FootprintsintheWind.com

Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2362

Dōgen advises:
Investigate mountains thoroughly.
To investigate is the work of mountains.
I say your friend is your mountain;
do not tell her.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2361

A conversation is a living beast
It snarls, it bites
Its eyes fix on yours, knowing

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2360

I’ve been writing to you all along as if the person opposite you is a sparkling being, full of wit and creativity and art. But he’s not. He’s complicated, confusing, moody, and boring. Most days. Until. There was you. All you have to work with is an extract of reality. All you ever have.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2359

We are here to complicate this narrative. Where is here? This conversation. What narrative? First, that of your friend.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2358

Kronos and Kairos
gods you are
who touch but do not own
time—you we made up
to figure out a little
of what we might yet mean
when we say time
But time is our larger god
our over-god
whom we also made up
to worship

Mine—another larger god
to deceive us
to tell us of belonging
as if two ephemeral things
ever hooked each other ever
Some stories it seems
we tell ourselves
to make it through this night
or this millennium
or to build this whatever this
which may not outlast
any of us
but it is mine

Mind—a fabric
woven every day
weaving, woven, unwoven
every song
every prayer
every conversation
constructed, constructing
itself
person
world
Mind does not exist
if
we do not weave
brain grows from
little gametes meeting
but mind’s made up
and so never made up

Time, mine, mind
human sandcastles

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2357

You owe it to your friend to have conversations with many others—to increase your repertoire, to increase your curtains, to increase you.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2356

Caught my eye
that light last night—
            across the way a firefly
            answered the silent call—
above my uncut grass
a dozen more softly faded—
            we once were used to this

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2355

People are kind. Look for it.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2354

I want my words to arrive
to find a home
in your
center
core
the place where the snake curls
the one who is all embrace
where the tea meets the waters
two beings teeming each its own ways
perfumes acids flavors
loud rushing splashing
each infusing the other
with its kind of life
is the drink invigorating
or poison?
and I—this animal
no choice: life decrees I drink this brew

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2353

If we can find where words land in us—where we want them to land, we can begin—begin—to find where we want our words to go. Maybe then we can start to find their source in us.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2352

The conversation is alive, and doing what it does. I trust this. I remind myself. So I cultivate conversations—more numerous, and with more.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2351

No part of you is simple.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2350

After all this
study, thinking, working
it is to me
yet a mystery
how to get
how to stay
close

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2349

Make it fun, be an imp. Implify!

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2348

It is not deeper, nor necessarily farther in where we “go.” It is just another curtain, even if less often opened, or never before opened. It might be more painful than other curtains, or less. It might be more intricate or less. Probably each curtain is just as close to home.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2347

Ourselves: we can explain, but we are utterly unable to understand.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2346

Conversation has the benefit of being human size. We can hear our voice. We can have it heard. We cannot get this on the national stage or even in our gatherings. We can discover and have our discovery heard with respect and awe.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2345

Life is not straight line
Simply wait
For the next curve

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2344

Seek out random encounters
Seek one less thing to do
Seek and welcome the stranger
Seek responsibility for what you love
Seek not but do welcome disturbances

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2343

Be uncomfortable. Remember that conversation gives time.

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2342

Time is not time
Time is shorthand
For allowing the course to arrive
at its next observation
For healing
For forgetting
For seasoning
For learning
For reflection
For calming
For settling of muddy waters
For distance
Time is not time

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2341

What, to you, is holy chance?

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Footprints in the Wind^sm # 2340

The work of a conversation cannot be known ahead. We find it as it goes. More precisely it and we find one another. Even more precisely, we find us together in this stew. Still more precisely, we make this stew—out of us. Into us. If we don’t get somehow lost, this stew is not fully made. We expect never to be fully made: We do not understand a word like transformation.

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