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?
Cosmos Fall — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Seeing, hearing, understanding, knowing, doing, being, expands into seeing what we look at, hearing what we listen to, understanding what's what, knowing what's called for in each situation as it arises, doing it as it needs to be done, when, where, and how it needs to be done, while being who we are, where we are, when we are, how we are, throughout what remains of the life left for living.
All of which is grounded upon and flows from enough time spent in the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence (One thing, not three) in a routine and regular way.
The Grove, ACE Basin Wildlife Refuge, Hollywood, South Carolina
MAGA is the self-designated moniker of a gang whose primary identifying feature is the complete absence of anything resembling maturity of anyone embracing the title.
Fascism and White Supremacy describe immaturity perfectly throughout the ages. There is not a grown-up in the group, though there are plenty of people old enough to be confused with one--exhibiting the ancient observation, "Growing up is inevitable, but maturity is entirely arbitrary."
Maturation is a by-product of awareness, of attentive presence with, and reflection upon, what is happening here, now, in every situation as it arises, and drawing sound conclusions regarding what it means and what is called for in response. All of which are completely absent in any MAGA worthy of the designation--starting with their Dear Leader and moving like a hot knife through soft butter through the rest of those gathered to chant their creed and declare their allegiance to their cause.
They designate empathy as a sin and look forward to the Rapture as though they have something in common with the Coming One. Which is clearly not their stance with regard to the Least of These which they denounce as NOT their brothers and sisters.
How all of this is going to play out is going to be a mess with nothing beneficial to anyone. A lot of dust and noise, disruption and chaos, destruction and mayhem, with gain nowhere and loss everywhere. The legacy of Donald Trump, the king of immaturity and emptiness, and a blight upon the land.
Fitting what we love to do into each day gives us something to look forward to every day. I love to be surprised, and the days are always calling for unexpected responses to unexpected events, so I look forward to what the day has to offer that I didn’t see coming, wondering where I will be surprised today.
Magic is real. Mystery is everywhere. We only have to step away from our agenda to know that it is so--and to experience being swept up in the experience of being alive to the life that is waiting for us to live it, instead of striving to force ourselves into a life we have no business living.
That Which Has Always Been Called God is as real here, now as ever anywhere in the past eons and ages. This is not the God of Theology, Dogma and Doctrine I'm talking about, but the guardian of lived experience, winking and nodding, smiling and laughing at the very idea of what she is setting before us, hoping we won't stomp by unseeing, incapable of imagining what might yet be if we only trust ourselves to know what to say no to, and yes to--so that when the door opens we know which to choose.
Being open to what is trying to reach us, get our attention, wake us up to what is Called for here, now is being alert to what is happening here, now, and what mysterious forces are at work in our life to turn us toward the things that are calling us to wake up to what is with us to guide and direct us to the path that is opening before us with our name written all over it.
Trusting ourselves to the life that is asking us to live it is the wisest thing we will ever do.
Black Balsam Knob Sunrise — Pisgah National Forest, MP 420, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
It is our place to discover what we do best and what we like to do most. They may be the same thing, and they may be quite dif-ferent. And it is also our place to spend our life doing them along with all the other things we enjoy doing that spin off from what we do best and what we like to do most. So that our life becomes a collection of things we love to do, and it is our place as the collector of things we love most about life to live so as to increase the number of items in our collection year by year until we are brimming with the wonder and joy of things we love to do and are quite thrilled by and interested in so that we are looking forward to every day to find more things that thrill us and call us forth into life and being as those who are on a mission to relish each day for the delights and beauty it holds and shares with us throughout the time there is for living, and to know what a joy it is to live that way.
And it is never too late to begin living in this way. It is always just the right time to start. What do you do best? What do you enjoy doing most? Be about these things here and now, with all your heart, and mind, and soul and strength! Living as though you mean it throughout the time left for living! YahRoo! The game's afoot!
Appalachian Trail and Jane Bald — Roan Mountain Highlands, Carver’s Gap, Tennessee
Right seeing, right hearing, right knowing, right doing, right being is all there is to it--and it is increasingly out of the question, because we have been overtaken by the noise and dust of the world. Bullied, you might say, into the new Dark Age where up is down, right is wrong and no one knows what's what.
And so, the need for emptiness, stillness, silence in which to sit and wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear and for everyone to regain their balance and find their bearings.
Finding the center requires us to sit still and breathe, waiting for balance, harmony and sanity to be restored, remembering, in the words of Martin Palmer, "The path that can be discerned as a path is not a reliable path." And the people who proclaim they have found the path are not reliable guides. The wold is awash in unreliable guides. Let the seeker beware, and seek the inner light to what is called for and serve that with all our heart, and mind, and soul and strength, regardless of what is trending. In these times, following the crowd may well lead deeper into the wasteland of dismay and disarray. No?
Around Bass Lake 01 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
There is the God of theology, and there is "That Which Has Always Been Called God" beyond theology.
Theology was invented by the Church of Rome over the 400 years between Jesus' execution and the closing of the Canon which ended the amount of material that could be included in the Bible. The Church of Rome decided what was in and what was out of the Bible. The Church of Rome composed the Bible, we may as well say "The Church of Rome wrote the Bible," so that what the Bible says is what the Church of Rome wanted the Bible to say, which comes down to "You are all sinners going straight to hell unless you believe what we tell you and do what we say!" The Church of Rome gave itself some leverage that way, and guaranteed its future, not that it had anything at stake in choosing the scriptures it chose to comprise the Bible.
Before Theology was invented, there was only "That Which Has Always Been Called 'God,'" which was experienced more often than believed, and everyone knew what they were talking about when they talked about That Which Has Always Been called "God." Then Theology came along with Hell in tow and it all went to hell.
My point here is that we do not need theology. We only need to experience what has always been experienced as That Which Has Always Been Called God to know that God is one with us, that we are all "of God." That no one can draw the line between where we end and God starts. God is the stuff everything is made of. It is all of God, IS God, and everyone who has ever known has known this much. We are Psyche! We are God! There are no lines separating anything that theology did not draw.
Cypress Pond 01 BW — Adams Mill Pond, Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
We are paying the price for electing Donald Trump, and will be paying it for the rest of our life. This train wreck won't fix itself, put itself back on the tracks and chug along to glory in our life time. We are on our own. It is up to us to put our life together in the aftermath of the complete loss of everything.
We start with our attitude. Suffering is made worse by the way we bear our suffering. Meeting the basic cost of living for the duration will be out of the question for a lot of people, and some of the people are working on ways to help with that. Those of us who are able can donate cash to the helping agencies and tip better at the coffee shops and restaurants. Cash encourage-ment is important in keeping people going. I say that wondering how long my social security checks will keep coming and Medicare helping with my medical needs. It could get really dicey and quite out of hand in no time, and making it from day-to-day will be interesting for all of us.
We all have inner resources, sources of guidance, direction, encouragement and insight/realization/awareness/knowledge... We are all members of a species that has survived environmental catastrophes and hardship throughout time, and we all have a genetic core that can be trusted to be what we need to find what we need to do what needs to be done to respond appropriately to all of the "Here we are, now what's?" in our path. So, we start building our relationship with and our reliance upon our inner capacity to be for ourselves "a very present help in time of trouble."
Drop into the silence throughout the day, open to and present with what meets us there, and see where it goes throughout the times that are upon us and beyond.
Our personal authority extends to cover a wide range of matters, internal and external. A lot of us claim personal authority over how our hair is cut. I don't push into that area, and say, "Whatever you think I deserve, when sitting in the hair stalest's chair. There is generally some light-hearted back and forth, and we settle on "About an inch off all over." I have come out just fine over time.
We know what is right for us and what is wrong, where we belong and where we have no business being. And the Old Testament commandment that did not make the top ten but should be #1 in my book, "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark," is sacrosanct and beyond challenge. Our neighbor, and each of us, know what's what regarding our neighbor and ourselves. And all of us need to recognize and honor that throughout time.
We know what we know, and, ideally, live in close communion with The Knower within, who guides and directs us throughout our life in knowing and doing what needs to be done in each situation as it arises. May we all realize that this is so and spend the necessary amount of time in emptiness, stillness and silence developing our relationship with our Knower and learning how to read the signs directing our way through the choices and decisions that fill each day. So that we might know, for example, when to pull over to the side of the road and take the picture that catches our eye in the moment of our seizure. Etc., and so forth throughout all of life.
Adams Mill Pond 12 Panorama BW— Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Living out of the silence (emptiness/stillness) enables us to be mindfully aware of the place of wanting and caring about the wrong things plays in our day-to-day, and how regularly our thinking revolves around things that have no connection at all with what the present situation is calling for and what would be the most appropriate response we could make to that here, now. We are lost in the dust of the world. Adrift in the churning confluence of things that count for little or nothing on the scale of What Matters Most. We are wasting our time, wasting our life, lost in the wasteland of discontent.
We turn things around by being centered and focused on who we are and what we are here for, and taking up the search for where our deep joy is found and living there, doing that. Being true to the truth of who we are and what we are about honors and serves our Original Nature, Innate Virtues (The things we do best and the things we enjoy doing most), Inherent Intuition, Intrinsic Imagination. In serving these things, we bring them forth and make them apart of our day-to-day life in doing what is called for when, where and how it is called for, and everything falls into place around that.
The Watchman and the Virgin 02 — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
Dropping into the silence to be present with what meets us there is a life-long strategy for living open to what's what, what's happening and what is called for here, now. In the silence over time, we avoid the distractions/diversions/smoke/dust/haze that prevents us from being here, now doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done through all conditions, situations and circumstances that we meet along the way. And we are able to attend what needs our vital attention moment to moment in being who we are and doing what is ours to do--often what we do best and enjoy doing most--by being shanghaied or waylaid by the noise of the world.
In the silence, we see, hear, know and understand where we are and what needs to be done about it, and with practice we can do this with one breath walking wherever we are going. Simply inhale for a count of five, pause for a count of five and exhale for a count of five. You have take a Silent Break from your life and given yourself a count of fifty opportunity to shift your perspective, remember where you are and what you need to do about it here, now. And you might be amazed at what a lift this gives your life. Do it throughout each day and observe the difference it makes.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 