FootprintsintheWind.com

Write poetry—just to tell your truth.

:- Doug.

Evil may have always paced
In our blood
But since now we see
Ours are the times for
Choosing

:- Doug.

Waters lapping my canoe
From the bottom looking
At changing clouds
Sitting in a new spot
Seeing my world afar
Allowing my being to be
Strangely touched, rejuvenated

:- Doug.

Last night I did a little research about “fallow,” which turns out to plowing but not seeding a field for a season or two (I thought it was doing nothing to it). Seems even the ground rejuvenates through resting.

Which suggests that rest might be something we do better if we prepare. How would we prepare for rest?

Have some ideas of what we will do with the nothing time: random juxtaposition, lie on your back and stare at the clouds, walk in the woods, read something you would not normally read. Choose something truly different from what normal days consist in: maybe we know that intuitively by where we are drawn.

But just maybe we need to do some serious thinking about what we do during our habituated days, into what categories that fits in: reading, computer work, business meetings, telephone. Then we think what is opposite it on the circle of human activities, or 120 degrees different: a cabin in the mountains, a trip to an art gallery, a day designed by a grandchild. Or plan to not plan: get on the road and stop for whatever calls us, look for a place to stay just before we start feeling tired.

:- Doug.

Of heart & mind, caring is
rather than commercial transaction

:- Doug.

Sometimes I hear
When G*d speaks
Listen less, here more

:- Doug.

Warp & woof
one those we touch
the other our way of touching
who can tell?
only keep on weaving

:- Doug.

To see
To do
To meet
Here there is always more

:- Doug.

God the weaving
threads may not go
end to end—if there are ends—
threads & threading
come & go
weaving
makes the fabric one

:- Doug.

These cars!
All these people
where they do not want to be!

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1189

Leave the tear upon your cheek awhile
It is your baptism, a washing clean
Or salt to nourish our community

Please pass it on.

© c 2011, 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

Idleness, and the fact that we do not seem to work concentratedly for spurts longer than about 4 hours, seem to point to a natural energy level (physical-mental combined), a capacity. And to the brother-notions that idleness is necessary to human completeness and that enjoying and participating in the world is something essential for us as human.

:- Doug.

Mary Oliver writes, “I love this world/but not for its answers.” If not answers, then hints, pointing, directions: perhaps this world has beauty and in that truth and those within goodness.

:- Doug.

God is woven through all of this: there is a thread. The thread is God. God is thread. Thread is hint of God. God is threading.

:- Doug.

I work toward the legal health—that is, wholeness—of my client community.

:- Doug.

We go fast
Only to go fast
When we get “there”
Yet are we doing good for
Our children’s children?

:- Doug.

Fast leads to fat.

:- Doug.

Conversation is how we touch the spirit
Conversation is how we stir the spirit
Among us

:- Doug.

We only touch God
with or among others
God is woven among us
or we among God

:- Doug.

Not above but out
This no-thing we call God
Embracing, growing, inviting out

:- Doug.

What does With do? It invites, to here and now, to hear, to hear beyond and beneath the words, to connect or more accurately to reconnect us with each other, to find the flowing of life, to live wholly, to find again that we are not merely alike but we are one someplace in the roots of us, to participate, above all to participate.

Divorce is not possible, does not exist. We can no more be separate than a heart can live outside a body, a fetus outside mother. There is only one universe, and as diverse as it is, all still lives within. With. In.

With does not do any thing. With is. With is part of you, part of me, of the essential fluid life among us. With is. Be with.

With is no acronym
With stands for no thing
With stands for all
With is another alias
For the all there is

:- Doug.

About with
Life is about with
Business is
Family is
God is
About with

:- Doug.

The voice-over lets us know this is a business owner who is quickly, purposely moving within the work room. With the help of the product or service advertised, he has solved one problem and is free to innovate and grow his business. Still, something’s disturbing. Unstated assumptions are at work: movement is better than reflection, decision than question, taking charge than participating with. Humanity has no home here.

:- Doug.