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There is balance and harmony. There is resistance and assistance. There is what we do to pay the bills, and there is what we pay the bills to do. Three pairs of choices. How we work out the ratios among the three tells the tale. The tale is the one we are spinning with our decisions and actions throughout our life. Our life is our art. The three pairs of choices are our tools. Balance and harmony are our guides. We know how we are doing by keeping an eye on our balance and harmony. Resistance and assistance are where we make the adjustments to get balance and harmony in sync and accord. What we do to pay the bills and what we pay the bills to do is the biggie. We have to make enough money to pay the bills and what we pay the bills to do reveals whether or not we are running up the right bills. Running up the right bills reflects assistance, balance and harmony. Running up the wrong bills reflects discord, chaos, death spirals, flame outs and free falling. Right and wrong in terms of what? Assistance/resistance in terms of what? Balance and harmony in the service of what? Our life and what we do with it. It all hinges on being right about what we do with our life. Sin is being wrong about what is important. Repentance is changing our mind about what is important-- as many times as it takes to get it right. We know when it is right when balance and harmony are in sync and accord. Other indicators of it being right are spirit, energy and vitality. A regular reading of our spirit, energy and vitality levels is a clear picture of how well we are living our life. We have to be able to read the signs. Balance, harmony, spirit, energy, life. They let us know when we are on the beam and when we are off it. When we are aligned with The Way and when we are wandering through the Wasteland. The clashing rocks and the heaving waves of the wine dark sea are also hints that we may need to consider making some adjustments in what we are doing and how we are going about doing it. The fundamental adjustment is making changes in our relationship with ourselves, our life and other people. We have to quit doing what we are doing and start doing something else instead. What? How? Time will tell. Experiment. Explore. Sit with The Silence. Take up the practice of mindful awareness (The Jon Kabat-Zinn YouTube videos-- shortest ones first--are great guides here). Listen to your heart, your body, your nighttime dreams your daytime hunches, nudges, realizations, inspirations... Our work is to find our life and live it. To know what works and what doesn't work. To know what needs to be done and do it. To stay on the beam and to keep to The Way. And we have all that we need to find what we need to do it all. We only have to start paying attention to what's what and let that be our guide along The Way.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 