March 14, 2022

01

Beulah Land 15 09/22/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — The Totem Group, Monument Valley Tribal Park, Arizona
We think it is one way and it is another.
We think it is about this and it is about that.
We think it is one thing and it is something else.
We think we know what we are doing,
and we do not have a clue.

We sort it out by eliminating the noise
and the complexity,
and just being quiet
in the right kind of way.

"Be still and know," you know?

"That I am God."

And who is The Great I AM?"

Be still enough in the right kind of way,
and you will know
who you are.

You know? 

–0–

02

Goodale State Park 05 11/04/2014 Oil Paint Rendered, B&W — Camden, South Carolina
Willing what cannot be willed--
what has no business being willed--
is the source of all of our trouble today.
Every day.

Ah, but!
How do we know where the line lies?

That is the excuse we always use
when it comes to lines.

"How did we know?"
"We didn't know!"
"We didn't even know there was a line!"

When it comes to having our way NOW!
there are no lines.

And, that is the source of all of our trouble today.
Any day.

We are always ignoring,
dismissing,
discounting,
disregarding,
erasing
lines.

And living as though 
no lines apply to us.
And wondering why things are as they are.

But never stopping
to see what we are doing.

We are the only constant
in every situation that comes our way.
Could be things are as they are
because of that.
Because we are the way we are.
Willing what cannot be willed.
All of the time.

–0–

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters and five granddaughters within about twenty minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

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