jimwdollar

February 06, 2021

We are looking for what is meaningful when we take up The Quest, and go forth in search of what exactly we do not know. We only know “this” is not it. Because “this” is not meaningful. And we cannot think up meaningful. We cannot decide what will be meaningful. Meaningful is like falling inContinue reading “February 06, 2021”

February 05, 2021

03 Our life is an end in itself. Life is an end in itself. We live to be alive– fully, completely, wonderfully, fascinatingly, joyfully alive. We do not live to get anything, or anywhere. Where do we think we are going? The experience of living is all life has to offer. We think it isContinue reading “February 05, 2021”

February 04, 2021

01 Fragile and vulnerable, we spend our life wishing it weren’t so, pretending it isn’t, hiding, lying, denying, building walls, shopping malls, nothing to it, money will do it, power, too, delusional, institutional, wrapped in our refusal to be who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are, fragile and vulnerable, allContinue reading “February 04, 2021”

February 03, 2021

04 James Hillman said, “If I do what I really must, it will kill me, yet, if I don’t, I will die.” We get to choose the kind of death we will die. Our choice is “the secret cause” (James Joyce) of our dying. The life we live is the direct consequence of our death.Continue reading “February 03, 2021”

February 02, 2021

02 Before retirement, I spent my time tending matters that I haven’t tended since retirement. They were all necessary aspects of my employment, and I did them well enough to not know where I stopped what I did for a living started, but when I stopped doing it for a living, my life became myContinue reading “February 02, 2021”

February 01, 2021

04 I retired on February 1, 2011. Today marks the 10th anniversary of my retirement. They have been the ten best years of my life. Upon retirement, I took a vow of silence and solitude, moved to the woods with my wife and had no social interaction apart from our immediate family (3 daughters andContinue reading “February 01, 2021”

February 2021

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January 31, 2021

05 What do you do for the sake of doing it alone? Live to expand the list. When there is nothing in it for you beyond doing what you are doing for the sake of doing it alone, you are engaged in living for the experience, the expression, the wonder of being alive to lifeContinue reading “January 31, 2021”

January 30, 2021

02 Making our peace with our life and living in the service of what is meaningful for us is a reasonable and attainable goal for each of us. Most of us want more than that. We don’t know what it would be except that it would be more than that. And the distance between whatContinue reading “January 30, 2021”

January 29, 2021

03 What we see is a function of how we look. How we look is influenced by our expectations and our past experience. We don’t walk fresh upon anything and know what we are looking at. Reality is an extension of our expectations and our experience. We cannot make sense of anything that is absolutelyContinue reading “January 29, 2021”

January 28, 2021

03 I thought I wanted to be a therapist for about fifteen minutes. Not quite as long as thinking I wanted to be a third-grade teacher. But with the same outcome: A quick and permanent end to thinking those things. Reality is all the guide we need. Ever. With the therapy thing, it became clearContinue reading “January 28, 2021”

January 27, 2021

03 The single most important thing you can do to improve your chances of living well upon the earth throughout the time left for living is to become accomplished in taking “No” for an answer. By “accomplished” I mean taking “No” for an answer when, where, and how it needs to be done the wayContinue reading “January 27, 2021”