Author Archives: jimwdollar

A couple of Bible verses,”Time and chance happen to us all,””It rains on the just and the unjust alike,”put the hiatus on the idea that everything that happens is God’s willthat it happens.We need a rest from that nonsense,a lengthy break.That and the idea that if God didn’t will it,”God let it happen.”God did thisContinue reading “April 16, 2024 – A”

How do you maintainyour balance and harmony?We need a regimen,a process,a program,a routinethat we engage in regularlyto clear our vision,regain our perspective,recharge our resolution,reorient our direction,reclaim our determination,revitalize our incentiveput ourselves back on trackand get underway again.Finding things that need to be donethat we can dowholeheartedly is a great wayto get underwayand stay there.Maintaining ourContinue reading “April 15, 2024 – A”

Theology and spirituality are mutually exclusive, theology being the product of the Left Hemisphere, and spirituality being the steady state of the Right Hemisphere.Theology is thinking/logically/reasonably knowing, and spirituality being seeing/hearing/realizing/grasping/comprehending/understanding/etc. knowing. Theology’s knowing is content with knowing, spirituality’s knowing must express/exhibit/reveal/etc. itself in doing—the right thing in the right way at the right timeContinue reading “April 14, 2024 – A”

I remind us of this a couple of times a year.Here it comes again:It’s all useless, pointless, hopeless,meaningless,stupid and absurd–and coming to a very bad end:We all are going to die!And, we can’t let that stop us,or even slow us down!Because in the meantimewe have work to be done!We have to show them what itContinue reading “April 13, 2024 – B”

You know how the way things are? Putin destroying Ukraine while we watch.Much like Hitler destroyed Europe,and Alexander the Great destroyed the known world.And how what’s going onhas been going on from the beginning.And is going to be going onlong after we have stopped going at all. Well, there is nothing we can do aboutContinue reading “April 13, 2024 – A”

We can’t help how we see things,but.We are responsible for how we see things.Which means, of course,that we can help how we see things.It starts with seeing how we see things.Seeing our seeing is the most important thing to see.The second most important thing to seeis seeing that how we see things IS NOT HOWContinue reading “April 12, 2024 – B”

Our response strongly influenceswhat happens next.We shape the futureby the way we respond to the present.There is typically more at stake in any momentthan getting our way in the moment.Imagining likely scenarios and practicing our response to each oneprovides us with the experienceof having worked our way throughpractice rounds before we go live.I practice fendingContinue reading “April 12, 2024 – A”

The Buddhist concept of “Bodhisattvas” beautifully flips the Nirvana/Pure Land,Heaven/Hell narrativeby positing a shift in perspectivethat sees the world as it is,not as a place of sufferingand meaningless wandering,with death as a hoped-for escape from “the everlasting roundof grief, loss and sorrow,”but as a place of unending opportunityto practice the art of healing/helpful presence,by returning–notContinue reading “April 11, 2024 – B”

You remember Tevya,the superman,Jesus,heroof The Fiddler on the Roof,coming down the gangplank of the steamship that deliveredhim and Golda, his wife,to the hovels and pollutionof New York City–without his horse and his cow,and his TRADITION!To make his way in a new world.He does that–WE do that–by walking two paths at the same time.The path ofContinue reading “April 11, 2024 – A”

There are people who do not examine their assumptions,question their convictions,or inspect what they have heard is so.Thinking about their thinking,and seeing there seeing,and listening to what they are saying,and to what is being said to them,are not skills they have developed along the way.Yet they get a vote like they knowwhat they are doing.HOWContinue reading “April 10, 2024 – A”

What are we living for?What are we trying to get,to have,to do,to be?The right answeris living to be alignedwith our original natureand in accord with our innate virtuosities–the things we do bestand love/enjoy doing the most.We are assisted in this by our intuition,by our body’s felt senseby our nighttime dreamsby our ability to attend ourContinue reading “April 09, 2024 – A”

There is griefand there is gloryalong the way that is the way, and we can’t be in itfor what we get out of it.We have to be in itwithout caring about outcomes,or what our chances are.We live to serveintegrity,sincerityspontaneity–doing what is called forin the moment that is upon usin each situation as it arises,and lettingContinue reading “April 08, 2024 – A”