Where do you go to reconnect with yourself after you have been shattered and scattered by impact with the world? One of my granddaughters said, “I have to find water. A puddle of rainwater will do. I have to be with water.” She is well on her way to a graduate degree in self-care. WaterContinue reading “December 22-B, 2022”
Author Archives: jimwdollar
December 22-A, 2022
These are two of the metaphors guiding and undergirding my life, and serving as sources of reflection and realization in my work of establishing and maintaining right relationship between head and heart. The Gateless Gate is my image of the old Taoist phrase that was the title of one of two collections of koans usedContinue reading “December 22-A, 2022”
December 21-C, 2022
What I know about creating flow is built around emptiness, stillness and silence, and requires us to have no attachment to any outcome, which implies no opinions, no expectations, no restrictions, no demands, and being like a cork on the water– or like the water itself, which has no association with liking or not likingContinue reading “December 21-C, 2022”
December 21-B, 2022
We have the power of right response. It is a Super Power available to every one of us. We do not control what happens to us, but, we exercise considerable control when it comes to what we do in response to what happens to us. Our amount of control over our response is directly dependentContinue reading “December 21-B, 2022”
December 21-A, 2022
We have to sanctify the holy within by listening to our body and living from our heart in all that we do. We have to take our life back from the things that do not matter, and give ourselves to the things that do matter– to ourselves and those whose life is impacted by ourContinue reading “December 21-A, 2022”
December 20-B, 2022
Joseph Campbell said, “In the end, psychotherapy is about aligning the head with the heart so that the transcendent energies can come through. Only when this occurs can you be ‘transparent to transcendence.’ This implies yielding to nature, putting yourself in accord with nature– which is the main aim of most of the mythologies ofContinue reading “December 20-B, 2022”
December 20-A, 2022
Individuals living “transparent to transcendence” (Joseph Campbell) would transform the world in our lifetime. Of course, transformation would turn the world upside down, upset the normal order, and wreck the economy. Which is why individuals and not corporations and governments have to lead the way. People have to stop living in the service of whatContinue reading “December 20-A, 2022”
December 19-A, 2022
wabi-sabi is the practice of finding beauty in things not quite right. We all have an Achilles heel. We are a bit off plumb. Striving for perfection only makes it worse. I don’t have what it takes to belong to the Circle of Shaman, and I am fine with that, which qualifies me for belongingContinue reading “December 19-A, 2022”
December 18-C, 2022
Joseph Campbell said that we live our life learning to yield to nature, to put ourselves in accord with our original/essential nature, to live from our heart, to be who we are at the core of our being. When the “head” comes into harmony with the “heart,” with “the energies that are informing the body,”Continue reading “December 18-C, 2022”
December 18-B, 2022
Loneliness–Aloneness– comes about by being unseen, or, seen and unaccepted, for who we are. Too many of us hide, conceal, mask, deny who we are in order to avoid the isolation of being rejected and labeled “Unacceptable.” I make it a part of my practice to see and accept people for who they are, howContinue reading “December 18-B, 2022”
December 18-A, 2022
Deciding what to do is largely a matter of waiting to see what needs to be done. The natural world spends a lot of time between things, waiting. We do not have to be constantly active in the service of looking like we are doing something to avoid being thought of as lazy. We canContinue reading “December 18-A, 2022”
December 17-B, 2022
How satisfied (1-10, poor to great) are you with your life? How dependent on (How often do you use?) drugs and alcohol are you? How high/low is the status of your balance and harmony? The degree of your energy, spirit, vitality? The amount of joy you find in each day? The quality of the meaningContinue reading “December 17-B, 2022”
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 