FootprintsintheWind.com

We live in a tension in which we can play a role (we can also go to sleep, which is playing a role just the same), and that role is to work at participating in making the world whole—and engaging others in that work as part of the bargain. This is the power of being, and it is touched in no other way.

:- Doug.

We all stand in the same wind.

:- Doug.

The little statute of a man in my window is ever tying on a new fly to offer to the life he knows is under the surface of the stream. A learning.

:- Doug.

Who will listen? Who will hear? I help create that person when I meet another. Meet! Go forth and meet again! It is the way.

:- Doug.

What is out there, past my skin, past the grey I imagine I see in the world that I imagine is known to me? What is out there in the betweens of persons?

:- Doug.

Now the sky in front of me is almost totally azure, with one or two long narrow continents floating in the sea. The wind is moving all this and more along the waves, and pin oak leaves are waving to me.

:- Doug.

Is the world one? Or do we make it so, should we choose? The latter draws me this day: some of us see the oneness and can work toward it; others see something else and do nothing or work toward that. Which is better, if we could choose?

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 836

Every now and again the world gets whitewashed
We pause and reflect—beauty—truth—goodness
Then we plow it out of our way
It is good to reflect—& pause

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

Faith is not only an individual thing. Faith is trust. So by definition it takes more than one.

:- Doug.

Humans are the avoiding animal—We see our possibility and we run away—We see our responsibility and we leave it to others—We see the sick and suffering and we turn our backs—We must be gentle with our selves—

:- Doug.

We make the world one through our thinking together, which is our speech. Or we fragment: we can choose which is better.

:- Doug.

What is the role of disagreement? Can it be fruitful? To ask the question is to answer it and ask the next: how do we make it fruitful?

We can go off on separate projects, a little group here, another there. We test out hypotheses and see what works. We say ever, this is not for ever.

Neither agreement nor disagreement is forever: together they are the dancing contraries that fit the rhythm to their bodies and carry us around the spirals.

:- Doug.

Misunderstanding—
Mistakes—
Misdirection—
Can be bumps into the greater—

:- Doug.

Invite to the wrestling.

:- Doug.

Stand: Hear, Say

:- Doug.

Today I feel called
Far from arguing and proving
To help us together emerge
As Persons and Society
From the waters of hate
To the crisp air
Of Larger, Wholer

:- Doug.

We must reach out in caring—
For a caring society

:- Doug.

We are all hearing challenged
—Challenged to hear others
—Challenged to hear ourselves
—Challenged to be heard

:- Doug.

This I want to say more than it says
Say more than you say
Say more than you hear

:- Doug.

Hear Persons Emerge

:- Doug.

We Persons Emerge

:- Doug.

The touch of hand on hand means something more than galvanic response. Drawing up a chair and sitting next to another mean more than physical, although that is necessary, too.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 835

We too are words made flesh

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