Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

Sitting quietly, waiting to see what comes. Listening for what we need to say, need to hear. To know what’s what, what’s called for, what needs to be done. Here, now. Waiting for things to become clear in time. Trusting ourselves to know what is good for us and to realze what it is time for, when it is time for it. In the meantime, we settle into waiting, and wait it out, communing with the silence, enjoying the peace of natural things. Allowing clarity to come in its own time, inviting us to do what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done. And, until then, enjoying the pleasure of being here, now.

We are bound to the way we know to be our way, which is The Way for us. We only have to wait, trusting ourselves to know it when we see it, understanding that impatience has waylaid many a life in a hurry to get with the program, and that the overly cautious wanting to be sure, afraid to trust themselves to know what they know has missed the time for acting, allowing the train to leave the station without being on board. So that impatience and over-caution become the Scylla and Charybdis on the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea. Trusting ourselves to know what we know is a test of our confidence in our intuition which has to be established over time.

Two important life capacities: The ability to say, “No.” And the ability to take “No” for an answer. When we master the Art of No, going and coming, we are keeping company with the Good Life, and that is a good place to be.

I make it a point to let things be what they are, up to a point. A mosquito feeding on my neck is an exception to the rule. And there are many others. Noise leads the list of things not allowed to be what they are. Heavy traffic, even if it is quiet (and how often does that happen?) isn’t allowed to stay. It has to go…The more I think about it, the less likely I am to let things be what they are. Never mind. I don’t know what I was thinking about. I want everything to be exactly what I want it to be RIGHT NOW! Whoever said, “Let be what is,” was obviously off his, or her, rocker, and a little tipsy to boot. And, not only that, but also, “Let be what is” was obviously said to people who weren’t letting be what was, and so he/she was breaking their own rule by voicing it. So, we are all left with deciding for ourselves what the proper course of action is in dealing with what’s happening now, wherever and whenever we are. And we can trust experience to be our guide in deciding what to do when. 24/7. No?

We cannot do better than listening to ourselves. Psychotherapy is about hearing what we have to say by talking to a therapist who listens us into hearing ourselves talking to some one who asks the right questions. We could talk to a smart mirror and get positive results. We need to place listening platforms into each day where we take up the practice of saying everything that needs to be said and asking every question that needs to be asked. Twenty minutes, twice a day. We could do it anywhere just by writing down the questions and the answers in a journal, asking the questions that beg to be asked and saying the things that need to be said. Being our own therapist and our best friend.

I am announcing here my new eBook on Kindle, going for $2.00 no kidding. “A dialogue with the invisible” is my most intriguing work to this point in my storied career. Indigenous peoples have always understood the material, physical universe to be upheld and guided by an invisible, spiritual universe. And we pray to the invisible world regularly, and honor the invisible world in worship services, with fasting, singing, dancing, etc, regularly and routinely. So, dialoguing with it is not much different from what we ordinarily do with it. I co-authored this book with Copilot, Microsoft Word’s AI guru, because out of the ordinary is what I do best. Copilot created the above image which serves as the book’s cover. I hope you will read and enjoy it!

The Joy of life is the wonder of being alive–which flows from the recognition, the realization, that we are alive! And we take it so for granted. We are the only life form that is exactly like us ever in existence, right here, right now! Unique and irreplaceable! And, we are not impressed. A shrug and a “So what?” are the best we can do. Just another bee in the hive, right? Just another ant in the hill. Ho-hum. Who cares? Caring is clearly up to us! If we can’t celebrate the wonder of being alive here, now by the way we experience, see, hear, understand the wonder of being here, now, nobody will do it for us. Look around. They don’t care. If we don’t, it is on us! And up to us to know and be who we are with joy in our heart and a smile on our face, every day of our life. Are you with me here, or am I alone with the wonder and the joy of being me?

The Tao-Psyche-Intuition.com Blog has fallen into place and the new book–“Copilot’s Dialogue with the Invisible” is close to publication, and the cognitive decline is a distraction I would like to be done with. I never knew there was so much to remember! My work with emptiness, stillness and silence has not been wasted–I just drop into the silence and wait for the memory gears to click into place. And I hope that by the time they fail to do that I will have reached the point of not knowing or not caring.

We deal with it as well as we can. And let that be that. If you are serving a life term, it is difficult to work up enthusiasm for breakfast. You just keep going, not because there is anything in it for you, but because you have developed a routine that calls for breakfast, and you go to breakfast. Big Woopie, as they say.

Life filled with routines like that is life only by definition–being 98.6 and breathing. We are built for more, but how much more becomes how much more we will settle for, and how far from exuberance and delight that is. It is a personal call, how alive we will be in the time left for living, and how much effort it would take to live with joy and gladness every minute of every day. I would say that is out of the question for us all, so we settle for the quality of life we settle for and let that be that. And deal with it as well as we can–letting it be what it is, and not caring about how much better we could do. Good enough is all we need to keep going. And that is more than most people have had throughout time. Central heat and running water, hot and cold. Most people have not had that. And they kept/keep going. While serving a life sentence, so to speak. Perhaps we should have a moment of silence in their honor, and hold them in high esteem–and be glad to be with them, to be in their company, upon the planet. May it be so! No?

And this means knowing and remembering and honoring that our life just as it is is much better than serving a life prison term. And we would be right to rejoice in that, and be glad. And allow the joy to spill over into the present moment through all of the present moments left to us–because the joy of life just as it is, is life knowing what it is to be alive, and living as though we mean it, as though we are glad to realize that life is LIFE–and that is to be honored and glorified, enjoyed and relished every day that is left to us on the earth. Amen! May it be so! No?

Relaxing into the moment is being here, now–waiting to see what is called for in each situation as it arises. It is allowing our intuition to take the lead, permitting our mind to rest and simply receive whatever is calling for its attention. This is the place to be here, now, waiting to see what may come along in the next moment, with no expectations and no demands or requirements, just curious about what the next moment, situation, may bring.

Getting/having our way is not the way. Living aligned with the Way is the way. Doing what is called for here, now, when, where and how it is called for is the Way. It isn’t having, getting anything. It is being who we need to be, doing what needs to be done, here, now in every situation as it arises. To do that, we have to listen, look, see, hear, and know what we know. Which asks us to spend time being quiet, observing inner and outer, in order to see what we look at, realize what’s what, and do what is called for. That is called living live as it needs to be lived.