June 29, 2023 – A

Flight of Geese 09/14/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
See what we look at.
Hear what we listen to.
Know what we know.
Say what needs to be said.
Do what needs to be done.
All there is to it.

Derailed by wanting what we want.
Refusing to maintain balance and harmony.
Being awash in opinions,
assumptions,
presumptions,
inferences,
projections,
fear,
desire,
hearsay,
noise,
complexity,
drama,
trauma...

And here we are.

Start with balance and harmony.
And the forces of destabilization.
Notice how your mind
can serve balance and harmony
or destabilization--
how we can be the source
of balance and harmony
or the source of destabilization
by the way we react/respond
to our circumstances.

Cut out the alcohol.
Square up to life just as it is.
Feel what we feel.
Let things be as they are.
Develop our capacity for
emptiness,
stillness,
silence.

Embrace no control
no contrivance.
No plan.
No agenda.
No opinion.
No expectations.
Nothing at stake
in any outcome.

Preferences without 
obsession/compulsion/addiction.

Just seeing what happens
and what we do about it
in each situation as it arises,
trusting our original nature
and innate virtues
to lead the way.

Like a tree in the forest,
a flower on a hill.

–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, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.

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