Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy
Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
Today is the first day of my tenth year of sobriety. That doesn’t mean that I was a stumbling drunk nine years ago, but I was good for a half bottle of wine a day (And sometimes, a whole bottle), when my acupuncturist said, “Jim, alcohol isn’t doing anything for your knees.” So, I quitContinue reading “July 27, 2023 – B”
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Squaring ourselves up with our life is coming to terms with how things are and with the disparity between how they are and how we want them to be– and getting up and doing what needs to be done, anyway, nevertheless, even so. We are not in it for what we can get out ofContinue reading “July 27, 2023 – A”
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The new religion is reading the circumstances as they unfold about us, knowing what is called for and responding out of our original nature and the virtues/characteristics packed into our DNA, perfecting our response patterns over time and learning to trust ourselves to know what to do when, where and how out of our bodyContinue reading “July 26, 2023 – B”
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Sin gets all the press. Who wants to be penned up in heaven for eternity with a vindictive and easily angered God who is insistent on everything going his way? We need a different narrative. Theology is the origin of all our trouble today/any day. Theology, doctrine and dogma are enraptured with a story asContinue reading “July 25, 2023 – A”
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We are here, in part, to find out what we are good for, to discover what we can do– to explore ourselves, our original nature, our innate virtues/abilities/traits/qualities/ specialties/strengths, who we are, what we are about, where we fit in, where we belong, what is ours to do, and do it. The “stages of development”Continue reading “July 24, 2023 – C”
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Our life is lived between “How much can we get by with?” and “How much can we take/bear/stand/tolerate?” Somewhere between those two poles, optimal lies. If we had some way of knowing, “This is it. It isn’t going to get any better. Enjoy it while you can.” That would take the pressure off of tryingContinue reading “July 24, 2023 – B”
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Knowing who we are and aligning ourselves with who we are, living out of who we are in each situation as it arises means noticing/knowing what we like and don’t like, what brings us to life and what robs us of life, what is “us” and what is “not us,” and so on, like that.Continue reading “July 24, 2023 – A”
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The truth is infinite, eternal, ever-lasing, now and forever. Truth is the bed you slept in last night, and the world you woke up to this morning– and what needs to be done with it, about it, here/now. –0–
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Joseph Campbell was of the opinion that “reflection leads to new realizations.” Reflection requires emptiness, stillness, silence. Our life is grounded in, surrounded by, seems to require noise, complexity, drama/trauma. Regular retreats into solitude are vision quests into the inner world that is vibrantly alive and replete with everything we need to find what weContinue reading “July 23, 2023 – B”
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Our place is to do what is ours to do, what is at hand and needs to be done. “Anne, eat your breakfast, Dan, take your medicine, Life goes on, I forget just why” (Edna St. Vincent Millay). It is incumbent upon us to live out our roles, to play our parts, within the circumstancesContinue reading “July 23, 2023 – A”
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“When you meet an elephant on the trail, GET OFF THE TRAIL!!!” is an old Taoist/Zen directive that sets aside all of the “Rules to Live By,” with the one, overriding, foundational, always pertinent guideline: “Size things up and decide for yourself what is best/ what is called for in each situation as it arisesContinue reading “July 22, 2023 – A”
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There is nothing beyond contentment and peace, being at one with circumstances just as they are, to want, or seek or strive for. What those who want, and seek and strive for is to be content and at peace, at one with circumstances just as they are. What is preventing that, interfering with that, keepingContinue reading “July 21, 2023 – A”
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy