FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1228

Compassion is not a quality some people own and others do not. It is a work, something we consciously, rationally choose. We work at developing compassion in us. It waxes and wanes, and we continually dust away what covers it. Compassion ought to be used as verb.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1227

Let’s elect us!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1226

This is what I want to be about, indeed what we are about: being deeply wholly human. Yes, and holy.

This includes the It and the yang, the hard and the driving. It also includes the richness of the Thou and the yin, the shadow-held darkness and ripeness of our poetic souls, the infinity of the betweens and amongs of Us, and the helping heart we each hold pulsing, some openly, some frightened to give it license.

Swim the unfathomable depths.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1225

Clouds float by against a deep blue
edges reaching out to one another
collecting together

and we below are busy with
that which busies us
so we do not notice

how without effort and worry
the world does its work
clouds float by against a deep blue

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1224

A call to imagination, commandments are: Imagine a town without killing, a neighborhood without thieving or spouse-eyeing. Imagine if we took a day off to meet one another—and the holy—and did not use it to concoct fresh ways of getting our hands in others’ pockets, did not grasp nor protect, but simply trusted & existed & met.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1223

Speak the word authorizing.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1222

I am a little snowflake
Six-winged snowflake
See me fly
I go from cloud to cloud
A-bouncing and a-bumping
What a ride!
Now I’m jumping off the last
Wheeeeee!
See me fly!
And softly crunch
Into my brothers and sisters
Here on the nice comfy-cold earth
We nuzzle and snuggle all close
Soon we become one
And smile at you
And smile at the sun
Then we run away!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1221

Inside us
moments
moments we have never lost
moments to watch clouds sailing
moments to hold hands
eons of moments &
moments of eons
seconds that last a year
decades that flash by in our child’s growing

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1220

other ways to be
things to do than
look forward to the big game on TV
watch the clock till 5:00
involving not yourself in others’ lives
leaving them to their own problems
each to his own
whatever
keeping your nose out
leaving politics to the politicians
and injustices to the reporters
“Holy! Holy! Holy!” sang the Seraphim
Meaning “Other! Other! Other!”

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1219

Want a job, want more jobs, a better economy, a better government? You are in charge.

Go touch people.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1218

I fell into a hole
For a project & on a mission
To get some wrenches
Striding through the door
My forward motion
—Turned straight down
Surprise, lost, unknowing
Words insufficiently strong
For my disorientation
My world, my purpose—disappeared
Scraping shin
Striking ribcage
Pain shooting from here from there
Not even time to ask What’s this?
My attention—wrenched—
In less than a trice
Only later was there time
To recall I’d opened
The hole to shut off the water

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1217

Say what you’re noticing. Noticing is the first step toward what’s profound, what’s important, what’s humane.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1216

We in America have lost our way. Perhaps we in the whole of the earth. We have lost our heart, our vision. Surely we are perishing. Perishing in a world of hate and division (di-vision?), of people too moderate, of holy wars and physical killings, of genocide and homophobia, of refusing to see the other as our sister. We have no longer the pride in our melting pot, no longer the songs that call us together, no longer any brother-feeling. A choice we do not see, maybe do not want to see, lies before us: we can jump into this endless slough; or we can do the hard work of moving us all to higher ground. If we choose the latter the only way, the only way, is the work of finding and meeting and freeing the higher that is common among us. Therefore we must get out among us. We must meet people and be open to the surprising in us. From here arise new hymns and songs.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1215

Far more than
“There’s an app for that”
Our medico-economic complex teaches
“There’s a pill for that”
“There’s a pill for every that”

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1214

Divine are the snowflakes
dancing, floating, flying
divine is each
each faces me and asks
do you see me?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1213

My pain and difficulty
in this new field of study:
to find the things I know
just aren’t so!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1212

I set before you life & death
—in dealing with your food,
your clothes, your transportation,
your housing, your conversation
—in how you meet a stranger,
an other, another creature,
human or otherwise
—Choose life—
Can you accept differences?
Can you make room for all politics?
All solutions?
Can you still defend to the death
the right of that one to say that?
Can you allow life for all earthlings?
Can you be large?
Can you be intimate?
Can you let the world be large?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1211

Stick your nose in: it belongs!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1210

Perhaps only when you’re new to the practice of life can you have it figured out. But we go forward anyway, my friends.

I may not fully know what I am doing, might not have the words or even the concepts to describe it, but just keep going forward, anyway.

I do not clearly see where this will take me. Go anyway.

I do not have a plan. Go anyway.

Shall I write and publish? Go anyway.

Shall I invite living room dialogues and retreats? Go anyway.

Go anyway. Do anyway. Invite anyway.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1209

Write a gift book: something to give your best to the world.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1208

Calling it all together
Let us be about facing the world and
ourselves as real,
actors upon one another,
timidly going unknowing to meet
who & what reaches forth to meet us

Let us be about

Let us see wider, further
Let us open to our perceptions without
letting our conceptions get in our way
Let us be about meeting the true face

So much as we are able, let us be about
ever coming out of our hiding places
and finding something
much larger to trust

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1207

To have the conversation about emergency medical decisions is a loving thing to do—for them and for you. It makes their soul-searching easier when they are deciding for you, it allows them to know they are doing the last most loving thing they can for you; and by hearing you they are giving you peace of mind—they are loving you now, you are loving them…in the now.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1206

Rather than balancing
The parts of your life
Cutting portions off against each other
Seek harmony, melody & rhythm
Each singing with its whole voice

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