FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1281

Did we do this to ourselves? After an historic weather event like Hurricane Sandy we must ask this of ourselves. If there is a chance our actions contributed to this, ought we get down on our knees before Mother Earth, beg forgiveness, and do everything we can to make it up to her…and to our grandchildren?

I’m not asking you to believe in global warming—be an agnostic! I’m not asking you to give up making money—I’m saying try an experiment in being prudent and thrifty.

Please pass it on.

© c 2013, 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

Another way to be in the world
We need not draw sharp lines of war & death & sorrow
Hug, give refuge & rest, safety & peace, space to reflect, & again
In this pause, here: we find already in us
The germ of this idea

:- Doug.

Listening is something you do to another; hearing is something that happens in you both.

:- Doug.

Acts of deep hearing
set us free

:- Doug.

How then shall we live until we die? How shall we die as we live? Does dying have to be a separate thing, even with its mystery?

:- Doug.

Leaf here, wall there, Adirondack chair between:
Artist will choose to draw these
Or the curious negative space they outline
Offer negative space to fill out others’ intricate creations
Positive for their parts to come to fore
All wholeness is one
Embrace with space all that might be

:- Doug.

How will we know when it’s time to say goodbye? Because it is up to us as well.

We know it is up to us because we have seen people stay around for a holiday or a grandchild’s wedding, or die just when everyone leaves the room. We know it is up to us because we have seen people say, No Dad don’t die just yet. We have seen people die as if an act in a magic show. We have seen people tearfully let their mother or father go. We have seen gentleness and violence, wishes followed and wishes derailed.

We cannot know much ahead how we will die, and we might not have the energy to express much at the time. So we can prepare by sharing with each other. We can learn what each other thinks, what is in our hearts and predict what each might wish to do. We can reach consensus that they are safe in our arms.

What is important now? Saying Goodbye, saying Please forgive me, I forgive you, Thank you, I love you. Giving safe passage and gentle.

:- Doug.

What is the work which occupies you?

:- Doug.

The circle of it is small
you is larger
so through us and poetry
think you now we have
opened the cosmos?
Nay: for we have yet to
crack open the hard shell
& reach out to all about
to make whole

:- Doug.

What do we mean by “burden?” Can we put a picture to it? Do we mean divorcing ourselves from our children’s lives? Ripping ourselves out like weeds from the garden?

:- Doug.

The path to eldering
to becoming ever more human
is to empty ourselves
of our selves

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1280

Beneath
the floor on which I walk
the solid ground
this spinning ball of dirt
the empty spaces
the sidereal song
the gossamer stretching & holding
beneath

Beneath
all there is
& all there is not
pregnant open space
beneath even this
beneath the beneath
is God
undefined beneath

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

Black holes are the universe’s vacuum cleaners.

:- Doug.

Always we want to improve
& work for better tomorrows
Look here:
Where the obvious is invisible
Where sits breathing, watching,
Poised to spring,
That stealthy dark kitten, evolution

:- Doug.

There is a mystery at each end of life.

:- Doug.

What is the most fun you can have dying?

:- Doug.

What is right living in your last days?

:- Doug.

Warning! Conversation is contagious.

:- Doug.

In canoeing, the stroke makes it go; the J-stroke makes it go right. So we need not just to steer our life-canoe, but to steer it with whole-making: move back with others.

:- Doug.

You’re not just some little nut in a shell: reach out in whole-making to the rest of the cosmos. Make the whole more whole.

:- Doug.

How can we help the conversations happen reliably, involving as many of the group of care givers (of whatever profession), family and our living person?

:- Doug.

End of life conversations can nurture us.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 1279

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
This day for wrapping around us!
Luxuriate in the richness of this living day!

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