January 05, 2025

**Watkins Glen 09/23/2015 — Watkins Glen State Park, New York**

Today, I step into my 81st year, and I'm glad to be here, now.

The work remains the same whenever
and wherever we are,
knowing what is called for
and doing what we can about it
with the gifts that are ours to serve and share:
Our original nature,
our innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
our inherent imagination,
and our intrinsic intuition.

If we focus on bringing these aspects of us forth
in the life we are living
all will be as well as it can be with us
given the nature of our circumstances
and the quality of the cooperation we get
day to day.

Jesus and the Buddha could have used
more help than they got.
So, we can't take it personally,
or let it keep us from doing the best we can
given the givens at work in our time and place.

I'm in my 81st year! What do my detractors expect?
Let's see how they do remembering their street address
their phone number, zip code, and the last four digits of their Social before breakfast!

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. View more posts