FootprintsintheWind.com

To our good friends–

The poem from yesterday still rings true for me–some darkness, some justice, some compost, all invitation, all anawim.

The reason G-d is so attentive to the anawim is not that they are lowly, nor even that they are in pain, although compassion is important, it is that G-d loves us all, and the rich and strong already have what they need; therefore compassion fills the need and lifts all, not to level but to higher.

Damp and sacred heat supplying: we need that sacred heat and the anawim have it. The poor, the meek, the many: the more is related to you, you have the sacred the holy within you. It is not blessed to be poor, but that even these will be blessed, happy.

The working of the scraps in dark and sacred places: in secret working its way to the roots and thence to the daylight. Meeting, conversation: it is what works in us and between us, secretly, silently at times, a wind that moves among us, a spirit at work, working, working. Until we are changed, transformed, born anew.

What do we do about it? That is up to us to figure out. That is why we are here. Callings are not so much to a specific path as to a direction. We choose, even design the path: that is our work, our doing. What is my calling we ask into the night and there is no voice heard responding. All we know is there is an urging: forward, upward, toward something–but what? This is the calling. Nothing more, yet all of that. There is much here, and much room for us to make much here. What is the direction? Toward what Omega are we heading? Simply compassion, fulfillment of compassion, which is an opening out, ever opening, ever embracing. Not ends so much as beginnings. Alphas not Omegas.

:- Doug.

Whom do we invite?
The anawim, the anawim!
The center of the heap
Where dark and secret things are working
Deep and sacred heat
Supplying, so transforming
Throwaways into fruit.
Invite scraps and cast outs,
Invite those different from different
Invite people of heart
Invite people who thirst to be heard
Invite people who hunger for justice.

:- Doug.

What are the right questions today?

:- Doug.

Call the meetings. Call the circles. Call the people.

:- Doug.

How do we hug and tickle each other whole? What’s the next opportunity?

:- Doug.

Wendy Farmer O’Neill has posted this to the Open Space Sangha:

So i am offering this up to you all for consideration. The facilitator as Artist. Artist in the creative sense and Artist in the alchemical sense as well–taking the common stuff of the Now, that which Is, and with Artful intent mixing it in the crucible of chaos. Then dancing on the edge of the feather of uncertainty, with only the lodestone of faith in those present as a guide, and gently holding the energetic flame beneath until something new emerges.

This is a wonderful image, taking the stuff that is, the common elements, mixing in a crucible (called chaos yet!) and bringing forth precious things. As always, the people are the precious ones.

:- Doug.

Where is beyond the verge?

:- Doug.

Conversation carries us beyond sense to sensibility, beyond meaning to meaning, beyond truth to possibility, beyond words to ….

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

In conversation is possibility.

:- Doug.

To my good friends–

Conversation engages.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 621

Every human being matters.

Please pass it on.

© c 2005, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

To our good friends–

Opening space is more than opening space for groups and in our lives; it is about radical democracy: opening space for all people and especially the disenfranchised, the little people, the anawim and for ourselves to see what is possible in each of our lives and our life together.

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

If it is thought, it can be real.

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

What is to keep Open Space from reaching the point science has at time reached: a collective who tramples dissent, who know only one “truth?” Perhaps it is the active seeking of diversity.

:- Doug.

Lord, help me to listen and ask the compassionate questions today.

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

Years ago I read some fiction where the earth’s civilization had reduced the practice of war to one combatant on each side. Each chose one person to fight and agreed that whatever the outcome, they would be bound by it. What if it were not combatants but two ordinary people (that is, not leaders or experts) who were brought together in a room to work out peace between their two peoples? What if you were one of those people? How would you meet the other person, how would you best prepare? What would you converse about?

:- Doug.

It is of the height of hubris to think that G-d does not need us.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 620

Incomplete sentences
lists
Spirit on the wing

Please pass it on.

© c 2005, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Saved–for what?

:- Doug.

Conversation changes the world. To suggest to someone that their ideas will be heard and acted upon is the most radical thing we can do. Any time we listen to someone that is what we are conveying.

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

Yesterday afternoon I was struck with the idea of the world’s largest conversation. What would that mean, what would it look like? It could be done on e-mail and Websites. It could be done certain evenings of X weeks in a row. It could be done in one event. The topic would have to be a big one that engages people all around the world. Peace might be a good one, or peace in Iraq. Or feeding the hungry. Or raising people out of poverty. What world wide conversation would advance the human race?

:- Doug.

To our good friends–

Turn me around stuff in Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity, in the chapter I have just finished: the Bible is as much political as it is personal. That explains for me why it often seemed to me that G-d had a large place in his heart for the poor and downtrodden. It is really a matter of love: love all creation, not just the wealthy. Borg carries it further: love all creation, not just human beings. This is important stuff and brings my notions of conversation directly into spirituality. It is the nature of G-d to love all creation: this includes how we work in and love creation ourselves. It is loving all of humanity to involve all in conversation. It is a radical political idea as well: not just the wealthy and the leaders, who are self-perpetuating, but everybody. All have good ideas. All can make change. The powerful are threatened by that notion, for then they might be out. All converse could mean all converse. More likely, though, it will mean all improve.

:- Doug.

To my good friends–

What would it mean to take responsibility for a life full of G*d? What would it mean to converse with and through G-d? What would it mean to see each other as sacred, as embodied love and gift? What would it look like? It would look like ordinary conversation made earnest. It would be meeting each other as persons, whole, complete, able to change us and to change the world and to change. It would be vulnerability. It would be risking our whole selves. It would be throwing away what we have and who we think we are to come new into the world.

:- Doug.