January 05-C, 2023

**Sea Level at Sunset 10/23/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island,**
**North Carolina,** **Ocracoke to Swan Quarter, 7:00 PM**

We come with the tools required 
to do our work:
Our original/essential nature,
the innate virtues/traits/characteristics
that are ours from conception,
our perceptions,
perspective,
judgment,
courage,
heart/soul,
mind/intelligence,
art/creativity/imagination,
seeing/hearing/understanding/
knowing/doing/being.

We lose connections
with these aspects of ourselves
in the churning chaos
of aspiration,
ambition,
desire,
fear,
anxiety,
jealousy,
incentive,
intention,
aims,
purpose,
drives and dreams...

And so, the unending/eternal work
of returning to the center,
the core,
the ground,
the source
of life and being--
the emptiness, 
stillness,
silence,
nothingness...

Waiting 
to see/hear/know/understand
what's what
and what's called for,
and doing the right thing,
in the right place,
at the right time,
in the right way,
and letting that be that
in each situation as it arises
throughout time.

It as easy--
and as impossible--
as that.

–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. View more posts