FootprintsintheWind.com

We often get stuck in what’s not working, what’s the problem. Let us resolve to turn our heads when lost and see what is working.

In our families, when we are hurt or afraid and want to pull away, we may help this way.

:- Doug.

Holy, holy, holy
Other, other, other
As in
Larger, larger, larger
Expand, include, love

:- Doug.

I want to relax
To take the world as it comes
To give my all
(I’ll give it all in the end)
To engage all you

:- Doug.

G*d permeates, so I want to be permeable.

:- Doug.

The skies are a solid grey and we feel closed in. The skies are a solid deep blue and we feel opened out. We cannot see anything more in one sky or the other; in fact there might be more texture in the grey. So why?

:- Doug.

Yesterday I met with two sisters to converse about care for Mom. The meeting grew heated; one was dog tired.

The sisters have a need to continue as family. Both need to find a way to deal with their emotions.

To do that, they need to see what the emotions are and untangle them, so they can address them. The emotions are serving us, giving us something valuable. The emotions are telling us something needs attention. So we need to bring that attention. But not on the emotion, on what the emotion is telling us: what is important here?

:- Doug.

We are never just ourselves speaking. We are all whom we have met, have read, have watched. We are our cultures, society, country, neighborhood. We are our parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, bullies from school or work, the kind hand which nursed us to health.

:- Doug.

When we enter an alien setting, a room where we don’t feel comfortable—say a courtroom—some part of us stays outside, or hidden behind a careful mask. Consequently we we cannot engage with our whole selves. If we enter a more safe space—say our grandchildren’s play room—more of us can come out to play. In preparing for a meeting and its place, if we attend to welcome, safety, comfort and inviting qualities we attend to bringing more to work in our meeting.

:- Doug.

Birds must be curious, else how did they find my bird feeder?

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1245

Slits in the bridge reveal the river
I catch the world by glimpses
as we go by each other
Many bridges I cross
unseeing

Please pass it on.

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Do trees walk?
Do trees fly?
Of course they do!
If you watch over centuries
See their seeds
Their generations
Growing inches away
Miles away
Where do our seeds go?

:- Doug.

The world runs from conversation
Yet
The world runs on conversation

:- Doug.

No straightness is found
in our unfolding
life stutters, life spirals
but always seeks new
from energy to active love
we go weaving and weaving
complexity

:- Doug.

Always look for the energy emerging as motion, where the holy is coming out. Work here, with it. It may be faint, it may feel foreign. This is the working place.

:- Doug.

We expand our wholeness by conversing. We see bigger, we create, we find, we change, we change worlds.

:- Doug.

I am flying and I am confused, and maybe these are the same thing. Flying I see more, but still do not see all, and it is a wonder.

:- Doug.

Our commons are our betweens.

:- Doug.

We do not die alone. We die in the midst of us. In most settings, the person is ripped from the cloth, leaving stretched and torn threads. We all die a bit, we all contract, we might expand. If the death is witnessed, there is an exchange, and often it is good for the witness. Something in us goes away, maybe a familiar touch, a voice on which we depended. What is happening is that between is changed.

:- Doug.

What does it mean to you to have a good death? What does it mean to a family to be part of a good death? Given the people you are given in your family, what might a good death be?

:- Doug.

In families we love to devise ways to play well together. Does more experience with playing together help us? Does more experience with playing well together help us?

:- Doug.