01

We keep looking for something to make it easy to grow up, while avoiding the matter until we find what we are looking for. All it takes is standing up and doing what needs to be done. Time after time. Without emotional response. We spill the milk. We clean the milk up. Period. No remonstrating. No drama. No whining. No moaning. No complaining. No rolling in the floor crying. We look for solutions to problems and go down the list until we find what works with all things considered. Growing up is a matter of sizing things up in each situation as it arises, and doing what needs to be done, the way it needs to be done, when it needs to be done, because it needs to be done, moment by moment, day by day. This is also the central feature of a life grounded in the present and doing what is called for by the context and circumstances of this time and place. It doesn't matter what we want or how we feel or what mood we are in or what the implications are for us personally. What matters is responding to the moment the way the moment needs to be responded to. Like emergency room personnel greeting whatever comes through the door. We live in an emergency room. What happens throughout each day is ours to deal with in ways appropriate to the occasion in each situation as it arises. All. Day. Long. That will grow us up in no time at all.
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02

We have all we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done. Always have, always will. What it takes to do what it takes is the "Thy will not mine, be done" mentallity that is the hallmark of the Garden of Gethsemane-- with the "Thy" understood to be the situation at hand and the Tao-Mind-Psyche-Awareness that always has pace and timing as its highest priority, and knows beyond knowing what is called for in this time and place for all times and places there ever have been or will be. If you are going to take anything on faith, let it be this, and get "Thy will not mine be done" down, operational and in place for all the times and places of your life.
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03

Doing what needs to be done with what we have to work with in each situation as it arises is always the challenge. This is the choice of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in each situation as it arises. There is what needs to be done, and what we want to do, and what we have to work with, and that's it. It is never more difficult that this. What are we going to do, here and now? The future hinges on the response we make to the moment of our living, moment-by-moment. This is the choice of Jesus of Nazareth in the Garden of Gethsemane in each situation as it arises. It is never more difficult than this. What are we going to do, here and now? Everything hangs in the balance. Waiting.
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04

"Here we are, now what?" is always the operative question, in each situation as it arises. It requires stopping, looking, listening, to know what's what and what needs to be done about it. And the answer is always the same: "The next thing." The next thing, right here, right now. Forget the overall response to the overall need. Forget the general strategy necessary for impacting The Situation As A Whole nation-wide and world-wide. Focus on the moment of our breathing, of our being, right here, right now. What is the next thing here and now? Do that. Without losing sight of the long term and the bigger picture. We walk two paths at the same time. And the path to then and there is also the path through the here and now. Do not ignore the present moment, absorbed in the ultimate and the absolute.
Love these! Learning how to be emergency room staff & you are right, it makes the days so much easier!
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