FootprintsintheWind.com

Can Catholics do open space? Can construction engineers?

Is it not really a question of fear? A fear held by one person?

We go off on a tangent if we try to answer the question. Do we not do better if we stay in the circle? Explore the fear? Ask the person to say more about what they fear might happen? Get them talking it out? Demons do not do well exposed to the light, yes? In Harrison’s manner, is the best prescription to open more space around this person’s fear?

This is a scary thing to do, to avoid their stated question, and open space for demons. But is it not the most direct and therefore most fruitful? Often I have found people “sell” themselves.

So, for instance, we could gently ask our client in such a case, after we have heard them out about their fears, “Is it possible you have not asked your people such a question (as the invitation question) before?”

Stated otherwise: We cannot respond to our client’s unexpressed question until it is expressed. Our job may be to open space so they can see what their real question is.

:- Doug.

It’s not simply the past that bores me but its hardening into position: people stop hearing each other; the future is strangled.

:- Doug.

It is the work sessions I like, not being an audience. No one, I think, likes being an audience for business meetings. This may be precisely why people don’t like “meetings”—too much spectatoring is expected of them—they are expected to be consumers and then respond with their checkbooks, or possibly grunt level services.

:- Doug.

G-d is person-al.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 829

Not one snowflake whitens our world, still….

Please pass it on.

© c 2008, 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

Every one has a voice.

:- Doug.

Tell us the shape of G*d—
Tell us the color of G*d—
Tell us the rhythm of G*d—
—Neither can I

:- Doug.

Love received and
Love expended
Are identical
Greater love
—Bestowed—Received—
Than to give your life entire
Do not think on these go
—Do—

:- Doug.

Conversation is akin to meditation:
We grow still to hear
Quiet little whispers
From the edge of our attention
From here we learn who we are
And can be
And know
We are good
And from in our midst
Arises the good
We can do

:- Doug.

Could this world be better? Then there is work for you.

:- Doug.

You are vital to the changing of the world—you who are the elders of our tribe, you who are the people who are marginalized—you are central to the change we need to have in this old world. Your voices need to be heard and you can be heard. You can stir up the conversations that constitute the winds of change, the winds of inspiration, the winds of can-do. You can engage, you can invite. You can invite others to engage and invite. You make a difference. There is work for you to do.

I do not come to you to give you a small task, to make your days better. Your days may be full of turmoil and toil if you do what I invite you to. Your days may be full of accomplishment and sharing of who you are and what you have learned and what you still can do. I cannot predict the future. I only know that time will pass and so will all of us, and while we are here we still have a chance. A chance to make this world better, to give our all for love.

I come today asking you to stretch. To stretch toward your wisdom, more importantly to stretch toward who you are, most importantly to stretch together toward who we all are. I ask you to stretch to take the risk of inviting others, to take the risk of hearing others, to take the risk of giving your voice to the world. I invite you to share your story and hear others. I invite you to engage younger and older in the quest for a better world: for peace, for justice, for love.

:- Doug.

You cannot; we can. You cannot change the world alone; we can. As we engage one another, we see what we can do, hope grows. Engage, see, do: such is the fabric of hope.

:- Doug.

Authoritarian decisions are by definition made with incomplete knowledge—lacking are the voices of the people.

:- Doug.

About what is it important you be heard?

:- Doug.

What if elders were our corps of conversation inviters? The Civilian Conversation Core!

:- Doug.

The wisdom of crowds: is less than and comes from the wisdom of people together.

The wisdom of people together: exceeds the wisdom of people singly.

The wisdom of people together: exceeds the accumulated wisdom of the people assembled.

The wisdom of people together: arises from the waters not so much of mixing as of dissolving.

The wisdom of people dissolving into one another: and yet, keeping sharp edges and unique perspectives and giving voice to what each sees as needing voice.

The wisdom of people dissolving: needs the wisdom of people branching.

A dance: a breathing: a rhythm: among people among, wisdom.

:- Doug.

Rainbows of people, fireworks, churning, flowing, eddying, streaming, beaming: inclusiveness includes justice, at least for me, and love. It is not, however, a simple reaching out because we want to include the forgotten so we can bestow our gifts upon them: it is to seek each other’s grandness and the sparkings of intimacy. It is about both engendering more than the sum of their solo possibilities.

:- Doug.

We work with groups to make the world more inclusive.

:- Doug.

Success I’m guaranteed to have
That’s a promise from your grave

:- Doug.

Invite people to open space for a larger world.

:- Doug.

G*d is not what you think.

:- Doug.

We need more capacity than we use, or what’s a hope for? But what is a hope for but to reach? Hope is about hands and heart—neither one alone is enough to be called human. Nor is one individual alone enough to be called human—it takes individuals and touching.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 828

If we are to make breakthroughs we need to get into the betweens of us. We need to get into situations where we meet and where we can do some good.

That is probably the whole story, yes? Mix it up. Stir in hope for good. Elbow grease. See what you cook up.

Better ingredients. Better People. Better world.

Please pass it on.

© c 2008, 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