FootprintsintheWind.com

It takes both
of you to say
what you mean

:- Doug.

Ritual intimately opens us to community—life, nature, compassion, grief, companion, reflection, love, beauty, trueness.

:- Doug.

What is the rainbow of sound? The continuum from loud to silent? The stretch from rhythm to sweet to umami to oily? The arm-spread from converse to withholding? The spectrum of olfactory senses?

:- Doug.

Conversation is a secret discipline
A practice for hollowing out
Slowly, slowly, bowing to receive

:- Doug.

As you speak, I watch the shadows and glistenings from the leaves on that tree, as they dance across your face.

:- Doug.

Risk is in reach. Your heart-core will be ground up, laughed at, trod underfoot. If. A hand reaches back. It’s the little you desired. But surprise: you are propelled!

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2402

Give byss to your friend
A bottom on which
To find rest

In conversation
We
Arise larger

Please pass it on.

© c 2025, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

Every book on the library shelf can call out what was covered over: things we can grasp about the conversations of life.

:- Doug.

In conversation we might just have an exchange of rainbow lights and sounds and tastes, etc.

:- Doug.

The work of conversation
poke through the grey cloth:
holes for eyes, ears, and hearts

:- Doug.

Think of a yo-yo
For instance, Yo-Yo Ma

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2401

Ritual relies heavily on gestures. Gestures stop our words, slow them, inspect them, blow them open, all with guttural resonance. We open our mouths, our bodies, and out fly roaring bears and uncountable soft flutterbys.

Please pass it on.

© c 2025, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

That grey cloth
Touch and know
How it armors you

:- Doug.

Touch the web between
Uncover how it keeps you
From touching one another

:- Doug.

In what all ways has life gotten better for young people in the last century or two?

:- Doug.

Conversing we are
Poking holes in
Fine grey cloth
As it’s turning us into
Lumpkins

:- Doug.

Even miracles end. Lazarus died again. The miracle that is life may end, and the miracle that is human life will probably end. They may not be tragedies for the universe. What is our task in the face of those things?

:- Doug.

Let us join together in the Lost Conversors Club.

:- Doug.

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2400

Conversing (and especially meeting) uses words in a way differing from the way they are used in reports and books. We use them in ways closer to bone, skeleton, core. Words have no fingers with which to grasp. In conversing and meeting, words seek to shoulder us off balance.

Please pass it on.

© c 2025, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/274-5353, or by e-mail to mailto:Footprints AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com

The object is to always take in more of the worlds. The worlds others carry. To you.

:- Doug.

Do you feel empty?
What then is that
Echo?

:- Doug.

Those stars whose light
You have not yet held in your hands
Have a law of welcome
Hurled through the winds
Made by humming birds

:- Doug.

What went well this week for you? How does that relate to the gift you brought for our community?

:- Doug.