of other family members? How do we reconcile differences?

Do we take the lead and do the work of eldering and loving and tell our story close in? Do we talk about our desires to receive and give forgiveness, about thanking, saying goodbyes, giving our soul substance, saying I love you in many ways? Does this bring us together? What brings families together? Stories and memories and heart things, invitation. Speaking of pain and seeing suffering and listening to one another.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1318

Related are we

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1317

We should honor our insights but also our pain and even our despair for our world. Avoiding, running away from our pain and despair, is doing us no good. If we look with long-view eyes, wise eyes, elders’ eyes, perhaps some of us will see some things we can do. That is better than doing nothing, or continuing to contribute to the problems.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1316

Settle, settle in, be in the spirit, the flows, the swirls, the still crisp waters where beings large and small gather and drink.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1315

We cannot alone hope to make
the decisive move
The tragedies humans are
bringing our way
are too entangled
We can but write a word,
plant a tree,
start a conversation
We have lost the right to hope
for an outcome
Now we must hope
with a new quality

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1314

In inviting
and freeing
and calling home
the One says
Let there be inclusivity
and dreaming big dreams
give to all sustenance
tomorrows without debt
worlds of whole-making conversing
for this is a
fertile can-do-dom
powerful loving
and glorious singing
from gathering to loosening!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1313

The hope you seek is for a particular outcome. This we are not often granted, and then only as it seems by chance. Abandon hope all who enter life. Your boon can only be in sweat, with others, with neither reward nor result. Another will harvest what you will not. Do what you can to make it good.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1312

Nelson Mandela started his biggest conversation, the one that ended Apartheid, while in solitary confinement. What conversation can we start, given our life condition? What higher purpose do we own that will get us beyond our walls?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1311

The case of Lorraine Bayless is a perfect example: an 87 year old for whom no CPR was given holds a mirror up for us of the complexity of our end of life. We have a 75% idea about CPR (the real number is closer to 17%—for a healthy person.) Why do doctors do more for patients than they do for themselves? Because they might be sued? Why? Because in our society we think everyone can be saved and should be? Why? Always ask Why again. Because we cannot accept death? Because we cannot let go? Because we want someone to blame? Because we are angry? There are probably 101 reasons, all interwoven and tangled. This is the definition of complex. But hear this quite clearly: we do it to ourselves. We are the ones driving this. There is no one else. If we have a lot of bad deaths in our society, it’s up to us to fix it.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1310

When our eyes meet—
When our ears meet—
Passes between us humanity
& here might be our highest value

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1309

We dissolve in conversation
Caterpillar in chrysalis
On the other side to emerge

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1308

We are whole
as we sit here
Will we be enough?
This we test
if we but up and
throw ourselves in

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1307

The sky invites us up & out
So for this reason is
A good place to see divinity
The ground is what holds us
& that from which we spring
& to which we return again home
So for this reason
A good place to see divinity
Our skin embraces us
So for this reason
A good place to see divinity

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1306

Most problems I have found to have a beginning, a muddle and and end. As a society we seem to be in the muddle of figuring out how we live together in a densely packed pluralistic grouping. Recently we have seen political battles resolve into calcified screaming matches. Some day we will figure how to be softer, gentler, and more humane to one another. We might even dare to become vulnerable.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1305

Shot through you are
with divinity capable of meeting
& being met I must
remember when I
see you 

	The surprise
for me is
I am shot through
with God!

	We begin
to see when we realize
our very vulnerability
our need for love
and help is God
coming visible

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