jimwdollar

May 09-A,2023

We can’t help how we see things. How we feel about things. How we think about things. But, if we work at it, we can see that we cannot help how we see things. We think that how we see things is how things are. And the discrepancy between how we see things and howContinue reading “May 09-A,2023”

May 08-B, 2023

Meister Eckhart said, “The final leave-taking is leaving God for God.” The God we leave is the God of the doctrines and dogmas, the creeds and catechisms, the theologies and the debates, the sermons and the Sunday school lessons… The God we leave God for is the Transcendent reality beyond all discourse, logic, reason andContinue reading “May 08-B, 2023”

May 08-A, 2023

Asking the questions that beg to be asked and saying the things that cry out to be said are the foundation of realization. If we aren’t digging, digging, digging into all the assumptions, commonplaces, expectations, things taken for granted, sacred presumptions, and holy ground, within and without, we are going to serve the same oldContinue reading “May 08-A, 2023”

May 07-B, 2023

Let come what’s coming, let go what’s going, and let that be that. That is pretty much how turtles and giant sequoias do it. And moose. And opossums. Human beings, not so much. We have ideas of how things ought to be that make it difficult to accommodate ourselves to how things are. We wantContinue reading “May 07-B, 2023”

May 07-A, 2023

It is only a matter of knowing what’s what and doing what needs to be done about it in each situation as it arises. That is harder than it should be because we keep getting in the way. Remember Adam and Eve? The Garden of Eden metaphor plays out times everybody on the planet andContinue reading “May 07-A, 2023”

May 06-B, 2023

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people,” has a nice ring to it, but. It won’t pay the bills– particularly the kind of bills Clarence Thomas and members of Congress like to ring up. The motto has to be tweaked a bit to get it right: “Government of the Corporations, by theContinue reading “May 06-B, 2023”

May 06-A, 2023

The black trunks in the image are the trees’ attempt to heal themselves where elk have peeled away and eaten bark in the winter months. Both trees and elk are doing their best with what they have to work with to make things work as well as they can. You and I are right inContinue reading “May 06-A, 2023”

May 05-B, 2023

When Carl Jung was asked if he believed in God, he replied: “I do not believe. I know.” I would have said, “I do not believe in believing.” “God” as we have been taught of “God” exists only as the production/projection of human beings, forced onto us by an orthodox priesthood with their livelihood atContinue reading “May 05-B, 2023”

May 05-A, 2023

What stirs your interest? Piques your curiosity? Ignites your passion? Catches your eye? Calls your name? Encourages your participation? How many of those things are in a day? A week? A month? How can you restructure your life to include more of those things in your days, weeks, months? If you are plodding through tooContinue reading “May 05-A, 2023”

May 04-B, 2023

The worst thing that ever happens to us can also be among the best things that ever happens to us. Our worst experiences can be our best experiences. Bad can also be good. Good can also be bad. Things are not one way only. We have to expand our mind to take into account theContinue reading “May 04-B, 2023”

May 04, 2023 – A

There is nothing we cannot deny. Denial keeps us where we are. If it weren’t for denial, where might we be? Denial is a superpower in a negative sense. Recovering alcoholics know about the power of denial– and the power of looking denial in the eye, facing the truth of the legitimate pain of life,Continue reading “May 04, 2023 – A”

May 03, 2023 -B

The culture/the world is in hot pursuit of the perfect means With no idea of an end worthy of it. I wish I remembered the name of the photographer who said, “The more equipment you have, the fewer pictures you take.” Fine clothes and tattered lives. We draw the wrong lines in the wrong places.Continue reading “May 03, 2023 -B”