Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

I wonder what the rules were determining life at Mesa Verde. How were they created? How were they remembered? How were they enforced? How were new rules added? Who said so? Who decided? What went into the decision? And so on. Not only here but in every location indigenous peoples called home throughout time. I am awed and humbled at the processes life–and life together–required from the beginning. And highly honored to be a part of that process even here, even now.

We could improve things worldwide if we simply treated everyone as though they were highly rated on the Autism Spectrum. This ranks with treating everyone as though they are dealing with a difficult life, or with heavy burdens.

We all need more help than we get. And that needs to be taken into account with everyone we encounter.

Silence is the source of all that is and ever will be. And it doesn’t get credit for anything. Silence is due a planetary holiday without fireworks. Traffic. Commercial travel. Noise. Twenty-four hours of contemplation, meditation, reflection, realization, awakening, enlightenment, world-wide. Out of reverence for the sacred nature of silence.

Donald Trump is the essence of a corrupt ego gone rogue.

The fifth chapter of the Book of Amos is a wonderful exhibition of the wrath of the prophet projected onto God and ruling the spirit of the times: “I hate, I despise your feasts and take no delight in your solemn assemblies…” This is a perfect example of the Biblical way of perceiving the power of the puppets over the puppet master, imagining that the people control God with their behavior, for better and for worse. It is absurd to think that God, with compete power to arrange things to God’s liking, is utterly at the will of the people who control and determine what God does throughout their lives.

I much prefer the Taoist idea of merging with the flow of the Tao in living at one with the drift of the natural impulse of our bodies in conjunction with the way of things generally, in light of the seasons and the tides, with no sense of managing nature according to our wants and desires, but of tempering our preferences for our way in order to align ourselves with The Way that can be intuited and grasped in sensing/knowing the oneness of the Moved with the Mover throughout our lives.

“The Tao doesn’t love or hate us, reward or punish us, but simply unfolds through our choices and decisions as we align ourselves with the way of nature…”

“Take heart!” That is nature’s message to me every time I step into a scene. “Do not take anything with more seriousness than it deserves!” “Receive everything with a respectful, ‘This, too! This, too!” “Let things be as they are, AND as they also are!” “Remember the words of the words of William Blake in his poem, ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Without Contraries is no progression.”‘(1790.)”

Contaries are the very heart of life! Yin/Yang is everywhere we look! We could not see anything without the contrasts of everything! Life consists of contrasts, contraries, contradictions! “Woe, woe!” is balanced by “Hooray! Hallelujah!” That is the way things are! To take offense is to ignore the counter forces at work throughout the entire scope of existence! The tide comes in and the tide turns around, and the tide goes out! And THAT is the way things are. Celebrate the contaries! That is our place! To recognize and celebrate the contaries! By saying, “YES!” to all that is exactly as it is! Because that is how it is! and our place is to witness that, to recognize it as nature’s way, as life’s way, and participate in the natural way of life with all our heart, mind, soul, intention and determination. Because that is how things are!

Sorrow is an easier emotion for me to experience than is Joy–more of an ever-present reality with a deeper impact. Sorrow cancels out joy for me more often than joy cancels out sorrow. Joy is a break from sorrow more often than is sorrow a disruption of joy. Sorrow is a daily opportunity. Joy is an occasional release from sorrow. There is less that I will miss from my life experience than that I will mourn. We go in search of good times. We don’t have to look for bad news. We seek solace. Standup comedians commit suicide. Who are we kidding? Alcohol is a refuge. An ever-present help in time of trouble. Comfort and consolation are long sought companions on the pathways of life.

Where do we find relief from the way things are? Emptiness, stillness and silence are my place of refuge. Sorrow cannot find me there. And resilience, fortitude and heart are reliable associates for the rest of the journey.

We turn to drugs, sex, alcohol and fast dancing to take our minds off of our disappointment with our life and our idea that it ought to be better and we ought to be making that happen. When the trick is turning to emptiness, stillness, silence (one thing not three) and listening to our body and its signals in following its direction and guidance and listening to our intuition and its sensitivity to what is happening here, now and what is asked of us and called for in each situation as they come along. As a way of shifting the focus and emphasis of our life.

The beautiful places I have visited with a camera continue to ground me, center me, focus me in the world of human beings with the reassurance and the reminder of the balance and harmony of the natural world offsetting the hatred, greed, fear and anger of the human world. The way of wild things is the way of the Tao–the way of doing what is called for, when, where and how it is called for. Doing regularly and routinely the right thing, in the right way at the right time in the right place. The way of nature we are also capable of when we find and live out of the center and source of our life and our way with life, which we are able to link to by way of engagement via emptiness, stillness and silence that is available to us just by sitting quietly and “waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear.” And, like that, we find ourselves in the natural world which we share with the wild things where we recover our sense of wholeness and our ability to know and do what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, and to recover our soul, and be reconnected to ourselves and to our life. May it be so for all of us throughout the time left for living!

Photographic scenes can be anywhere, but they are not everywhere. So, we walk around with a camera hoping to stumble upon something that catches our eye before we age out of being interested in doing that. “Time and chance happen to us all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). And we have to be able to flow with the currents of time and chance in order to let go what’s going and to let come what’s coming, with little in the way of expectations and opinions, wants and desires, in order that here, now is good enough just as it is.

What is the life that we are built to live? What is the nature of the life that calls us, beckons us, to live it? Engage in this simple exercise to discover for ourselves the life that knows who we are here to be. To do so we sit quietly with our computer or paper and pen/pencil and wait for the words that come to us by way of a natural impulse of our own creation, and write the words as they come for a long as would be appropriate. And we make an appointment with ourselves to do the same exercise at least once a day for a month. At the end of the month, we ask our intuition for its direction and guidance going forward, and live in the service of our intuition going forward for the rest of our life.