Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

February 01, 2021

**Blueberry Bushes 10/10/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Rome, Maine**

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 and their families).

I immersed myself 
in things that are meaningful to me:
photography,
reading,
and writing.

Who wouldn't relish 
a life like that?
I certainly do!
I won't be able
to get enough of it
if I avoid COVID
and live into my 100's!

But longevity is not a goal.
This moment is my goal!
To live here, now,
open to what is present with me
and alert to what is called for--
and to live in response to that,
in each situation as it arises.

I'm putting together a book
of my/our time in the woods
(Next door to the woods,
actually.
We live on a half-acre lot
next to the 22-acre Woods,
which will be the book's title).

It won't be a print version,
but a WordPress production.
I'll let you know how it's going,
and when it's done.

–0–

**Bay Scene 10/14/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine**

Jacob Bronowski said that we trust people 
to say what they think--
but people do not always do so.
There is a credibility gap,
between what people think and what they say,
that has to be taken into account.

We have to keep that in mind
and live out of a skeptical,
"I hear what you are saying,
but what do you mean,
and can I trust that to be true?"
kind of orientation,
across the table,
around the world.

Bronowski said,
"My personal dictum 
about all politics is this:
Make sure that everybody
tells the truth at all times,
and tell them when they are not
speaking truthfully.
We have to tell the truth,
as best we can,
and stick to that
through thick and thin"
(The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination).

In the same book,
he also said:
"We can only gain knowledge by being truthful."
"People have to behave
so that the truth shall be apparent."
"We cannot know what is true 
unless we behave in certain ways."

We have to live truthful lives.
We have to be trusted to say what we think.

The search for truth 
is a self-correcting activity.
Truth corrects truth.
Our picture of the world 
is corrected
by our continuing to examine,
explore,
inspect,
probe,
question,
reflect on
the world as we perceive it to be,
in ways that allow it to show us
what it is.

Truth evolves toward truth
through countless revisions
and realizations.

When Jesus said, 
"You shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free,"
he meant the truth shall set us free
to know more about the truth
than we know now--
free from the "truth" 
to discover the truth--
always and forever,
seeking truth by serving truth
in the search for truth,
always narrowing the discrepancy 
between how we think things are
and how things are.

–0–

**Black Birch 07/11/2011 04-B Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Rocky Knob, Floyd, Virginia**

I live amid people for whom "staying safe"
means something quite different
than it means to me.
Which requires me to live at a distance from them
that does not equate to the same distance
they have to live from me.

Whose sense of "safe distance" 
do you think applies to me?
If you said, "My own,"
you would be right.

Our safety is our responsibility.

We live out of our sense
of how our life should be lived.

Who says so?
WE do!
In every case,
great and small.

Our judgment is the only judgment
that guides our living,
that directs our life.

We have to live in ways
that reflect/exhibit/incarnate
our idea of how our life
ought to be lived.

Not even Jesus can tell us what to do!

We are the sole authority
determining what we do,
how we do it,
when we do it,
where we do it--
and we pay the price 
in terms of the consequences
we create by our decisions and choices.

Which means going to hell 
if that be the case.

So we cannot live lightly,
frivolously,
without awareness and consideration.

We have to consult regularly
with ourselves
regarding what is called for
and how best we might respond to it.

We can't live automatically,
heedlessly.
We have to be as informed as we can be,
with self-transparency
self-awareness
self-reflection
and self-correction
guiding us along the slippery slope,
the dangerous path,
like a razor's edge,
all along the way.

–0–

**Sea Oats at Sunset 10/24/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina**

The magic is in the seeing
(And the hearing).
The magic in the seeing
(And the hearing)
is in the looking
(And the listening).

Look and listen
in order to see and hear.

Moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises.

All we need
to see/do what is needed
is always right before us,
waiting to be activated
by eyes that see
and ears that hear.

See what you look at.
Hear what is called for.
Respond as needed
to do what is needed.
Moment-by-moment.
In each situation as it arises.

Gautama and Jesus together
could not do more.

Be what is needed
moment-by-moment
in each situation as it happens
and magic will happen.

Anticipation,
expectation,
and arrogance
ruin your chances.

Each moment is a fresh moment.
Each situation is a new situation.
Just look.
Just listen.
Just do what needs to be done.
The way it needs to be done.
When it needs to be done.

Moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises
all your life long.

Be like the wind
blowing where it will
throughout your life
as a blessing 
and a grace
upon all things.

February 2021

This is the category page holder for all the post made during February, 2021.

January 31, 2021

Smoky Mountains Morning Panorama 01 04/12/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

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 life
and not to get something more
from it than that.

This is the essence
of a spiritual experience.

No spiritual experience
can offer more than this.

When we live for the joy of being alive,
we are dancing for the love of dancing,
and that is all there is
in the sense of
"There is only the dance"
(T. S. Eliot).

–0–

**Pamlico Sound Sunset Abstract 10/25/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina**

What are your questions?
Not the questions you want answered,
but the questions that are yours to answer--
the question you live to answer--
the questions your life is an answer to.
What are those questions?

Here are mine,
the ones I am aware of at this point
in my life.
I am aware of growing into my questions.
My life lives me into awareness.
I assume it is the same with you.
My circumstances raise questions for me
I never considered until these particular
circumstances came along.

My life is teaching me to live
by answering the questions that are mine 
to answer.
Maybe that is so with you as well.

Fraser Snowden said,
"The only true philosophical question is:
'Where do you draw the line?'"

That is certainly one of my questions!
And I answer it differently
in each situation as it arises.
In this I am "like the spirit
that is like the wind
that blows where it will,"
meaning the spirit makes it up
as it goes along.
The spirit isn't following 
a recipe book,
a book of rules and ethical standards
regarding what to do when.
The spirit doesn't do what anyone
requires to be done,
or even expects to be done.
The spirit does what is called for
moment-by-moment.

That's me and drawing the line.
It all depends on what the moment
calls for.

This is my second question:
What is the moment calling for?
That also has to be answered
here and now,
in the moment that is being
presently lived.
I can't answer that from afar.
I have to listen to the moment,
to attend the moment,
to be alive to the moment
in order to know what's what
and what is being called for then and there.

The third question is implied
in the first two:
What is important?
What matters most?
Right here, right now?

My stock answer to this one
can be answered from afar,
and applied across the board:
Going to hell!
It is important that we go to hell!

By that I mean it is important
that we know clearly,
without ambivalence or hesitation
what we would go to hell for,
and going to hell for it
when the circumstances require it.

This means dying,
symbolically, metaphorically,
and, if need be,
actually, literally.

We live to die.
What would we die for?

When everything is on the line,
will we know it?
Will we do what is called for?
Will we go to hell, if need be?

If we would go to hell for it,
it's important.
Do we know what that would be?
That's where we draw the line.
And do what is called for.
No matter what.

–0–

**Lake Martin Reflections 04 02/08/2014** **Oil Pant Rendered BW — Beaux Bridge, Louisiana**

Why questions should be disqualified
as a legitimate means of inquiry,
and left to gather dust in some museum
as an artifact with a pedigree of uselessness
from the start.

Why questions are all answered ultimately 
in one of two ways:
"I don't know."
"Because I say so."

The other questions,
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
How?
are all valid and helpful methods
of getting to the bottom of our experience,
putting things together,
finding connections,
and coming to new realizations
and better ways of living--
particularly when we understand
that the primary function of questions
is to raise more questions,
in the work to ask all of the questions
that beg to be asked
in each situation,
and of every experience,
as it arises.

New discoveries flow from 
questions that refuse to stop.

Why? is the search for a stopper.

–0–

**Kisatchie Creek Panorama 01/31/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana**

No matter how much better I get,
I could still do better.

Better, I'm talking about,
on every level.
In every aspect of life.

Consciousness, for example.
You might think that by now,
I could at least be conscious.
I've been practicing being conscious 
all my life.
I'm not conscious of half of one percent
of all there is to be conscious of
in any moment.
How's that for progress.
The same thing applies
to every other aspect of my life.

As far as I can tell, 
human beings are the only sentient beings
who are aware of the possibility
of self-improvement,
of getting better. 

Lions are what they are.
Pine trees just do what can be done
with what they have to work with
and let it be.

A human being who is "thus come"--
who is just who/what they are,
without any interest in being
different in any way,
is someone I have yet to meet.

Buddhists talk about the Buddha 
as being "The one thus come," 
but. 
The Buddha spent his entire life
becoming "thus come."
And so do all the Buddhists after him.

Being "thus come,"
is an ideal to achieve,
not a state of being to flaunt
and glory in.
Any flaunting and glorying 
is evidence of having yet to arrive.
There is no arriving.

Carl Jung thought of Individuation
and an unending quest to be ourselves.
He talked about "circumambulation" 
as the process of infinitely/eternally
spiraling around the Self at the Center
of our being
without ever attaining integration,
at-one-ness.

We can always get better at being who we are,
by being less concerned with perfection,
and more concerned with expression--
being in each moment who we are
as "thus come" as we are,
as true to ourselves as we are,
and letting that be that.

Like a lion would do it.
Or a pine tree.

–0–

**Filmore Glen 10/03/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Filmore Glen State Park, Moravia, New York**

The Buddhists waste a lot of time
denying duality.
It is just a way of seeing.
A perspective.
It is a doorway to being
at one with everything.

At one with everything 
is not one thing--
it is many.
As many as the jewels
in Indra's Net.

Pick a point--
any point.
How many points are there?

How many points are there
on the head of a pin?
On the point of a pin?

Let's take the point of a pin
as the point we pick.
Now, go to the center of that point.
And make that the point we pick.
Now, go to the center of that point.
You see where this is going.
But, you probably don't see the point.

The point of the number of points 
there are
is that there are an infinite number
of points in every point.
Points upon points.

This is the point of the still point
of the universe.
The Axis Mundi.
The World Center is everywhere.

Hang with me here.

We talk about "living from the center."
Which center would that be?
Our center?
Great! Let's go there.

As we delve down to the center of ourselves,
there is the center of the center
to consider.
And the center of that center.
When do we reach The Center?

And everybody is seeking the center of themselves!
When we get there,
we will discover
that we are at the center of everyone's center!
At the center of ourselves
we are one with everyone's center.

We are one.
We are all.

There is no "I and Thou,"
no "You and Me."
Certainly no "Us and THEM!"

We all are WE.

All of us are aspects of all of us.
Each of us lives out the potential
inherent in--and expressed by--
the rest of us.

We greet ourselves when we greet each other.
Namaste!

When we get the point,
this is the point we get.

Hating me is ridiculous.
I am an extension of you.
At the center of ourselves,
are all selves.
What is true for one
is true for all.

Stop acting as though you are special.
You are an aspect of the whole.

In our duality we are one.
In our oneness we are dualities.
We are an optical illusion.
Now we are one.
Now we are many. 
We are one and we are all.
So what?
So stop acting as though 
there is us and them!
Live from the center of the whole!
Live in ways that are good for all!

Thou Art That!

Live as though it is so!

It is so!

January 30, 2021

**Great Egret at Black Lake 07/18/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana**

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 what we have
and what we aspire to
keeps us discontented
and at odds with our life.

The idea is to be aligned
and in accord with our life.
What that would take
is giving up our idea
of how our life ought to be.

We don't know what it would take
to make us happy,
but we know this isn't it,
and we think it has to be
out there somewhere.
But, we don't know where
and we don't know how to know.

Here's a suggestion for you:
Quit thinking in terms of being happy,
and start thinking in terms
of doing what is meaningful,
here and now.

Go toward what has meaning for you
here and now,
and happy will fall into place
around that,
or not.
And if it doesn't,
it won't matter.

–0–

Yoho River Oil Paint Rendered — Yoho National Park, Field, British Columbia

The ideal I live in light of,
and the purpose for which we are born,
is to live out our life
in the service of becoming who we are,
incarnating/expressing/exhibiting
all of the qualities and characteristics
gifts/genius/virtues/spirit/energy/life
that came with us from the womb
in a balanced and harmonious way--
in communities of other people
who are living in the same ways,
so as to become who we are capable of being
as individuals and as The Collective,
over the course of our life
as a person and as the species.

We live on to pass it on 
(Martin Hägglund in This Life).

That is hard enough if we were all into it,
doing it.
We make it impossible
by the way we respond to it,
in having nothing to do with it.

We have our eye on bigger and better things:
Fame, Fortune, Glory!
Which leads us down the path 
to the way things are,
with it only getting worse
as we continue along the way.

Three to five thousand years 
before Jesus was born,
voices were raised in favor 
of The Way
and against the trend 
of ignoring The Way
(In The Yin Convergence Classic
of The Yellow Emperor),
and here we are,
resolutely refusing 
to have anything to do with The Way,
preferring instead to do it our way.

While The Way waits
for us to see the light,
or come to the end of our rope
(Which is too often the same thing)
as individuals
and as a species.

January 29, 2021

**Yellowhead Mountain 09/24/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Lucerne, British Columbia**

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 
absolutely new to us.
We see everything in relation to something else.

It is always appropriate to ask,
"What influences me to see what I am looking at
the way I am seeing it?"
"What makes me think I know what I am looking at?"
"What makes me think 
that what I think is so,
is so?"

Our opinions about things
are just our opinions about them.
Everything exists as opinion.
Nothing exists as fact.
We treat everything as fact.
It would transform our life,
and the world,
if we started thinking about things 
as opinion.

Of course, that is just my opinion.

–0–

The Watchman Oil Paint Rendered — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

All it takes is being right about what is important.

Being right about what is important
is the best trick in the Book of Best Tricks.

The first thing to know
is that we do not know.

The second thing to know
is that there are different types of knowing.

The third thing to know
is that delusion and illusion
are powerful forces
at work in our lives,
and we cannot dismiss,
discount,
disregard,
ignore or deny
the possibility that 
we are failing to see
what we are looking at.

The fourth thing to know
is that what is important
changes from moment-to-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day,
year-by-year,
generation-by-generation,
eon-by-eon...

The only thing that is static
and rigid,
unchanging over time
is that it is important
to know what is important
at all times,
in all places.

That's it. 
Get the ratios right
among these things
and there it is:
what is important,
here and now.

Once we know that,
comes the question 
of what to do about it.
That is the next most important thing.

Know what is important,
and be right about it,
know what to do about it,
and be right about it.
That only leaves doing it--
the way it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
for as long as it needs to be done.

That's it.
No one could do better than that.

–0–

**South Shore 09/21/2004 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta**

Marriage is the easiest thing in the world.
All it takes is cooperation.
If you aren't getting the cooperation promised
at the start,
you can't be married
no matter what you do.

All cooperation takes
is doing what needs to be done
regardless of how we feel.

People who don't feel like being married
and let cooperation go
kill the marriage
by breaking the first rule of marriage:
Doing the right thing
requires you to do the right thing
whether you feel like it or not.

It is no different with marriage
than it is with anywhere else in our life.
Wherever we are,
we are asked to do what the situation requires
whether we feel like it or not.

In this sense, being married
is just like being alive.
Our life asks us to do what life demands:
To live like we mean it,
whether we fee like it or not!

This is the foundational commitment
to marriage and to life.
We can think of our life 
as being married to our life,
and living our life as it ought to be lived,
is practice for being married
the way we ought to be married.

Doing one helps us with the other,
and it is practice either way.
The practice of being alive
is doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done
when it needs to be done
for as long as it needs to be done
whether we feel like it or not
all our life long.

Get that down
and we have it made
wherever we are.

And, in marriage,
our partner has to be doing it, too.
No one can be married by themselves.
It takes cooperation.
And we take up the work of cooperating
with one another 
in producing the miracle of marriage
at the very beginning,
by taking our vows seriously,
and living to carry them out
no matter how we feel.

In this, marriage is a lot like
the Velveteen Rabbit,
becoming real over time,
and once it is really real,
nothing can take it from you.
It lasts forever.

January 28, 2021

Sandy Stream Pond Morning Oil Paint Rendered — Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine

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 clear that everybody
wants to feel better,
and nobody wants to get better.

Everybody wants everyone else
to change in relation to them.
Everybody wants to know
how to get their way.

Forget about giving up their way.
They are going to have it or
make the world real sorry
for not giving it to them.

Getting better is changing 
our relationship with ourselves,
and with other people.

Getting better is changing
our mind about what is important,
and being right about it this time.

Getting better is changing
the way we think,
the way we see,
the way we act.

Getting better is changing.

No one wants to change.

No one ever grows up without changing.

Everyone who grows up,
grows up against their will.

Therapy is not holding hands
in a circle
and passing love around the circle.
Or attracting positive energy
and becoming wealthy
by deserving money.

The My Way Now movement
fuels the Prosperity Gospel movement
and the If-You-Want-It-You-
Ought-To-Be-Able-To-Have-It mentality
which spills over into
You-Ought-To-Get-It-Now,
and that's where we are as a country
and as a world.

The Dali Lama said,
in response to the Chinese
takeover of Tibet,
“If, in any situation, 
there is no solution, 
there is no point in being anxious. 
If the forces at work 
have their own momentum, 
and what’s going on now 
is the product of what went before, 
and if this generation 
is not in control of all those forces, 
then this process will continue.” 

And if "this generation"
is actively aligned with "those forces,"
it will be a long time
before reality grinds the truth
into their pores
and they realize the lie 
they are living.

In the meantime, 
we wait for "those forces"
to play themselves out
and for people to wake up
to what fools they have been.

–0–

**Picture Window Oil Paint Rendered — Oxbow Bend, Mt Moran, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Wyoming**

I regret 10,000 things
that I am too ashamed of
to mention,
much less, talk about.
You will have to take my word for it.

I am comforted by Joseph Campbell's confession
of a similar burden of his own past.
His view was that one of the ordeals 
of growing older
is the task of continuing to grow up
by confronting our failures
and the missed opportunities
of our youth,
and coming to terms with them
in a "Okay, I will take from them
what they have to offer
in helping me be aware of
what I am doing here and now
and making better choices/decisions
in the time left for living," kind of way.

We have much to wish we had done differently,
or not at all.
But.
Here we are.
And we are here by virtue
of all of the choices/decisions we made
along the way from birth to here and now.

Our work is always to apply what we have learned
in living the remainder of the journey,
in hopes that our worst errors lie behind.

I am also glad that retirement
gives me fewer opportunities 
to stumble over myself
in finding my way through each day.

–0–

**North Shore 09/26/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta**

Everyone is born to die.
Everyone dies.
And everyone is in charge
of their own dying,
and the circumstances 
that lead to it.

Our dying is always the result
of who we are in conjunction 
with our circumstances.

And everything up to our dying
is the result of the same mysterious/secret--
The Mysterium Coniunctionis--
between ourselves and our circumstances.

The "mysterious union"is not so much
between man and woman,
or yin and yang,
but between us and our circumstances.

The relationship of us 
with our circumstances,
is roughly the relationship
of the stream with its channel,
of the ocean with its shoreline,
and its bed.

We are all where we are,
here and now,
as the result 
of how we have responded
to where we have been.

Given who we are
and what we have been through,
and what we have done about it,
we could not be anywhere else
but where we are, here and now.

And that will remain true
everywhere we are between now,
and, including,the moment of our death.

We are living to arrange our dying,
without being aware of what we are doing.
But--being aware of it would simply be
another aspect of it,
leading to it.

Jesus' death on the cross
was a direct consequence 
of the larger circumstance
he created by being who he was
in relation to the moment-to-moment
circumstances of his life.

There is an inevitability to our living
as well as to the fact of our dying.
Our living is the precursor of our dying.
"The secret cause" of our dying.

Carl Jung said, "We meet our destiny
on the road we take to avoid it."

What I'm saying is: Embrace that!
An live the life that is yours to live--
moment-to-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day--
doing in your life, 
with your life,
what is yours to do,
exactly as you would do it,
being you as only you can be you,
as best you can,
and die when it is done
as the hero going to meet her,
going to meet his,
final test.

How we live is how we die.
"Where we stand
is where we fall"
(Steven Moffat, Doctor Who).

Do that consciously,
knowingly,
intentionally,
willingly embracing
the cross at the end of the road--
in a "This is what I am going to do
even if it kills me!" 
kind of way!

Knowing what we would die for,
and dying for it,
is a very important thing to know
and to do.

Don't just die!
Die with a purpose!
By living meaningfully
on the service of that which
is worthy of us!

As a knight in filial/liege service
to his Lady/Lord--
or a Lady/Lord
in filial/service to her/his calling/duty.

January 27, 2021

Mt. Rundle Oil Paint Rendered — Vermillion Lakes, Banff National Park, Alberta

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 way it needs to be done
every time it needs to be done,
with grace and aplomb
in the moment and over time
(That means no pouting,
sulking,
resentment
or keeping score).

Begin practicing by asking people
ridiculous favors,
knowing they will have to say "No,"
and taking it like the Ace
you are working to become!

–0–

Medicine Lake Bed 09/28/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta

Doing what is not-meaningful
better be supporting what is meaningful
by providing us with the wherewithal
to do the things that make our little heart sing
and our little toes dance
with the rest of the time 
that is ours left to live.

If we are doing what is not-meaningful
in order to do what is not-meaningful,
we have to sit ourselves down
and have a come to your senses
and get your feet under you
and start living from your center talk.

And, if you don't know what your center is,
remain seated until the mud settles
and the water clears
and you know beyond doubt or hesitation
what is and is not your center,
your still point,
your adamantine foundation stone
upon which you and your life are anchored.

Your life is your responsibility.
What you do with it is up to you.
Waiting for some magical motivation
to pull it all together for you
is waiting for Godot,
who doesn't exist
and will never arrive.

Stop living magically,
and start doing what is meaningful to you.
That is all the magic anyone needs
to live the life that is waiting to be lived!

–0–

**Into Golden Canyon 03/15/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Death Valley National Park, California**

I wish Republicans would tell me
what the good is they call good,
and what the evil is they call evil.
One-on-one, I mean.
Not some senator speaking
for all Republicans everywhere.

I want to know from the people 
who are proud to be Republicans
what they are so proud of.

What values/principles/standards
are guiding their boat 
on its path through the sea?

And, while we are at it,
I want to know what yours are.

I want to know how clear you are 
about them,
how well thought out they are,
and how they are reflected
in your daily life,
how they impact the people around you.

In what specific,
concrete,
tangible ways
do they guide your boat
through each day?

How would I know they are important to you
by watching you live your life?

What is the good you call good?
The evil you call evil?
Good for whom?
Evil for whom?
Whose life is better for it?
Whose life is worse for it?

And, while we are at it,
I'll say that the good I call good
is best described by the terms
Freedom!
Equality!
Justice!
Truth!

And by the principle of 
doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
moment-to-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day.

I can't do better than 
living in ways which 
serve those terms
and that principle.

And I endeavor consciously,
willfully,
intentionally,
deliberately
to do that
in the way I live every day.

January 26, 2021

**Dune Walker 02 03/12/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California**

The ideal human being,
from my point of view,
does what is theirs to do,
and steps back,
letting nature take its course.

The ideal human being
would not see money 
as the path to power--
asking, "Power over whom?
In the service of what?"--
but as a means of providing
the tools necessary 
to do their work.

The ideal human being
would not impose anything
on anyone,
but would assume good faith
on the part of everyone,
and would trust everyone
to do their part
in serving the good of the whole,
with sincerity,
non-contrivance,
balance and harmony
being the highest interests
of culture and society.

They would spend their time
in devotion to their cause
of integrating opposites
by being present with,
and aware of,
their current circumstances,
living from their center,
which is the center of the whole,
and doing their thing
in response to the needs of the moment,
in each situation as it arises.

January 25, 2021

Dune Shadows Oil Paint Rendered — Star Dune, Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley, California

If heart could be coached,
everyone would be LeBron James.

Books on how to play chess,
and tennis,
and on like that forever,
are published and sold
every year. 

Books on how to play anything
(or live) 
with heart,
are hard to come by.

What is it with heart,
that only a few people get,
and everybody else wonders about?

Well. 
I don't know.
I take photos with heart.
I work with photos in Photoshop with heart.
I read and write with heart.
And, by that I mean,
nothing is going to stop me.
"Not no way.
Not no how"
(The Wizard of Oz).

And, I would bet you $20,
if I still did that kind of thing.
That each one of you
has something
no one can talk you out of
or scare you away from.
I would bet there is something
you all do with heart.

But not everything.

LeBron James doesn't do everything with heart.
Probably a lot of things.

So, rather than tell you 
how to live with heart,
I'm going to ask you
to be aware of 
where in your life 
you live with heart.

And suggest that you 
increase the amount of time
you spend in those places,
doing those things.

The more time we spend with things
that are meaningful to us--
the things we do with heart--
the happier we are
and the happier other people are
to be around us.

It works out well for everyone!

Let your heart tell you what to do
and you will catch yourself
smiling for no reason
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

Jordan Pond 09/23/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

I wish the people I was born into
had known what they should have known--
and that I had grown up
knowing what I should have known--
and that even now, 
I knew what I should know,
just by virtue of being alive,
and having been alive,
all these years.

Why don't I know what was there
to be known
from the start--
and at every step along the way
from then to now?

Why don't I know all I do know,
right now?

Like what I don't know,
for example.
Why don't I know what I don't know?

Everything would be better
with some mindful awareness,
with some attention to what's what,
with some attentive presence
in every moment
of every day.

We are all somewhere else 
most of the time.
We all think we would be better off
somewhere else,
and drift away from here
into what we dislike about here,
and how we wish we were there,
no there,
no there-over-there...

I ache to just be here.
Fully here.
Fully now.
Fully present to life
as I am living it.

To be there.
Not here.

–0–

**First Light on Bow River 09/21/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta**

I have to orient myself
in time and space,
moment-to-moment.

In a "Here I am, now what?"
kind of way.

I have to get my feet under me,
remember who I am and what I am about,
find my foundation stone,
live from the center,
again and again
throughout the day.

There is no carry-over
from one moment to the next,
from one situation to the next.

I cannot live from my memory
of how I just did it.

I have to start all over,
begin anew,
as though I just plopped out off the womb,
and have to find my way 
through the first moment of my life
from the very beginning.

I have been taking photographs seriously,
that is intentionally,
consciously,
with purpose and knowledge of how to do it
for over twenty years.
And I step into every scene,
and it is the first scene.

I have forgotten everything--
or all of the important things--
since the last scene.

I am assuming that because I just did it,
this scene will be just like that one,
and I don't check the focus.
Etc.

Back in the film days,
I would forget to put film in the camera
starting out.
Or the film wouldn't "catch" on the clip,
and I wouldn't remember to see
if the rewind knob on the camera was turning
as I advanced the film.

You can't miss a detail!

I don't know what the equivalent
of film in the camera,
loaded and working properly,
is for you,
but I know there is one.

There is one for everybody.

We cannot do it, whatever it is,
like we have always done it,
and do a very good job of doing it.
We have to do it 
as though we have never done it, ever.

We have to be new at it.
This has to be the first time.

We have to live as though this is our first day
on the job.

We have to see with fresh eyes.
Hear with fresh ears.
Be alert to our assumptions
and inferences,
and expectations,
and all the things we are taking for granted.

The world is new in some sense
every moment.
We cannot sleepwalk through our life.

–0–

**Schwabacher Landing 06/15/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming**

How to be in the moment.
How to do right by the moment.
How to live for the sake of the moment.

These are the lessons of life.

You think it is about getting somewhere.
About attaining something.

Everybody is out for what they can get.
What they can get is determined
by what they want.

They don't know what to want.
They want everything.
They are kids at the candy counter.

What does wanting know?
What informs wanting?
Where does wanting come from?
What are we hungry for?
Starving for?
Dying for?

What is it going to take
to satisfy us?

Wanting drives us through life
searching for what we want,
for what is worth wanting,
for what is worth our time.

No one can tell us.
No one knows.
It is all up to us.

Enter The Silence.
Seek The Tao.
They work in tandem.
Together.
I think they are the same.
They are on the same side
of the coin.

The other side of the coin
is Yin and Yang.
They also work together.
They also are the same.

The coin is The Source
of what we seek.
The coin is what we seek.
We live to serve the coin.
We belong to the coin.

Silence.
Tao.
Yin.
Yang.

In possession of the coin,
we are possessed by the coin.
We are the coin.
"The Father and I are one"
(The Mother and I are one).
There is only one.
We are it.
It is we.

For what?
For Life!

It is all about being alive--
but more than that:
Being alive to being alive!
Living at one with all things!
Particularly ourselves!
Living at one with ourselves!

Moment-by-moment.
Situation-by-situation.
Day-by-day.

If you think that's easy,
give it a spin.

First, we have to get out of the way.
We don't even know what that means.
We think there is only us here.
How could we be in the way?

Kidding ourselves is what we do best.
No.
Lying to ourselves is what we do best!
No!
Telling ourselves what we want to hear
is what we do best!!
NO!
Shooting ourselves in the foot
is what we do best!!!

We excel in sabotaging ourselves.
In being in our way.
We are not even one with ourselves.
Where do we start?
What do we do?

Enter The Silence.
Engage/Live in accord with the Tao.
Integrate Yin/Yang.
Live with sincerity,
balance and harmony.
Know what you know.
See what you look at.
Be transparent to yourself.
Which makes you transparent to transcendence.
And one with all things.
Alive to the moment of your living.
Alive to being alive.
To the wonder of being alive.
To the wonder of all things.

The work of a lifetime.
Begins here and now.

January 24, 2021

**The Beaver Hut Oil Paint Rendered — Schwabacher Landing, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming**

If you cannot be vulnerable,
you will be symptomatic all your life,
and crazy as well.

We are surrounded by vulnerabilities!
There is no way we can be protected
from them all!

Everything worthwhile about us 
and about our life
is strictly dependent upon 
our vulnerability threshold.

The more vulnerable we can be,
the more mature we are capable of becoming,
the more relaxed and natural
we are able to be in relation 
to the world,
and the more capable we are gong to be
in responding appropriately
to each situation as it arises
throughout our days upon the earth.

If you are going to take anything on faith,
let it be your capacity to be vulnerable
and be just fine 
with whatever life throws at you.

Practice raising your vulnerability quotient
by deliberately putting yourself
in situations you don't control,
letting yourself be free to make it up as you go.
Like dancing to tunes you have never heard,
or finding your way around in a strange city,
or driving down unfamiliar roads
to see where they go.

–0–

**Upper Waterfowl Lake Oil Paint Rendered 09/22/2007 — Banff National Park, Alberta**

Living in accord with the Tao
is listening to our unconscious,
is immersing ourselves in a situation,
waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,
and seeing what emerges 
as the way to respond to what is called for
over time,
as we tweak our response
to take additional information
into account,
balancing and harmonizing
the contraries and contradictions,
complexities and contingencies,
as they become apparent
in the eternal dance
with what can happen
and what needs to happen
through the ages
throughout eternity.

There is no steady state
of "peace at last."

There only/always living in the moment
in light of what needs to be done there,
in light of what is called for,
in light of what can be done there,
in light of what we need
to do what is needed there,
all our life long--
all life long.

Growing up is adjusting ourselves
to the requirement
of having to adjust ourselves to something
all our life long.
If we are not growing (up),
we are dead.

–0–

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Oil Paint Rendered — Canyon Village, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

In the story of the woman taken in adultery,
Jesus takes a time-out,
squats and draws in the dust with his finger,
then he rises and says,
"Let the one without sin cast the first stone."
Beautifully done.
Rising wonderfully to the occasion.
Responding to the moment 
directly,
without consulting the authorities,
taking a poll,
or asking his mother what he should do.

Jesus speaks from the source of sincerity,
balance and harmony.
"Like the spirit blowing where it will."
Who knows what it will come up with next?

And, in order for it to happen then and there,
Jesus called time-out,
and sat drawing in the dust.

He was withdrawing from the moment of action,
to center himself,
put himself in accord with the Tao,
listen within,
open to the wisdom of the heart/soul/unconscious/psyche
waiting for the shift
that urged him to rise and speak
out of the truth of what was called for
in the time that was at hand.

In order to do that,
he had to have been there before.
Going there is called "prayer."
It is also called "meditation."
"Reflection."
"Contemplation."
"Connection."
"Communion."

If you don't know what I'm talking about,
sit still,
be quiet,
and watch what happens.

And repeat this over time.
"Over time" being
regularly for the rest of your life.

And stop trying to cover all of your bases
by carefully thinking things out in advance.
Trust yourself to know what you know
in the moment that is calling for it,
to be known,
by listening through some equivalent
of drawing in the dust.

–0–

**The Bud Ogle Cabin Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

It's a snap
to think the wrong things are important,
to leave the path,
stray away from the way,
and have nothing to do
with the things crying out
for us to do them.

Being clear.
Being focused.
Being grounded and centered.
Being present and accounted for.
In the service
of what is ours to do.
Is not a snap at all.

We have to be awake
and mindfully aware
at all times.
Self-transparent.
In accord with the Tao.
Attuned to the moment
and to ourselves.
Alert to what is happening
and what is called for
moment-by-moment.
Caring so much about
being who the moment
needs us to be
that we distance ourselves
from all other concerns
in order to act sincerely,
without contrivance,
spontaneously doing
what is appropriate to the occasion
one occasion after another
all our life long
and being right about it
every time.

Doing the right thing.
At the right time.
In the right way.
All the time.
Is not a snap.

And, if we aren't doing it,
we are letting ourselves
and each other
down.
All the time.

–0–

Cullasaja Cascade Oil Paint Rendered — Cullasaja River Gorge, Nantahalia National Forest, Highlands, North Carolina

From prison, John the Baptist
sent his disciples to ask Jesus,
"Are you the one who is to come,
or shall we wait for another?"
Jesus replied, "Go and tell John,
'I am who I am,
doing what is mine to do--
no one can do better than that!'"

What would it take for us
to be who we are,
doing what is ours to do--
And letting the outcome be the outcome?

Not trying to pivot ourselves
into some luxurious,
privileged,
glorious ever after--
but just meeting the moment,
moment-by-moment,
doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
just being who we are,
doing what is ours to do
throughout each day,
throughout our life?

January 23, 2021

02c

Mt. Robson Oil Paint Rendered — Mt. Robson Provencal Park, British Columbia

Living to do what the moment
needs us to do
is to put ourselves in the service
of that which is greater than we are.

It is the most spiritual thing on the planet,
serving the moment,
being alive to the here and now,
being aware of the here and now,
being present to what is present with us.

Mostly, we pass through the here and now,
on our way to somewhere else--
somewhere more important,
more interesting,
a better place to be.

We are either alive now or not.
If not now, when?
When are we ever alive?
When are we ever doing what the moment
needs us to do?
It is always something else.
Something else is always in the way.
Of being here, now,
looking, listening,
attuned, aware, alive
to the moment
and what it needs from us.

–0–

Mormon Row Barn 06/23/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming

Living in each moment
as though it is the most important moment ever
would radically transform the world.

We throw moments away,
looking for the moment
we have been waiting for.
And we miss all the ones
that had been waiting for us.

Showing up and living truthfully
isn't about the Boy Scout Law.
It is about being present
and seeing what's what--
what is happening
and what needs to be done in response,
and making the response
the moment is calling for
out of our repertoire
of gifts/genius/virtues/character/etc.
that come with us from the womb.

Think of it as practice
for the Big One 
when it comes around--
and treat all of the little ones
as though they are the ones
that matter.

Offer what is needed
when it is needed
where it is needed
the way it is needed
for as long as it is needed 
moment-by-moment,
and everything will 
fall into place around that,
and the difference
will be amazing.

January 22, 2021

**Hammock Creek Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina**

Living to be what the situation
is calling us to be--
doing what it is calling us to do--
would flip our life around.

Turn it inside out 
and upside down,
kill us and resurrect us
in one reality-transforming instant.

As it is, we live to get the most out of
every situation that comes along.
"What's in this for me?"
is the question that guides our life.
"How can I get what I want,
here and now?"

To think that the situation has needs of its own
that we can meet
out of the goodness of our own little heart,
with nothing to gain,
get,
acquire,
amass...
Well that's an unconventional thought!
And one we are not inclined
to consider!

You can see how religion was invented
to keep us safe from the intrusion
of The Mystery of situational neediness
into our happy
(Or soon to be happy,
the minute we get what we want
and have our way throughout eternity)
life.

Religion makes no claims upon us
and our time.
We genuflect, 
make the sign of the cross
(Or their equivalents across
all religions)
and go on about our life,
none the worse for wear.

But to throw us vulnerable
and at the mercy of every situation
for as long as our life lasts
is just a monstrosity of a concept!
It's like an invasion of vampires 
from Mars,
maybe worse!

Forget it!
We are not going there!
Ever!

And The Mystery settles down
to wait us out.

–0–

The Watchman and the Virgin 05/20/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

Growing up is caring in the right way,
at the right time,
about the right things.

Nobody can tell us how to do that.

We live our way to right assessment,
right interpretation,
right perspective,
right view point,
right seeing,
right hearing,
right knowing,
right understanding,
right doing,
right being.

The key is self-awareness,
self-reflection,
self-examination,
self-exploration,
self-transparency,
self-correction...
all along the way.

This is where Dharma
comes into play.
Dharma is Right Duty.
It is doing what is called for
in the time and place of our living--
doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
all our life long.

We should/ought/must always do
what needs to be done--
what needs us to do it--
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

And we cannot know what that will be,
or should/ought/must be,
prior to the moment as it unfolds before us.

This is what Jesus was talking about
when he said,
"The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."

The spirit doesn't know where it is going,
or what it is doing next.
It responds to the circumstances
as they develop
in ways that are appropriate/fitting
to the occasion,
and it never knows--
it cannot know--
what that will be 
before the time for acting.

In precisely that moment,
we act, the spirit acts,
our spirit acts,
without contrivance,
without concern for our own welfare,
our own profit,
our own gain,
our own benefit,
to do what is called for
with the gifts we bring to the moment,
right here, right now.

And do it again in the next moment
flowing from this one.

Sometimes that means taking a nap
when it is time to take a nap.

–0–

Smoky Mountain Winter 03/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

What is your response?
That is where you exercise
your only control
in each situation as it arises.

We are in charge of our response.
We are responsible for our response.

"It's people like you
who make people like me
hate people like you,"
is missing the point
of "people like me."

The point of each of us 
is to not be yanked around
by "people like you,"
or by any aspect of our life,
and made to do what is against our will
and purpose,
but to live from our own center,
with balance and harmony
in offering what is being called for
moment-by-moment
out of the gifts/genius/talents/abilities/etc.
that we have to offer
the circumstances of our life
in the time left for living.

We are here to be ourselves
in response to our life!

To incarnate ourselves anew
in each moment of each day.

We do that by the response we make
to each moment of each day.

What is your response?

You dream a dream.
What is your response in the dream
to the dreamed situation?
What is your response outside the dream,
as you reflect on it?

Your response, in the dream and out of it,
is what your dream is about.
We dream ourselves into responses
worthy of us.
We grow up--
we grow ourselves up--
by examining,
studying,
exploring,
investigating,
the responses we make 
to our dreams
and to our life
throughout our life.

Every situation asks something of us.
How do we respond?
What response do we make?

The first proper response
in each situation,
is to slay the dragon
whose name is Thou Shalt!
(Joseph Campbell)
and live in the moment
fresh from the kill,
free to be exactly 
what the moment needs us to be,
however foreign to the shoulds,
oughts,
and musts
at work in every situation
to keep us from responding appropriately
to the needs of the moment
as it opens before us.

What response will we make?

That is our question to answer
in each moment of each situation of each day
for as long as life shall last.

In light of what do we live?
Moment-to-moment?