FootprintsintheWind.com

“What is to prevent them from….”
“Nothing.”
“But what is to prevent….”
“Nothing.”
“But what….”
Nothing: no prevents, no buts. Trust.”

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1227

Let’s elect us!

Please pass it on.

© c 2012, 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

Listen! You’ve lived through 65 years. You’ve earned the right to be compassionate.

:- Doug.

I’m not that
I am here
—G*d

:- Doug.

Translate the old words afresh!

:- Doug.

A mighty clearing is our God
An opening for good
Clearing us, opening world

:- Doug.

Is that what you want to put into the world
A fog of hate
In front of your eyes
A choking
Of your heart?

:- Doug.

This confronts me. You confront me. The all there is meets us every moment.

:- Doug.

Boomers: Will your next 20 years count for something? How will you be of service?

:- Doug.

The work in the Open Space framework is not swiveling open heads and dumping in new stuff. Rather it is 1. refreshing what is already known, and 2. putting it to work in a new frame to accomplish new things.

:- Doug.

Just what is urgent about eldering? That you only have a few good years left? Yes, that is part of it. That the world needs what you have, while you have the energy? Yes, that too. That the world is falling apart now, and so needs what you have, now? Yes. That you might not have tomorrow to do the good you have in your heart to do? Yes, for sure.

:- Doug.

Still trying to find the questions to life’s persistent answers, we are.

:- Doug.

The Jesus of the priestly traditions does not stir me. Rituals and guilt, sin and sacrifice to pay for it, symbol-laden water and wine—these are dry and far away. The Jesus of freedom to go, with bed or without guilt, the Jesus of chicks gathered and meals shared, the Jesus of parties and welcoming all—this Jesus stirs my heart. There are many Jesuses, inviting, freeing, calling whole.

:- Doug.

Hosting is about saying You! and not withdrawing to become an It: put yourself out there and stay a Thou to others’ I.

:- Doug.

We see our physicians as sickness doctors. What an absolute difficult thing it would be for us to turn that around and think of them as wellness doctors. Our whole society thinks this way, patients and doctors, insurance people and government people. And yet what good we could do if we changed our focus! We could become healthy. Do we get more of what we continually watch?

Where is there a model for this? Dentists! We see our dentist every 6 months, do preventive maintenance, and mine at least is friendly and seems to have time for me. If we have a problem it can be taken care of, and I would bet while it is still small enough to correct easily.

The same is true of Elder Caring lawyers and Estate Planning lawyers: people see these folks while still healthy or relatively healthy, in order to keep the family’s future healthy. Sure, sometimes there are problems, even crises, but that is not the focus of this aspect of the law. These are wellness lawyers.

:- Doug.

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.

Please pass it on.

© c 2012, 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

No formulas, no techniques, just: You!

:- Doug.

Do not let go and let God, let go with God.

:- Doug.

You! tells me to let go and be with.

:- Doug.

We can never have God in a box, on a shelf, in a heaven. We can only meet, then meet again. And no two meetings can ever be the same. God changes us, we change God. We are each becoming in the betweens.

:- Doug.

If we have all the prayers and churches and ministers in the world and have not You, we have nothing. If we have none of these and stand before You meaning You, we have no need of any of the rest.

:- Doug.

The point I am trying to understand is that as the eternal Thou we do not have something we can put on a shelf and admire or even pray to in the sense that we pull “his” strings. Buber makes the point that “his” is metaphor, and so are many of our words for God, even often the word God itself: but You/Thou is not metaphor: it is actual being to being address. So our corporate prescribed prayer partakes of this It-making. The only thing that meets is to meet, to say You and mean You.

Further, You is the only thing we have: the betweens, the root fibers, the umbilical. We do not have a calcified, say this and God will do that, do this, don’t do that: we only have the presence to stand within. We only have the voiced or voiceless You.

:- Doug.

God is not here; God is not not here. How can you meet something not there? Because I meet, we meet, not a thing but You. (This is not word-play but substance—meet and see.)

:- Doug.