Author Archives: jimwdollar

Marianne Moore said, “The cure for loneliness is solitude.” Ortega y Gasset said, “A bore is someone who fails to provide companionship while robbing you of your solitude.” When I retired, I took a monastic vow of silence and solitude, which means “Nothing social.” With “social” meaning “anything other than family.” The best part isContinue reading “January 07-B, 2023”

We have each day that is left to us to work with– not to see what we can make happen there but to realize what needs to happen in each one, and to see how we may assist the birth of what needs to be, day by day, until the end of our days. OurContinue reading “January 07-A, 2023”

There are people in, amongst, around wild places throughout the world who don’t appear to be any better off for it. Nature is everywhere, and the world has been in a mess from the start. Nature has as much to say as it ever has had to say, and who stops to listen? And whatContinue reading “January 06-C, 2023”

No one told me the importance of guarding/protecting/shepherding/stewarding our vulnerable/defenseless inner-self. Everyone in my world was swinging away at it, within me and everyone else. Attacking sarcastically any hint of weakness, compassion, empathy, sensitivity and grace. Everybody had to be mean, tough, shrewd, rude, coarse, uncaring and indifferent. I look back on that world andContinue reading “January 06-A, 2023”

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, drivesContinue reading “January 05-C, 2023”

The day has a mind of its own. Give yourself to the day, trust yourself to the day, and to the emptiness, stillness and silence that await the day and its peculiar alignment of conditions and circumstances which set it apart from every other day, making it unique, special, one-of-a-kind, though it might look onContinue reading “January 05-B, 2023”

Today is the first day of my 79th year. I hope to be more settled into who I am this year, more still, more empty, more silent, with less at stake in what is going on. More balanced and harmonious, less anxious and uncertain. More stable and flexible, less stressed and fearful. More content withContinue reading “January 05-A, 2023”

The conditions and circumstances of our life impose themselves upon us against our will and require us to make concessions and accommodations appropriate to the occasion from birth to death. The water that falls in my backyard flows roughly from south to north. The water that falls in my front yard flows roughly from northContinue reading “January 04-B, 2023”

Everyone wants to be “happy.” No one knows what that means. It means engaging consciously/mindfully in the process of maturation, seeing what’s what, rising to the occasion and doing what needs to be done about it, day-in-and-day-out, for no reason other than because it needs to be done. And doing that with the proper frameContinue reading “January 03-B, 2023”