Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

September 06, 2021

**Wood Stork 05 05/13/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Alligator Farm Rookery, St. Augustine, Florida**

What it is going to take 
is sitting still,
being quiet.

We find in the silence
all we need
to meet the moment,
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Sitting in the silence--
being able to sit in the silence--
means emptying ourselves
of all the noise in our life.

Noise is an inside job.
Silence is also an inside job.
In order to be quiet,
we have to quieten
the noise within.

Start with the source.
All of the noise within
has it's origin 
in our orientation
and our philosophy
and our driving motivation.

Our entire culture is driven,
pushed, shoved, compelled
by the My Way NOW!!! craze.

We fume and boil
upon the raging sea
and the heaving waves
of the My Way NOW!!! craze.

We are consumed with 
having our way,
and with other people
not having their way,
and the very idea 
that those people over there
are doing their best
to have their way
and trying to keep us 
from having our way,
and how those people over there
won't let us have our way at all,
and what we have to do
to get our way at last!
And keep it safe and secure forever!

Sit still, be quiet,
and watch how all of this
begins to churn and roll within.

We have to empty ourselves 
of having our way
before we can be open
to the silence.

It is not the only thing.
Having our way is at the heart
of all we do,
but it is concealed in ways
that make it invisible
and undetectable.

It is the operative force
behind Fear/Desire/Duty,
the Big Three hindrances
of both the Buddha under the Bo Tree,
and of Jesus in the wilderness.

It all starts there for each of us.

Sitting still, being quiet
brings up Fear, Desire, and Duty,
with having our way
being the central feature of each one.

We have to empty ourselves of it all.

Nothing changes until we are empty.
Empty even of wanting things to change.

You are looking for a much quicker fix
than this,
which makes this good-bye in all likelihood--
so, mind how you go,
and may you come to realize
that what you are looking for
is not what you need.

–0–

**Catawba Trestle 05/28/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Catawba River, Lancaster County, South Carolina**

What are you living for?
What are you serving with your life?

Keep those questions in mind
as I pivot to these:

What is your driving motivation?
What fuels your way through each day?

And to these:

What ignites your energy?
What inflames your enthusiasm?

In what ways are your answers
to these questions connected?

Would your answers to these questions,
including the last one,
be obvious to anyone observing your life?

September 03, 2021

**From my Symbols of Transformation Gallery on SmugMug: https://jimdollar.smugmug.com/Symbols-of-Truth/**

Heinrich Zimmer said, "The best things cannot be said, 
the second best things are misunderstood, 
the third best things are the things we talk about." 

That would be, news, weather, sports, gossip and drama.

Lao Tzu exposed the emptiness of words with his, 
"Darkness within darkness--the gateway to mystery." 
And, "The Tao that can be told 
is not the eternal Tao 
(Or, as Martin Palmer translates: 
"The path that can be discerned as a path 
is not a reliable path."). 

Lao Tzu would likely close this with, 
"Those who know don't say. 
Those who say, don't know."

–0–

**West Prong of the Little Pigeon River 11/05/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Chimneys Picnic Area, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

We all drink from the same spring,
but our original nature
must compete with desire/fear/duty,
and we begin to separate from each other
according to our ideas of 
how things ought to be,
and what we can do to make them that way.

Sitting still,
being quiet,
invites, and occasions,
the return to the source,
where we ground and anchor
ourselves in ourselves,
remember "the face that was ours
before we--
or our parents--
or our grandparents--
were born,"
and live out of the spontaneous
realization of what needs to be done,
here and now,
regardless of how we might want things to be.

–0–

**Zion Overlook 09/25/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Zion National Park, Spring Dale, Utah**

What needs to be done?
What do we need to do?
What is being asked of us
by the time and place
of our living?

If you can come up with
three better questions
to answer,
moment to moment,
in each situation as it arises,
have at it!

–0–

**Wetlands Sunrise Panorama 08 12/26/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Four-Mile Creek Greenway, Charlotte, North Carolina**

As long as money has the attraction it has,
for as many people as it does,
it will be a hard path
through desolate places
for everyone.

We find our way back to the land of promise
by re-ordering our priorities
and putting first things first.
"But first things ARE first!"
comes the reply.
which ends the conversation.

And comes the summation
from the first century CE:
"The love of money is the root of all evil."

The attraction of money
is that it will buy you 
whatever you want.
Except the end of wanting.
Money is no good for that.
We have to find our way to that
on our own.

And it is not a matter 
of wanting to empty ourselves
of our wanting.
That is just more wanting.
Wanting cannot be emptied
through wanting.
We end wanting
by ending wanting.
By simply doing what 
needs to be done
beyond wanting or not wanting.

Like sneezing and scratching your nose.

Like a dog wags its tail.

Without thinking about it.

Just doing it--
by living sincerely,
spontaneously,
from the heart
in each situation as it arises.

Seeing/doing
without wanting or not wanting,
by not having a thought
about serving our own interests
through what we do.

No exploitation.
No manipulation.
No capitalization.

If the baby needs feeding,
feed the baby.
If the light bulb
needs to be replaced,
replace the light bulb.

Eat when hungry,
rest when tired.
Chop wood,
carry water.

Be what the situation needs.
In each situation as it arises.
See?
Like that.

–0–

**White Egret at Black Lake 08/12/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Campti, Louisiana**

There is only one thing that matters,
with four things that support
and enable it.

The one thing is doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises.

The four things that support it are:
Knowing what needs to be done.
Knowing when to do it.
Knowing where to do it.
Knowing how to do it.

There is a fifth thing,
knowing why to do it,
but it is the same over all situations
throughout time and place:
Because It Needs To Be Done!

All of this flows together into
The Most Important Thing:
Doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
in every moment
of every situation as it arises.

And who says so?
We do.
And we have to be right about it.
But this isn't a problem.
All we have to do is what we think
needs to be done,
and see what happens.

If it becomes apparent that we were wrong
about any of the elements
crucial to the implementation 
of the most important thing,
we only have to make corrections and adjustments,
and do what appears to us
to be the thing that now needs to be done,
and see what happens.

Etc. and so on until we get it down.
Our spiritual practice
is practicing doing what needs to be done
until we get recognizing it 
when we see it down,
and then doing it as it needs to be done forever.

It's a lot like riding a bull.
Just keep climbing back on
and telling them to open the gate.

September 02, 2021

**Sunset Penobscot Bay 09/27/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Deer Isle, Maine**

When it comes to discerning
what needs to happen in the present moment,
do not think about it!
No Thinking Allowed!

Reason, logic, morality and ethics
tradition, doctrine, dogma,
and what your mother said
are useless
in discerning/perceiving
what is being called for
and what needs to be done about it.

Discernment and perception
are functions of 
perspective and awareness,
stillness and silence.

We have to look and listen
in order to see and hear.

Sit quietly in the silence
and watch, listening,
for what arises/emerges/occurs to you
out of the silence,
and see how you respond
in bringing it to life
in the situation at hand.

Allow the flow of what needs to be done
to carry you into action,
without motive/intention/willfulness/fear/
desire/sense of duty and obligation
interfering in any way.

Right action arises of its own accord,
at the right time,
in the right way
with those who are empty of plans
and ideas,
and are available.

Live to be empty and available.

–0–

**West Prong Little Pigeon River 05 11/05/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — The Chimneys Picnic Area, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

In any (every) situation,
there is the right thing to do/say,
and the wrong thing to do/say.

There is what needs to be done/said,
and there is what needs not to be done/said.

In any (every) situation
that comes along.

That is where we come in.

We step into any (every) situation
as those who are there 
to do what needs doing
and to do not what needs to be not done.

How do we know?
How can we be right about what is right,
and what is wrong?

There is a trick with this.
It is called getting out of the way
of The Way.

It is also called getting in the way
that is The Way.

The Way has always been called Tao
(pronounced "Dow" like "the Dow Jones Average"
whatever that is).

I do not know why it is called Tao.
That is just a convention for saying
what needs to be said.
The name is not magical,
but what it names is.
It is the magic of time and place,
of timing and pace,
and it flows through all times and places,
things and people.

To be "in accord with Tao"
is to be "in the grove,"
"in the flow,"
in sync with the moment
dancing with the music
of here and now.

How do you do that?
By getting out of the way
of The Way.

We get in the way of The Way
when we impose our ideas 
of how things ought to be
on the way things are
without any sensitivity
to how things are
and how they might feel
about our plans for them.

But.

Our way is not The Way,
and that's a problem.

Think of a golfer on a putting green.
They can try to get the ball in the hole
their way or the green's way.
If they align themselves with the green,
and do it with the green's way,
they will come out better
than if they try to make the ball
go in the hole the way they want it to.

Putting is all about reading the green
and aligning ourselves with it.

The green has a different way
for balls at different places on the green.

There are different ways in operation
in every moment--
not just One Way--
depending on who we are and where we are
in the moment,
so it isn't a matter of forcing everyone
in any situation to do it the same way,
but of everyone in any situation
doing it the way the situation needs them
to do it,
given who they are and what they bring
to the situation.

Our place is know who we are
and to know what is ours to do
in being aligned with,
in sync with,
in accord with,
the flow of time and place
(and time and pace)
in each moment
of every situation as it arises.

May you move with the flow of the moment
in every moment
for the good of the moment,
in knowing what is called for,
and doing what needs to be done--
when it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
without a thought about what's in it for you,
and allow everything to fall into place
around that,
from moment to moment all your life long.

–0–

**West Prong Little Pigeon River 11/06/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Chimneys Picnic Area, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

There is talk that matters not
about things that matter most
in circles you probably would 
never be drawn to
that I am going to tell you of
because it is there to be said
and that is what I do.

Research regarding the Tao te Ching
has come upon some early versions
which are called the Te Tao Ching.

"Ching" means "Book" or "Classic Book."
"Te" means "Virtue" or "Virtues" or "Power."
"Tao" means "Way" or "Path."

"Tao te Ching" would mean,
"The Book of the Way and its Power,"
which lends itself to the interpretation
"In possession of the Way we hold all Power."
And people have looked at Tao as the Way
to Immortality, Victory, Success, etc.

"Te Tao Ching" would lend itself to
"The Virtues (or Virtue) of the Way,"
which I much prefer,
in that following the Way blesses
those following with the virtues 
of balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality,
as by-products (or side effects)
of tuning into each moment,
and following the flow of the Way,
in doing what needs to be done there,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
and then on to the next moment,
without a thought about,
or concern for,
what is in it for us.

The unmovable, adamantine, foundation
of life and being through all times and places.

Right there, right here,
waiting for us to align ourselves with it,
belong to it,
and honor it with filial loyalty
and liege devotion,
moment by moment,
situation by situation,
all our life long.

On the other hand,
there is the quest for money and power,
and that holds a compelling attraction,
in spite of a pronounced lack of evidence
of its actual value
in the lives of those who are devoted disciples.

So, what will it be?

–0–

**Winter Sunrise 12/26/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Four-Mile Creek Wetlands, Charlotte, North Carolina**

Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950,
massacring untold numbers of people,
destroying Buddhist temples,
and forcing the Dali Lama to take refuge
in Pakistan.

Not one word of vitriol, 
or even criticism,
has been heard from the Dali Lama
or any Buddhist 
in the aftermath of that event.

Sit with that,
for a while,
in light of the heavy traffic
in Tweets and Facebook posts
regarding all of the things to be
not liked in the world we live in,
without being ashamed
of what all that says about us
and our degree of compassion,
grace,
long-suffering,
humility,
maturity
and the ability to rise 
to any occasion
with response that is admirable
and worthy of praise.

In any situation, 
the fitting response
avoids escalation
and the worst of possible outcomes
over time.

Jesus nailed it with, 
"You have heard it said, 'An eye for an eye..'
but I say to you, 'Do not respond with acrimony 
but with generosity and peace.'"

Sitting with that and the Tibetan response
to the Chinese invasion,
and wondering about the best way
to set appropriate limits
and draw necessary lines,
leads to the obvious realization
that when the law is broken
justice is to be served 
quickly and efficiently.

And that is the weak link in the US
response to domestic unrest
and the assault on Democracy,
and the widespread apostasy
in terms of breaking oaths of office
by members of Congress,
and the failure/refusal of those
in charge of democratic systems 
to make those systems work.

September 01, 2021

**Summer Days 06 06/20/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

I don't know how we know what we need,
and what we have no business being around--
and I don't know who does know.

It is but one of the Great Mysteries of life and being.

We shut ourselves off from all of them.
We have no time for mysteries, great or small.
We are onto bigger things,
like what's for dinner,
never mind how we know.

We KNOW!

I bow before knowing 
throughout each day.
And I trust myself to it,
as do you,
allowing it to guide me
through all of the possibilities,
saying "Yes" to some
and "No" to most,
as though I know what I'm doing.

I do know what I'm doing,
and so do you,
but we don't know how we know,
or what makes us think so.

We should sit before that
each time it happens
in wonder and silent communion.

This includes all the myriad millions
of people who are duped and led astray
by QAnon and the Anti-vaxxers, etc.
They, too, know what they are doing.
They, too, know what to say "Yes" to,
and what to have nothing to do with.
And have no business trusting themselves
to what they trust themselves to.

Another of the Great Mysteries of life and being!

No one can make sense of this.

But it is all on us,
each one of us,
to know what we know,
and what we do not know,
and live the best life 
available to us 
under the circumstances.

We are responsible 
for what we do with our life.

We make the calls all the way.
For better and for worse.
We do it to ourselves.

What are your guidelines
for knowing 
when you are off the path
and on some dirt road
to the landfill?

–0–

**Queen Anne’s Lace 08/30/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Cone Manor, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

We are at the mercy 
of merciless forces 
quite beyond us.
But.
Within the sphere
of what we control,
we act with complete autonomy.
We are as gods there.

We "wheel and deal"
with absolute impunity
within the bounds
allotted to us
by the time and place
of our living.

"Let's go bowling, Dude!"
Why not?
And, like that, we are off!
Rambling around in lives of our own.

I read what I want,
when I want,
as long as I want.
And then, I may water the lawn.
Or not.
Depending upon what I decree.

And when a pandemic, say,
comes along,
I make adjustments to my routine,
and go on,
"singing and dancing in the rain."

It's what people have done 
through the ages.
Doing what needs to be done,
the way only we can do it.
Picking up today
where we left off yesterday,
choosing from among
our available choices,
and making the best 
of what is up to us.

Who could do more?
How could anyone have problems
with this?

To LIFE!
Now, and forever!
To LIFE!

–0–

**Sunset Silhouette 04 09/27/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine**

Always the return,
the coming back to ourselves,
here and now,
and to what is being asked of us,
here and now,
and to how it is best to respond,
here and now,
no matter what is going on,
some responses are better than others,
some response is the best of them all.

We live from the best we have to offer
to each situation as it arises,
here and now.

What needs to be done
here and now?
Do it.

Do it in every here and now
that follows this one.

And do not kid yourself
about what is best.
Do not lie to yourself.
Do not let yourself off the hook.

Our responsibility
is to the best we have to offer
in every here and now
for the rest of our life.

Take this seriously
and live from the heart
in every moment
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so,
no matter what.

Always and forever.

–0–

**The Ole Swimming Hole Panorama 08/26/2016 Oil Paint Rendered — The Ole Swimming Hole Panorama — Edisto River, Colleton State Park, Walterboro, South Carolina**

The test of the quality of our life is this:
Do we enjoy what we are doing,
for the most part,
and take pleasure in doing it,
and find satisfaction in having done it?

If that is not so,
for the most part,
our primary focus is plain before us:
To transform our relationship with our life
(Which will entail transforming
our relationship with ourselves,
and with other people)
in ways that result in enjoying what we are doing,
for the most part,
taking pleasure in doing it,
and finding satisfaction in having done it.

–0–

**The Bridge at Baxter Creek 11/07/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina**

We move into each moment
out of emptiness,
bringing nothing with us,
being present with what is there
without expectation,
without intention,
without motive,
without agenda,
without anything at stake,
with nothing to gain or lose,
without past or future...
just looking,
just seeing,
just listening,
just hearing,
what's happening
what needs to happen in response,
what is called for
what is needed,
and how can we help meet the need
with the gifts/daemon/specialties/shtick/etc.
that are ours to serve and share,
moment to moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Move into each moment like that,
still and quiet,
waiting to see what emerges,
arises,
appears,
occurs,
and responding
with sincerity
and spontaneity,
as blessing and grace
upon the occasion
and all gathered there.

May it be so.
Just that, forever.

September 2021

**Ocracoke Lighthouse 04 10/27/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina**

When the teacher is ready,
she waits for the students to appear.
It doesn't mean a thing
that she has 32 kids in her classroom.

Through four years of high school,
I learned to type.
It was the most valuable gift
I have ever received.
But I cringe thinking about 
all those good people
banging their heads against me
in all those classes
that were required for graduation.
I was not ready
for anything they were selling.

The same could be said for college
and seminary.

I began to learn what I needed to know
on my own
when I walked into my first parish.
I have devoured book after book
all my professional life.

I've kept three or four books going
for the last fifty plus years.
And none of the things I have been
reading about
were offered in any of the schools
I attended.

Makes me wonder what first grade, etc.,
could have been.
Montessori may have been the answer.
But here we are.
Reading about Taoism
and Calphalon cookware.

August 31, 2021

**Mount Whyte 09/24/2003 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta**

Balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality
are seven words
without reference 
to anything actual, tangible,
material, concrete--
capable of being held,
touched, smelled, weighed,
measured, acquired, amassed, horded...

They refer to states of being.
And there are no steady states of being.
Being is being in motion,
and being at rest,
being full,
and being empty,
being alive and being dead,
and being somewhere in between.

Hold that thought.

The Bible talks about "In the beginning..."
What was before the beginning?
The Tao goes there.
"The Way produces One,
One produces Two,
Two produce Three,
Three produce all things"

(The One is the Source,
the Two are Yin and Yang,
The Three are Heaven, Earth
and Human Beings).

Where does The Way come from?
What is the origin of God?
Nothing is before The Way,
just as Nothing is before God.

Nothing is before the Beginning.
Nothing is the Very Beginning.
From Nothing all arise.
To Nothing all return.

In between are ephemeral states of being,
coming and going,
moving and resting,
rising and falling,
living and dying...

Nothing--Being/Moving/etc.--Nothing.

Nothing is the origin.
We approach the origin
through Emptiness.
Emptiness is our way
of experiencing Nothing.

We think Emptiness and Nothing
are terrible, horrible, no good,
very bad, awful, dreadful
and to be avoided at all costs.

Yet, they are the Source of the Source!
And the Source is the origin
of Yin and Yang (Duality/Contradiction),
and Yin and Yang are the source
of Heaven/Earth/Humanity
which are the source of all that is.

We come from Nothing and we return to Nothing
and in between there is all that is.

Good and Bad are perspectives
which hinge on perception
and consist of points of view.

How we look determines what we see.
What we see determines how we feel.
How we feel determines what we do.
What we do determines how we feel
(The feedback loop is launched)
How we feel determines how we look.
How we look determines what we see...

And all there is are
ephemeral states of being,
all flowing from and returning to
Nothing.

Nothing is all there is.
Emptiness is as close to Nothing
as we can be and still be alive,
and it is the key to living fully
and living well,
because Emptiness is without motive,
without intention, without purpose,
without duty, without fear,
without desire
and consists of openness to all of it,
to everything,
and is uniquely able to do what is needed
about it all,
in response to it all,
here and now.

From emptiness comes 
right seeing,
right hearing,
right perceiving,
right knowing,
right understanding,
right doing,
right being
because there is Nothing 
to get in the way
and hijack The Way
and lead us off the path
into the wasteland
of having/getting/possessing/
acquiring/amassing/etc.
that constitutes life in the wasteland
where we kid ourselves
and pretend to be really living.

If you want to live well,
become empty
and embrace the joy
of doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
moment by moment,
in each situation as it arises,
and experience the satisfaction
of having done it,
knowing there is Nothing to it,
and feeling just grand about it all.

–0–

**Ocracoke Lighthouse 10/27/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina**

Noise and complexity
are neutralized
by art (including poetry and literature),
music and nature
mediated by silence and solitude.

The right kind of reflection
results in the right kind of realization
which leads to the right kind of life
within the noise and complexity
of each situation as it arises
amid the context of the circumstances
as we find them
here and now.

We do not deal well with crazy
or manage well our response to chaos
without close, nourishing, nurturing relationships
with art (including poetry and literature),
music and nature,
silence and solitude.

–0–

**Silver Lake Dawn 09 10/26/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina**

We walk two paths at the same time.
Yin and Yang.
Sometimes we are Yin,
and sometimes we are Yang,
and always we are Yin and Yang.

Flux and Flow define us and our life.
Sometimes we do it this way,
and sometimes we do it that way,
in response to our circumstances
in each situation as it arises.

Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."
Doing what needs to be done here and now
without concern for, or reference to,
what we just did, 
or what we will do next.

Each moment is a time/place of its own,
and calls for action that may be
unlike anything we have ever done,
or thought/imagined we would be capable of doing.

Duty is sat aside.
Dogma/Dharma/Doctrine
is not a worthy guide.
"The path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."

We make it up as we go
in response to the situation as it arises
out of our instinct/intuition/imagination
in the moment of our living,
one moment at a time.

What has gone on before,
and what will follow after,
have nothing to do with 
what is to be done here and now.

"Here we are, now what?"

How we answer that question
makes all the difference.

And we must be free of all influences,
intentions and expectations,
in order to listen/hear,
look/see,
what is happening
and what needs to happen in response,
and respond sincerely/spontaneously 
out of instinct/intuition/imagination
in doing what is called for
with the gifts that are ours to offer
in the time for acting,
and let the outcome be the outcome.

Offering a cup of cool water
to a thirsty child.

Eating when hungry,
resting when tired.

Rising to the occasion
in ways appropriate to the occasion.

Occasion after occasion.

All our life long.

–0–

**Spruce Flats Falls 03/01/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tremont District, Townsend, Tennessee**

We have no idea 
of what it would take
to make us happy
in an absolute kind of way.

Ephemeral happiness is all we know.

But we want constant,
unrelenting,
complete,
total,
unchanging,
Happiness Now and Forever!

Anything less than that is 
dismal and demoralizing.

Erroneous expectations
and implausible wanting
are at the root of all of our problems.

We cannot square ourselves up 
with the way things are
because we have such wonderful ideas
for how they ought to be.

Happy is squared up with how things are--
no matter what they are.

Which is to say that anybody can be happy
anywhere, any time, any how,
with just a shift or two
in their perspective, outlook and orientation.

Well-adjusted people
are people who make the necessary adjustments
to however their circumstances evolve.

Happy is a frame of mind,
a point of view,
able to take whatever comes its way
and use it to its advantage.

Never saying, "Oh NO!"
But, "What can I do with this?"
or, "What can I make of this?"
or, "Where can this take me?"

It is as though our circumstances
are magic carpet rides into 
our future,
enlarging our worldview, 
and triggering our super powers,
and calling forth the tools,
attitude and spirit
required to meet what faces us
and dance, dance, dance--
twinkling and laughing all the way.

August 30, 2021

**Boone Fork 18 10/16/2016 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

Being vaccinated
enhances freedom
on every level.

COVID is the end of freedom
on all levels.

This is all we need to know
about this matter.

And all we need to say.

–0–

**Roaring Fork Creek 04/13/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Roaring Fork Motor Tour, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

"May it be well with you
and all those who see as you do."

That is the best we can do
in talking with those 
whose view of reality
is starkly different from our own.

There is no talking anyone out 
of the way they see things.
There is very little chance
of talking them into seeing
that the way they see things
is not necessarily associated
with the way things are.

In yesterday's Zoom call with 
one of our granddaughters,
her computer was sitting on a
table in front of the couch 
she was on,
and I could see over her right
shoulder a little doll-like man
with a turban and bushy hair
sitting on a shelf and 
peering around a door that was 
opened against a wall.
During the conversation,
I asked her to tell me about
"the little man" behind her.

She was mortified and insistent
that there was no little man
back there,
which I could clearly see.
So I asked her to take
her computer over to him
and allow me to point him out to her.
She did,
and with the shift in perspective,
I saw (because the truth was readily,
undeniably, plain before me)
that the turban, was a white, 
triangular pot holding a bushy
green plant hooked onto the wall,
and the little man 
was her jacket which she had hung
against the wall slightly 
below the plant.

I saw something that wasn't there
by seeing a meaning in the pattern
that was not the meaning of the pattern.

She would have never talked me out of 
the meaning I had constructed.
She had to show me what I was looking at
in a different way 
so that I could see it "for what it was worth."
So that I could see it "just so."
"Just as it was."

It was, for me, "an eye-opener."

I wish we could do that about a lot of things,
instead of arguing with words
about what is and is not so.

"May it be well with you
and all those who see as you do,"
is, too often, the best we can do.

**Roaring Rock Falls 05/20/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Pisgah National Forest near Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina**

We see patterns and impose meanings.
That is what we do.
We are Meaning Makers.

We step into the world out of nowhere,
look around,
and start figuring things out.

It is all a swirl of patterns and textures,
light and shadows
at first,
but then, things begin to appear to us,
like Big and Little Dippers in the stars,
and faces in tree trunks,
and animals in clouds.

And we make up stories 
to explain all that we experience,
and create dogma and doctrines and theology
right out of our imagination.

Our imagination is our super power.
Our magic wand.
Our most spectacular tool/weapon.

Armed only with our imagination,
we came forth out of nowhere
into chaos and turmoil
and brought forth grand pianos,
and baseball,
and rockets that take us to the moon.

It all came right out of our imagination.
With it we find meaning in patterns 
and create the world we live in
out of the meaning we perceive.

The trouble is that we 
don't always agree 
about what's what.
That's because we are making it all up.
And there are different ways
of seeing what we look at.

How many gods have there been?
And, of those,
how many "Only Gods" have there been?
The Only God is always the god 
the victors declare to be the Only God.
And the Way we talk is the way
the victors talk.
And the way we see things
is the way the victors see things.

War has given us the world as it is.

Bearing that in mind
frees us to look again
at what we think we see,
and how we believe things are.

There are only patterns,
and they are everywhere.
We arrange them according 
to the meaning we say they have.
But, there are only patterns.

The world is an ink blot.
What we see is projected
onto the patterns
and is not to be confused
with the patterns themselves.
What we see says more
about who is looking
than it says about what is there
to be seen.

Remembering that helps
us in our work to see in ways
that serve balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality,
around the table,
across the board,
throughout the world
and over the entire cosmos.

And to see war
as the result
of taking the way we see things
too seriously,
and to remind us to turn away 
from the temptation to kill our enemies,
and to sit down with them,
and make music together,
and to dance and be merry
instead of going to war.

If only it would be so.

August 29, 2021

Wu Wei is a Taoist term.

For action that is a spontaneous response 
to the situation as it arises--
a response that is not thought into being, 
but lived into being 
at the appointed time and place
of its occurring.

It is doing the right thing 
at the right time 
in the right place
in the right way
no matter what.

It cannot be practiced. 
It can only be done.

The secret of doing it,
and doing it consistently over time,
is being who you are
where you are
when you are
how you are
at one with "the face that was yours
before your grandparents
(all four of them)
were born,"
which is to say
at one with your original nature
and at one with the circumstances,
the here and now,
of your living.

Being who we are
here and now
and being right
about what needs to be done
and doing it
is all there is to it,
across all times and places.

Get that down, 
and you have it made,
as much as you can have it made,
in times like these,
and a place like this.

This may as well be Nazareth, 
or Gethsemane,
or Golgotha,
given the sacrifices
we are being asked to make
in being true to ourselves
in the time and place of our living.

Or, as the old hymn intones,
"I once was lost,
but now I find,
I was blind,
and now I see."

And, seeing, enables us
to bear our cross
the way it must be borne,
laughing and dancing,
twinkling and prancing,
all the way.

–0–

When Peggy Lee sang, "Is that all there is,
all those years ago,
this is what she was talking about.
Being who we are, 
where we are,
when we are,
how we are
in the service of what needs to be done,
right here, 
right now,
no matter what--
and being right about it,
and doing it
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so,
moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises.

That is all there is to it.
No kidding.
Will you do it
anyway, 
nevertheless, 
even so?

That is the question,
the answer to which
tells the tale.

What's the tale we tell
with the way we live our life?
It all depends on 
how we answer the question.

–0–

Here comes a link to my Symbols of Transformation Gallery on WordPress:

https://jimdollar.smugmug.com/Symbols-of-Truth

This isn’t a slide show, but a glimpse of the entire Gallery.
You can click on an individual image to enlarge it, and click on the > or the < arrows to move image by image through the Gallery, but it is too much, to assume anyone would want to watch an entire slideshow of so many images of the same things. But, if you want to, there is also an arrow for a slideshow tucked away at the top of the page, on the right side I think.

Symbols of Transformation are images that invite us to sit in the stillness, listening to the silence, recovering our sense of balance and harmony, integrity and wholeness.

Each symbol is a Mandla, a “magical circle,” a “circle of wholeness,” (even though many are rectangular–you have to pretend they are circles, and allow them to work that way) which allows us to explore the connection between the image and ourselves, our fractured, divided, shattered, scattered selves, and begin the work of healing and wholeness just by contemplating the image and allowing it to “work” on us and within us, in ways beyond the reach of words, explanations, logic and reason.

If the idea is compelling, find an image to “work with,” and let it “work” on you!

–0–

**Goodale State Park 09 11/01/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Adams Mill Pond, Camden, South Carolina**

We have to know “NO!!!” when we see it, 
and shout it out, 
drawing the line 
where it needs to be drawn—
where it must be drawn—
every time,
time after time. 

It is the burden and duty 
of those who see 
to know “NO!!!” 
when they see it, 
and to say so.

The lines we draw
define us,
shape us,
form us,
declare us to be
who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are,
why we are
in the here and now,
in the present moment,
of our being/becoming.

We are forever being/becoming
by drawing lines
which draw us forth
and declare us to be 
who we are
right here, right now,
knowing "NO!!!" when we see it
and saying so,
one situation at a time.

–0–

**Ocracoke Lighthouse 03 10/27/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina**

Do it the way it needs to be done
and step back,
letting nature take its course,
allowing the outcome be the outcome,
which, of course, ushers in 
a new situation
which calls us to do what is called for,
inviting us to do it the way it needs to be done,
and step back...

On and on,
like that.

Like Sisyphus and his rock forever.

Our rock is each situation as it arises,
doing what needs to be done there
because it needs to be done.

What? You wanted some reward?
Some acknowledgement?
Some token of appreciation and gratitude?
You got your life!
How can you beat that?

Your life with servants, maybe?
With a large white house on some hill?
With a parking garage filled with fine cars,
a different one for each trip?
What would it take?
For you to be happy.
At last?

Quit your bellyaching,
and your moaning and complaining,
and stand up
and step into the next situation 
as it arises,
and do there what needs to be done there,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
with the right attitude/perspective/spirit.

And keep doing that
situation by situation
for as long as life lasts.

And let nature take its course,
allowing the outcome be the outcome,
whether you are happy about any of it or not.

Like Sisyphus and his rock.
Through all eternity, if need be.
Dance with it
like you mean it!
Starting now!

–0–

**Reedy River Falls 06 07/16/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Falls Park, Greenville, South Carolina**

No one knows why we see the way we see.
No one knows why what is important to us
is important to us.
No one knows why we feel the way we feel
about the things in our life.
It is all a mystery.
We are a mystery.
To ourselves and to each other.
We are all "in the same boat,"
not-knowing why we are the way we are,
and not some other way instead.

Yet, we all think that the way we see things
is the right way to see things,
and that everybody ought to see things
just like we see them.

All of which is to say,
"Just chill out about it!"
The way we see things 
is just the way we see things,
and it has no correlation 
with how things are,
and no matter how things are,
they are going to change faster
than the way we see things changes.
We can bet on that!

Our seeing things does not keep up
with the speed with which things change,
and then we spend our time wishing
things were the way we see them--
which is not how they are,
but how we want things to be!

We see what we want!
Not what IS!

And what we want is MY WAY NOW!!!

Chilling out would be good for everybody.

Sitting still.
Being quiet.
Listening to the silence beyond 
the noise we are creating 
by wanting what we want right now!

Wanting what we want comes 
in three flavors:
Fear--what we are afraid of.
Desire--what we think we must have.
Duty--what we think we ought to do.
And our place is to let it all go!
To not take any of it seriously!
To Be Here Now,
focusing on the situation at hand,
seeing what is happening
and what needs to happen in response,
being right about what needs to be done
and doing it in response to the needs
of the situation as a whole,
in each situation as it arises,
allowing the situation to call forth
our response to the situation,
like if the dog barfs on the carpet,
we clean up the barf
before doing anything else.

What is the situation calling for?
What needs to happen?
That is all we need to know.

What we think about it doesn't matter.
How we feel about it doesn't matter.
How much we wish things were different doesn't matter.
Doing what needs to be done
is the only thing that matters
in each situation as it arises.

It doesn't matter how we see things
or what we want or don't want.
If the dog throws up,
clean up the mess.

What is equivalent to the dog throwing up
here and now?
Do what needs to be done about it,
here and now!

Chill out!
Sit still!
Be quiet!
Listen to the silence--
beyond the noise we create
with our association with
fear,
desire,
duty.

And do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

August 28, 2021

**Goose Wars 03 02/14/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina**

Putting ourselves in accord
with the way things are,
and with the way things need to be--
because that is the way 
they truly need to be,
and has nothing whatsoever to do
with how we want them to be--
is the work of our life.

We do this through
emptiness and silence.

Emptying ourselves
of fear, desire and duty,
and opening ourselves
to the silence
from which all things come,
we wait "for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,"
allowing The Way
to open before us,
guiding us into the service
of what needs to happen
in each situation as it arises.

Which we meet,
moment to moment,
with the gifts/daemon (sounds like "diamond")/
specialties/interests/proclivities/shtick/etc.
which come with us from the womb,
constitute our original nature,
and set us off from each other
as unique and individual parts
of the whole
and equipping us for the work
of doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done
here and now
all our life long.

Knowing what needs to be done
and being right about it
is a function
of seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding,
perceiving, sensing, and feeling--
intuitively
and instinctively 
responding to what is happening
in the present moment
with the sincerity,
simplicity,
innocence and spontaneity 
of children
with no awareness of, 
or interest in,
their own good,
but with clear insight into
and interest in
the good of the situation as a whole.

In this spirit,
we rise to meet the occasion
in each situation as it unfolds,
doing the work of giving 
what we have to offer,
and stepping back,
allowing the outcome to be the outcome,
which ushers in a new situation,
to which we respond in the same way,
situation by situation,
day by day,
all our life long.

We do this while maintaining 
our balance and harmony,
sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality,
and walking two paths at the same time
in meeting our personal needs
and the need of the situations
we meet through each day,
living out of our original nature
without contrivance
or self-centered interest
in personal gain/profit/benefit/advantage/good.

We are assisted in this
with clarity of vision and purpose
gained by reducing the noise
and complexity in our life
to a minimum,
knowing when we are being "hooked"
into fear/desire/duty,
and returning to the emptiness 
and the silence
as needed for balance and harmony
in service to the flow of life and being
throughout each day.

May it be so for all people everywhere
over time and space.

August 27, 2021

**Price Lake 02 Panorama 05/19/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Grandfather Mountain, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

Show of hands!
Raise your hand if you hate your job
and your life.
Look to see if your hand is up.
If it isn't,
you are in denial,
and possibly high.

The world is in the state it is in
because people hate their job
and their life.
And are taking it out on one another.

Who do you hate?
You are taking it out on them.
You hate your job and your life,
but that truth is too much to bear,
so you hate Republicans
or Democrats,
and experience the release/relief
of being able to express your hatred
at a safe target.

We have enemies to hate
because we cannot bear the weight
of the truth
of hating our own life.

Look at anybody who has enemies,
the Taliban, ISIS, Fascists, Nazis...
and look at their lives.
They all have lives no one would have.
They can't bear the truth of their own lives,
so they project all that hatred outward
on some innocent, unsuspecting, enemy
who just wants what everybody else wants,
a life they can be happy with and proud to live.

They kill women and children
for wanting a better life,
unable, as they are, to admit that 
they,too, want a better life,
and don't know how to have one.

They think getting rid of everyone
who doesn't think like they do
will solve their problems, 
and they can then settle into 
loving their life at last.

Which is delusional,
because they will still hate their life
and have to find someone to take it out on,
so it will be like ISIS and the Taliban.
They will hate each other,
and the beat(ing up on their enemies) goes on.

We need a way out of the vicious cycle.
It's easy and it is difficult.
We have to bear our own pain
consciously, mindfully, willfully, deliberately.

We have to square up with,
come to terms with,
face up to regularly
how we feel about our life (and our job).
This is the Final Solution.

We have to sit down with
and face up to
how it is with us
daily.

"This is how it is,
and this is what I can do about it,
and that's that!
And that is how it really is."

We have to bear the pain of THAT
realization.

This is called "Growing Up."

Everybody who has ever "Grown Up"
knows that there is no steady state 
of being called "Grown Up."

It is always a fluid, moving,
changing, shifting, fluctuating 
transitioning mode of becoming
called "Growing Up."

We are always Growing Up.
Or not.
Or refusing to.
Or having nothing to do with it.
With bearing the pain of how things are
on a daily basis.

This is the agony of the Hero's Journey.
It is never done.
We return home and no one wants to hear
what we have to say.

I tell you we have to grow up
and you don't want to hear it,
and I have to bear the pain
of rejection every day.

We all have to bear the pain
of the truth of our life
every day
or not.

And no one can do it for us.
Growing up is an inside job.
We have to face the truth of
"This is how it is,
and this is what I can do about it,
and that's that!
And that is how it really is."

How well we are able to do that
tells the tale.

How well we refuse to do that
tells a different tale.

Which tale are we going to tell
with the life that remains to be lived?

–0–

September 06, 2021

September 05, 2021

September 04, 2021

September 03, 2021

September 02, 2021

September 01, 2021

September 2021

August 31, 2021

August 30, 2021

August 29, 2021

August 28, 2021

August 27, 2021