March 21, 2022

01

Edisto Beach Sunrise 01/09/2015 04 Oil Paint Rendered — Edisto Island State Park, South Carolina
We find our way to the next thing
by doing this thing
the way it needs to be done.

One thing leads to another this way,
and that's the way
to the Way!

The Way is the way we meet the day--
and each situation as it arises
in the day.
There is nothing more to it than that.

Enlightenment is seeing/hearing/knowing
what needs to be done here and now,
and doing it the way it needs to be done.

If we know that much
and do it,
that's all there is to it.

What makes that difficult
are fear, anger, desire, duty,
drama, complexity, noise--
all of which are sometimes
referred to as "the dust of the world."

Shake it off.

Sit (or stand, or walk) in the stillness
and the silence,
empty of all things,
and wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

With clarity,
it is only a matter of courage
and we are underway on the Way,
seeing and doing what needs to be done,
time after time.

The work that transforms the world
by transcending the world
and becoming one with the world
here and now.

–0–

02

Beulah Land 22 Oil Paint Rendered — Electric Peak, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Watching things come and go
begs the question:
"What do we make of it?"

Why this and not that?
Why that and not something else?
What is behind all of the coming and going?
To what end does it come and go?

Who is to say?
How do we know if they know
what they are talking about?
What makes one person's opinion 
more valid than another person's?

What are we going to do about it--
the coming and the going--
in response to it?
What reply do we make?
What impact does it have on us?
What does it call forth in us, from us?
How do we relate to it?
How do we dance with it?
Who do we become by way of it?
Because of it?

What is our relationship 
with the coming and going
as those who are very much a part of it?

What about the coming and going
has made the most difference in our life?

How do we square ourselves up to it?
Embrace it?
Participate in it?
Letting come what's coming,
and letting go what's going?

–0–

03

Along Roaring Fork 05 04/17/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Roaring Fork Auto Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Cultivating balance and harmony
is cultivating emptiness, 
stillness
and silence,
living aligned with our original nature,
serving and sharing
the virtues that came with us 
from the womb,
and being the Buddha,
the Christ--
the end we seek in 10,000 ways,
not-knowing what we are looking for.

–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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