Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
The Cascades Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
We live on
to pass on
what we have learned about living
from living.
The problem with this is
that most of us
merely pass on
what has been passed on to us
from those who passed it along
from someone who passed it along...
through centuries and eons
of passing along the same old same old stuff,
with no one in the entire chain
ever once examining what they were handed
and asking, "What makes you think this is so?"
We think it is so
because we have been told it is so.
And we never question anything
because we have been told not to question anything.
What has your life taught you
about being alive?
That is the only thing worth knowing.
The only thing worth passing on.
And we pass it along,
not as though it is gospel truth,
but as a way of saying,
"This is what I have made of what happened to be,
see if you can verify it
through your own experience."
Teaching people to look at their life,
to listen to their life,
as the most valid source
of what is true
when properly interpreted
and understood,
puts everything on the examination table
and invites questions from all sides.
And that is the essential attitude
in learning what our life has to teach us
about life, and living, and being alive.
Live on to pass it on!
And let that be that!
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02
Sunwapta River 09/21/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
What would you go to hell for?
What would you go through hell for?
It's the same thing, don't you see?
And we have to be both clear and right
about what is worth going to hell for,
and what is worth going through hell for,
and do it--
time and again,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
all our life long.
It is death and resurrection all the way--
it is like dying, and like being raised from the dead
all the way!
We have to care enough about the important things
to die for them,
figuratively or literally.
We cannot allow the specter of death
to scare us off,
to scare us out of the life we are
being called to live.
We live meaningless, empty, lives
because we won't die for anything
worth dying for.
We die because we won't die.
We won't die because we think
the wrong things are the most important things.
Living, for example.
Living in the service of the wrong things
is not living at all.
Money, for example.
Wealth and privilege.
Power.
Control.
We give up everything for nothing in return.
And die long before we are dead.
We have to turn the light around here.
We have to sacrifice all the things we think
are important
in the service of the things
that are actually important.
Being right about what is important
is the most important thing!
What would you go to hell for?
What would you go through hell for?
Are you right about it being important?
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01
The Other Lone Cypress 01 11/10/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Brandt, Greensboro, North Carolina
The message of the Savior is
"There is no Savior!"
When Jesus said, "If you would be my disciple,
pick up your own cross everyday,
and come with me!"
he was saying,
"A servant of Truth lives to die
in the service of Truth!"
We live to die!
We live to deserve to die!
We live as though every day
is the last day we have to live!
Life is to be spent in the service of Truth!
We are here to live truthfully!
To live truthful lives!
To live a life aligned with its center:
"Like a wheel turning out of its own center!"
(Friedrich Nietzsche)
We live to incarnate
what is deepest, best and truest about us!
We live to be-and-to-do who we are!
We live to be at-one with The Other Within,
and with The Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being!
Our life is our canvas
and we are the artist
painting the truth of existence
with every stroke of the brush.
Passing it on!
We live on to pass life on!
Jesus passed it on!
Everyone who has known
what Jesus knew
passed it on!
Dying in the service
of that which was worth their life!
And so it is said,
"Know what is worth going to hell for,
and be right about it,
and live to go straight to hell
when you die!"
We have to be willing to go to hell
in this sense
to return to Eden.
Eden is where we celebrate
having lived to deserve to die
and go to hell.
If you can understand this,
live on to pass it on!
Pioneer Cabin Oil Paint Rendered — Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
We have to attain a certain level
of maturity
before we are able to live
with the kind of balance and harmony
required to dance with our circumstances
without being crushed by them.
People who aren't somewhat grown up
before their life begins to deliver
disappointment and heartbreak,
grief, loss and sorrow,
winking and saying,
"Just wait to see what 'cha got coming next,"
are going to have a hard time
just catching their breath.
How do we grow up?
How do we develop the kind of perspective
that takes things in stride,
does what can be done about them,
and lets that be that?
All of the spiritual leaders
through the centuries
have been mature beyond their years--
and beyond their peers.
Jesus was old as a child.
The Buddha grew up through years
of coming to terms with how things are.
Maturity is an advantage
that wealth and position
cannot touch.
Knowing what is good for us
and what is not--
and going with the good--
is valuable knowing,
but without knowing how
to pull that rabbit out of the hat,
we are no better off
for knowing what it would take
to be better off.
How do we increase our level of maturity?
How do we grow ourselves up?
Take those questions as yours to answer,
and live in the service of finding it
in the time left for living.
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02
Mt. Rundle 02 09/22/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta
A caveat regarding The Other Within:
A partnership is not the way
to the realization of your dreams.
It is the end of contrivance in all forms.
And the beginning of complete sincerity
and self-transparency.
There is no using The Other for anything
other than The Other.
There is nothing in it for us beyond
living in accord with the Tao
through each situation that arises
all our life long,
with nothing to show for our work
except the satisfaction
of having done the best we could
with what we had to work with
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.
"If you want to be my disciple,
pick up your cross daily
and follow me."
If Christians took the word of their lord seriously,
there would be very few people in church.
Their idea of a cross
is a decoration to wear
as a pendant or a tattoo.
Jesus is supposed to be good for heaven,
else why bother?
And thinking The Other Within
is the path to fortune and glory
is to stray from the path,
to leave the way,
and to wander without direction
through the wasteland forever.
So with Jesus or The Other,
understand it is about the quality of life
on the Journey,
and not about the acquisition of anything
along the way.
There is no merit to be gained.
There is only finding our life
and living it,
for the joy of doing it.
The joy of having done it
is what forever is for.
–0–
01
Three Horses 11/25/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Horse Barn Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Carl Jung said,
"There is within each of us
another, whom we do not know."
In order to transform our relationship
with ourselves,
we have to acknowledge,
honor,
welcome,
engage,
collaborate
and align ourselves with
The Other who resides within.
Sounds weird.
Accommodating ourselves to weird
is one of the requirements
of the Journey.
The Other within is our best invisible friend,
and our guide, mentor
and access to the depths that are forever.
And only one aspect of The Mystery
at the Heart of Life and Being.
There are dimensions--
like light waves and sound waves
that we are incapable of seeing or hearing--
that are imperceptible and undetectable,
and as real as last night's dream,
and that close at hand.
Our place is to find our place
and simply be who we are,
trusting that to be our part to play
in the whole that is beyond describing.
It is like this:
I think it was Martin Palmer who said,
though I cannot locate the reference,
so it may be Thomas Cleary who said,
or someone else who said,
"The path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."
They offered this statement
as an alternative translation
to the Tao te Ching's statement,
"The Tao that can be named/said/told
is not the eternal Tao."
I connect this with a statement Jesus
is said to have said:
"The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."
I understand this to mean that
not even the spirit of God knows
what it is doing,
or what it will be doing next.
Even the spirit is on a path
that cannot be discerned!
We are all in the same boat.
It is all in flux and dependent upon
everything else.
There is no master plan,
and yet,
everything is just what it needs to be,
and can't be anything other than what it is.
Think back over your life.
Nothing had to be what it was,
and yet,
everything had to be exactly what it was
to get you here, now.
We are totally free to be something
completely surprising (weird) in the next moment,
yet absolutely bound to being who we are forever.
We never out-live having been where we have been,
and never out-grow having had parents--
the specific parents we had,
and yet, we are unrestricted in making of that
what we will.
This is karma.
Consequences have consequences.
"We meet our fate on the road we take
to escape it" (Carl Jung).
Freedom is bondage.
Make your peace with that
and live on!
Living on is the point,
the whole point,
and nothing but the point.
Martin Hägglund does a wonderful job
elaborating "living on"
in his book This Life,
though it is not for sissies.
Neither is life.
Which gets us back to the importance
of forging a relationship
with The Other whom we do not know.
We need all the help we can get.
Sit still, be quiet,
see what meets you there.
Reflect on your nighttime dreams,
and your daytime flights of fancy/fantasy.
Find the themes running through your life.
Explore everything.
Get to the bottom of you.
We are the source
and the goal
of our own seeking.
What we are looking for
is who is looking.
Who is The Other whom we do not know?
Make it your Quest to find out!
Emerald Lake 09/27/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Yoho National Park, Field, British Columbia
We cannot control what happens,
but.
We can strongly influence
what happens next
by the way we respond
to what happens.
Balance and harmony
do not depend upon
external circumstances.
Living from our center
with sincerity and non-contrivance,
mindful awareness
and optimal emotional distance
between ourselves
and what is happening
in each situation as it arises,
positions us
to see with right seeing,
hear with right listening,
and offer what is called for
in the right way
at the right time--
spontaneously,
without anxiety,
like a parent taking care
of their child,
or like a tennis player
responding to their opponent's
ground stroke--
even as we pass through
the clashing rocks
on the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea.
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03
Dry Falls 04/02/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Pisgah National Park, Cullasaja River Gorge, Highlands, North Carolina
The trick with caring
is to live as though we care
whether we care or not.
Fake it, as the AA slogan goes,
'til you make it!
Live to fake it so well,
not even you can tell
"if it's real or if it is Memorex"!
It doesn't matter if you really care
if you really live as though you do!
Just act the part!
Play the role!
Live so as to deserve
an Academy Award every day
for the way you express/exhibit/incarnate
caring in the world!
If the world can't tell the difference,
and if you can't be sure of the difference,
for all practical purposes,
there is no difference!
And you will be doing what we need you to do!
And all of life will be blessed
by your doing it!
Live like you mean it!
Care like you mean it!
Whether you do or not!
The difference you make in the lives of others,
and in the world at large,
will be the same!
Do not get hung up on "not really meaning it"!
Live as though you really mean it!
Feelings follow actions,
as the old saying goes.
So get in there and act your way
in to feeling what you don't feel yet!
Living as though your heart is in caring
about your life,
is a necessary step toward caring about your life!
If you are going to take anything on faith,
take this on faith--
and live as though it is so!
And it will be so!
The world is dying for you to will and to do here!
Step into your life
and live there in ways that do
what needs to be done there
the way it needs to be done
when it needs to be done
in each situation as it arises--
whether you feel like it or not--
and all the world will rejoice and be glad!
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02
Cullasaja Cascade Oil Paint Rendered — Pisgah National Forest, Cullasaja River Gorge, Highlands, North Carolina
We are here to care
about everything we care about,
and we are here to care about all things.
Caring is the foundation of life,
living,
being alive.
To not care is to be dead.
The only thing separating the living
from the dead
is that the living care about being alive,
and the dead don't care about anything.
Give yourself a caring-quotient.
On a scale of 1 to 10,
with 1 being dead
and 10 being maxed out in love with the universe,
where do you stand now?
Are you more dead than alive,
or more alive than dead?
You owe it to yourself,
and to me,
and to all of us who are,
ever have been,
or have yet to be,
to move toward caring more
each day of your life!
Caring is caring about what we do
and how well we do it.
Caring is the most important thing about us.
Everything hinges on the quality and depth
of our caring.
If you are going to practice anything,
practice caring about everything!
About everyone!
About all of it!
Care like it is the only thing that matters!
It IS the only thing that matters!
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01
Tunnel View Oil Paint Rendered — Yosemite National Park, California
Martin Hägglund, writing in This Life,
says we have to attach ourselves
to what is meaningful in our life.
We cannot abandon what is meaningful
in the service of ambition.
We cannot put meaning aside,
or put it off,
until we have socked away a fortune
and have it made.
The price of a fortune
is the loss of a life.
The life that meaning
was calling us to live.
There is no substitute for meaning.
There is only meaning and denial.
If we are not living meaningful lives,
we are kidding ourselves.
We are lying to ourselves.
And are in denial.
Drinking too much,
drugging too much,
partying too much,
working too much,
burning the candle at both ends too much...
chasing money,
burning meaning.
We have to sit down with ourselves
and have a come to the truth
of how it is really moment.
We cannot kid the part of us
that knows meaning when we see it.
So, sit down with that part and listen.
If you will.
You have to will it to be so.
You have to will your life back into place.
You left the way,
turned aside from the path,
and wound up in the wasteland of your discontent,
and now you have to find the road back to Eden.
Ah, but you know the price of returning to Eden!
No one goes back there without dying!
This doesn't mean a physical death,
but spiritual death.
We have to die to all that is keeping us
from living a meaningful life.
That means working it out.
It is like dying to work meaning into our life,
to live comfortably around meaning,
to live with a foot in different worlds,
to pay the bills and do what we pay the bills to do!
Death and resurrection is the recurring theme
of living the life that is our life to live.
A life of meaning and purpose
is a life of joy and sorrow,
a life of vulnerability and pain.
A life of being true to ourselves.
A life of troth,
good faith,
and dharma--
lived aligned with our heart,
in accord with the Tao.
We have to will that life into reality.
Day by day.
Moment by moment.
It doesn't just happen.
"Pick up your cross, daily," said Jesus,
"and come along with me.
Those who put their hand to the plow,
don't look back."
Every seer who has seen has said the same thing.
Living meaningfully is no walk in the park.
We cannot do it only when we feel like it.
Are we up for it or not?
That's the question.
We like the idea,
but are we committed to it?
Will we live meaningfully,
or throw life away?
That is the choice.
We are kidding ourselves
if we think it isn't so.
The Buddha's first great discovery
was "All life is suffering."
It gets better.
His second great discovery
was "The way to freedom from suffering
is to not care about anything."
That's it.
Buddhism in two sentences.
Get those down
and you are as enlightened
as the Buddha was.
Or, you could just say,
"Suffering is just part of it,
don't let it get in your way!"
Or, "If you take anything too seriously,
it will rob you of all the rest!"
Or, "Finding the balance point
between too much and too little
is the trick to having it made!"
The Buddha talked about finding
the balance point.
He called it "The Third Way."
Sometimes, "The Middle Way."
And recommended living between
too much and too little in all things
great and small.
Now, you really have all it takes
to be a Buddha.
And, the Buddha would agree.
He would say, "Everybody is a Buddha!"
And he would be right about that.
It is a potential for us all, anyway.
Finding the balance point
creates harmony throughout our life,
and carries over into all the world.
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02
Big Creek Spring 04/15/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
One person's religion
is another person's folly.
Absolute truth is a very relative thing.
And so it is said
that true religion
does not take itself seriously
or impose itself on others,
and laughs at the very idea
of having the last word
about anything.
The best science,
like the best religion,
looks askance at everything
pretending to be a fact.
An absolute fact
is laughed out of the room.
The most factual thing you can think of
is factual only under certain conditions.
Put a banana in a jar
and tighten the lid.
Wait two weeks
and tell me what you have in the jar.
Things change.
That is an absolute fact.
So far as we know.
The fact of things changing
doesn't change.
So far as we know.
Everything that is so
is so
so far as we know.
So what?
So back off
and reconsider.
Sit quietly
and reflect.
See how our seeing
is impacting our life,
and look to see
what all is there.
There is how we see things,
and there is how things are.
And it is easy to think
the two are one,
and difficult to separate
the one into two.
So do the work.
And see how that changes things.
Softens things.
Moves things toward
pliability,
flexibility,
transparency,
and life.
For the sake of life.
–0–
01
Roaring Fork Oil Paint Rendered — Roaring Fork Auto Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Truth that is too true is intolerable,
unacceptable,
outlandish,
heretical,
obscene,
apostate,
blasphemous
and sentenced to death.
Examples are everywhere.
Jesus was crucified because
he spoke a truth that was too true to be true
("The father and I are one,"
for one).
Galileo was forced to recant
his declarations about the earth, sun and stars.
Darwin is still despised in some circles
for his truth about evolution.
Racial equality is anathema to white supremacists.
Climate change and vaccinations are ridiculed
by their deniers.
The list is long and incredibly sad.
How will we ever be One
when we cannot acknowledge the same truth?
Colonel Nathan R. Jessup's,
"You can't handle the truth!"
is the truest truth that has ever been spoken,
and he speaks to us all,
and to himself,
because there is a truth even he cannot handle.
"There is the way things are,
and there is the way things also are,
and that's the way things are!"
We don't want to consider the "also are."
We just want to say,
"THIS is the way things are!"
and let that be that.
But.
Yin is balanced by Yang,
and Yang by Yin.
And "Truth is found between the hands,"
(On the one hand this,
and on the other hand that,
and on the other hand, that over there...")
And that leaves us with being lenient,
kind,
receptive,
accepting,
open to
and tolerant of,
what is also true
on all levels
at all times.
And firmly opposed to
what is not true,
in all times and places.
Working that out
pushes us to the brink,
and we walk a fine line
across a slippery slope,
along a dangerous path
like a razor's edge.
The work of truth
is not for the faint of heart.
Or the narrow-minded.
Cypress Trees Oil Paint Rendered — An undisclosed location in eastern North Carolina
We have to be clear about
what we would go to hell for--
about what we would serve with our life
because it is life itself for us.
This isn't some grand principle,
"My family,"
"My country,"
"Human rights,"
etc.
This is what we do every day
because we cannot imagine a day
without doing it.
Don't tell me you have nothing like that
in your life!
That your days are empty hours
strung together with entertaining pastimes
and all the alcohol it takes to get you through
to another one!
The time we have been given
is the most sacred thing we have.
What we do with our time
is a testimony to what means the most to us.
What do you do with your time?
How much does it mean to you?
Why are you wasting your life
on meaningless activities?
What is your heart asking of you
that you will have nothing to do with?
Your heart is your internal guide,
the best guru you could hope to have!
To cut yourself off from your heart
and to go at life on your own,
without direction,
orientation,
or recommendation,
is to live without hope in the world.
Hope is not what we have,
but what we do--
because we must!
Not because it is going to work,
but because it is what we are here for!
What do you do because that is what you are here for?
Gerard Manley Hopkins said,
"What I do is me,
for that I came."
That's it!
What can you say that about?
If you don't know,
you have to stop everything
and get back in good grace with your heart!
Sit quietly
and apologize.
Rise and give yourself to the thing,
or things,
you have been rejecting as beneath you,
stupid,
unprofessional,
expensive and never going to pay for itself,
etc.
If it is playing the alto sax,
start playing the alto sax.
That won't be the end of it.
The alto sax is just the door.
Open the door.
See where it leads.
Throughout the time left for living.
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03
Roan Woods Oil Pant Rendered — Roan Mountain State Park, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina
Our life together
depends on our
keeping faith with one another.
Our broken democracy
is an existential exhibit
of our failure to do that.
The promises of democracy
have not been forthcoming.
The divisions separating us
have grown deeper and wider.
Our words do not match our actions.
No one can count on being able
to depend on anyone.
The basic systems of government providing
education,
health care,
clean air and water,
livable wages,
affordable goods and services...
are increasingly unable
to meet needs and expectations.
The presumption of good faith
has been replaced by the presumption
of bad faith,
and where is help to be found?
It gets worse.
We are all we have.
There is no Savior.
No God of the Machine
to whiz in and solve our woes.
Our agony is ours to resolve.
And we do not want to do the work
We just want to be happy.
We are about to meet the hard truth:
The work is ours to do alone!
It is the work of squaring ourselves up
with what's what
and doing what needs to be done about it.
What's what is that we have no relationship
with ourselves,
and nothing to offer in relationship
with others.
The work is spiritual to the core--
to the core of ourselves.
We are spiritually bereft,
and begin the work of growing toward
a spiritually sound foundation
by sitting still,
being quiet,
and meeting That Which Waits to Greet Us within.
This will be the Mystery at the Heart
of Life and Being.
This is The Other Carl Jung was speaking of
when he said, "There is in each of us another,
whom we do not know."
It is time we make acquaintances.
Our spirituality waits for our spirit/soul/self
to enter communion with The Mystery
from which we come,
in which we live and move and have our being,
and to which we return.
Theology, doctrine, creeds and catechisms
are of no help here.
We meet who meets us and form a partnership,
living what remains to be lived
in accord with the Mystery living within us
in service to all sentient beings,
with good faith commitment
to the best interests of all concerned.
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02
Spring Path Oil Paint Rendered — Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Our life's purpose
is to be better
at being who we are
everyday.
That gets lost somewhere
along the way,
and we throw ourselves into
being better off
than we were yesterday
everyday along the way.
Personal gain,
advancement,
acquirement,
acquisition...
rank higher with us
than any other thing.
"Profit At Any Price"
is the slogan
that drives us forward.
We will sell ourselves,
our soul,
for 30 pieces of silver,
or its current equivalent,
any time.
What is a life full of silver
with no idea of who we are
and how we need to incarnate/
exhibit/express ourselves
in the way we live?
What does our life say
about who we are?
How accurate is that?
What is there about you
that isn't evident anywhere?
Today is yours to work with
in bringing that forth!
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01
The Old Mill Oil Paint Rendered — Glade Creek Mill, Babcock State Park, Clifftop, West Virginia
There are people we can't do anything about.
Locking them up,
sealing them off,
is the best we can do.
They exist to kill people,
hate people,
knock things over,
blow things up.
They have no life of their own.
They live to destroy
what others create.
Theirs are the outlaw bands
that have roamed the world
throughout history.
We will always have to deal with them.
Don't be shocked and appalled.
Just pick up your cross--
the cross of life in the world
on terms we don't get to choose--
and step into the day,
everyday.
And do what we can to make it better
than it was yesterday
everyday.
Think of our task here
as the Sisyphean Task
of rolling the stone up the hill,
following it down the hill,
and rolling it up the hill
through the ages.
Making the world better every day
is rolling the rock
through all the days of our life,
allowing nothing to stop us,
or even slow us down.
It is our work.
It is what we are here for.
To build things up.
To treat people well.
To be kind and generous.
Caring and compassionate.
No matter what.
Relentlessly.
Forever.
October Flow Oil Paint Rendered — Little Pigeon River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Chimneys Picnic Area, Tennessee
Accepting our vulnerability
without allowing it to slow us down
or keep us from living the life
that needs us to live it
is the sine qua non of the Hero's Journey
and the Spiritual Quest.
Living to be safe,
to never suffer,
to avoid all pain
and refuse to risk loss and defeat
is a childish refusal to be human.
The whiny old Psalmist lamented,
"We are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward."
So what?
Pick yourself up and get back in the game!
What's with the moaning and groaning?
Life is to be lived,
not to be complained about,
lamented,
mourned and sorrowed all the way to the grave!
"When you go out into the world to seek your fortune,
you will come to a great chasm.
Jump!
It is not as far as you think."
Without that astute advice,
we would camp out on the edge of the void
bemoaning our plight
and cursing the fates,
or join the Buddhists wailing,
"Oh suffering, oh suffering!
All of life is suffering!"
Well, not all of it evidently.
A good portion of it is complaining about suffering!
Just get over it!
We are vulnerable!
What's the problem?
Accept it like you accept clouds in the sky
and raindrops on your head,
and live on!
Live on!
Without stopping,
or even slowing down!
Nothing can happen to us
that growing up (some more again)
won't make better.
–0–
02
Midnight Hole 11/03/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Big Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
It is up to us
to live out of our own center,
Following, in the words of Carl Jung,
"that will and that way
which experience confirms to be your own."
It is up to us to be right
about what is important--
about what matters most--
and to live grounded upon
that adamantine conviction
in each situation as it arises.
It is up to us
to nurture our relationship
with ourselves
and with our life,
and live with self-transparency
and mindful awareness
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
in a "Here we are,"
now what?"
kind of way.
–0–
01
Little Pigeon River Fall 10/28/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Chimneys Picnic Area, Tennessee
If you have an agenda,
you have an ulcer,
drink too much alcohol,
prop yourself up with medication
and power shots of caffeine,
and wonder what's wrong with your life.
You have an agenda-driven life style.
You care about the wrong things.
You need to change your mind
about what is important.
But.
You can't change your mind
about what is important--
because it is crucially important.
And,
there you are.
The Willow Oil Paint Rendered — Country Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Returning to the silence,
seeking the center,
harmonizing ourselves
with the disharmony on all sides,
making our peace
with the complete absence of peace
in our life,
putting ourselves in accord
with the complete lack of accord
anywhere we look,
is walking on the water
of the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea,
between the clashing rocks,
and through the dark night
of betrayal and remorse.
Grief and mourning,
deep loss and sorrow,
too must be embraced.
There is no escape
from the ebbs and throes of life.
We bear it by bearing it,
receiving it
as one might welcome any fact
unfit for human company,
but here nonetheless,
with nowhere else to go,
and no one but us
to deal with it
as it must be dealt with
for as long as its time shall last.
Here we are,
now what?
Live on!
Live on!
Doing what must be done,
even here,
even now,
even with this,
oh, why this?
Why not?
Here we are.
Return to the silence,
seek the center,
harmonize ourselves
with the disharmony all around,
trusting balance to return
in time,
and the gyrations to subside,
and the still point
to come back into focus,
and our feet to find the foundation,
and spring to come at last.
–0–
04
The Grandfather Mountain Variations 03 08/07/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
What are your virtues--
not in terms of morality,
but in terms of your personal qualities.
The characteristics
that characterize you--
the gifts,
talents,
abilities
that set you apart
and make you you.
That constitute your identity,
are foundational to your make-up
and define you
as do your fingerprints
the color of your eyes
and the cones of your irises.
These are the aspects of your Original Nature
that came with you into the world,
and are yours to bring forth in your life
as your service to the world.
What are they?
Sit still,
be quiet,
wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear
to make plain your ground and foundation,
your center and your core,
that nothing can knock you off of,
or take from you
because it IS you,
and no one but you
can exhibit them
the way you can.
And only you can keep that
from happening.
Why would you not be who you are?
–0–
03
Cades Cove Methodist Church Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
Some things never change.
What was true at the beginning of time
is true today.
The old Taoists,
from before 2000 years BCE,
were talking about Yin/Yang,
and the work of Integrating The Opposites,
and our Original Nature,
and the Virtues that are ours
from before we were born,
and Balance and Harmony,
and the essential importance
of Sincerity (Non-Contrivance)
and Spontaneity
in being in accord with the Tao
(Doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
throughout our life).
And, after all these years,
nothing has changed
in this foundational formula
for living well
and having a meaningful life.
And all of the things that have
opposed the embodiment--
the incarnation--
the exhibition/expression--
of this way of life
through the ages,
are still at work in the service
of disharmony and chaos
in our life
and in the world.
Our work remains the same forever.
Ours is the Sisyphean Task
of rolling the rock
up the hill,
following it down the hill,
and rolling it up the hill,
to follow it down the hill,
throughout time.
Being in accord with the Tao
through all that disrupts the flow
with clashing rocks
and heaving waves
on the wine-dark sea--
up the hill
and down the hill
and up the hill
forever.
Got it?
Go to it!
Go do it!
Day-after-day-after-day!
That's all there is to it!
–0–
02
Blue Ridge Pastoral Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
What is your work,
your life?
What do you need to do it,
to live it?
What are the tools you need
to do your work,
to live your life?
My work/my life
is looking/seeing,
listening/hearing,
and getting to the bottom of it all.
I am a spiritual scientist.
I explore the Numen,
the ineffable,
the Tao,
the unnamed Source
of life and being,
of light and darkness--
the Mystery at the heart of everything.
My tools are a camera
and a keyboard.
And books.
I write to hear what I have to say.
I read to hear what I need to hear.
I look to see what's there.
I make inquiries
because there are more questions than answers,
and "an answer is just a step on the way
to a better question."
What about you?
What's your schtick?
Your Thing?
Your energy source?
Your life source?
Driving you on?
How do you feed it?
How does it feed you?
What are the tools it requires
for its service?
Answering those questions--
and the ones they lead to--
are all you need for a meaningful life.
And what do you need
beyond a meaningful life?
–0–
01
Big Creek Boulder Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
The lesson of the Buddha under the Bo Tree
is: "Do not be impressed by anything!"
Which is also stated:
"Do not need anything you do not already have."
We come as complete human beings from the womb,
packed with all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
A baby has exactly what they need
to get what they need.
And that remains true with the baby
throughout their life.
Insecure/unstable babies
think they need more than they need,
and cannot get enough
of what they do not have.
Secure/stable Buddha-babies
are confident in their ability
to sustain themselves
simply by finding what they need
here and now,
and living on
by making do.
What did Gandhi have ever?
He wore a diaper and was bare-footed forever!
And he was a rock--
immovable,
unfazed,
unimpressed by anything.
Jesus was the same way.
What did Jesus have?
He went without whimpering
to his crucifixion.
Do you think Donald Trump could do that?
Or any of his minions?
Any of the 73 million MAGA-GA-GA's?
Not one of them can stand alone
and be who they are,
knowing they have what they need
so that no one can buy them,
or frighten them,
or threaten them.
They are afraid of everything,
and need guns and walls
to protect them from the threatening world
that will come for their guns
at any time.
There is no such thing as a secure fascist.
Insecurity, uncertainty, fear and emptiness
are the bedrock of fascism.
Being a Buddha-baby
is their worst nightmare.
Democracy is for people
who have what it takes
to be who they are
in each situation as it arises
without ever being impressed--
for better or worse--
by anything.
Big Creek Fall 11/07/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina
Living out of our center,
listening to our imagination,
and trusting ourselves
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done,
is a day-by-day task of life,
no matter what is going on around us.
We have as much as anyone has ever had,
and that got us to this point.
It will keep us going.
Martin Hägglund says
living on is what we do best.
I’m all for it!
We owe it to ourselves,
our ancestors,
and each other
to keep it going!
Live on!
Live on!
(With your eyes open,
in tune with the Tao!)
–0–
01
Athabaska Valley 09/15/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
How we see what we look at
strongly influences everything that follows.
What influences how we see what we look at?
The 10,000 things!
The culture we live in
and the people we run with,
where we have been
and what we have lived through,
the entire scope and weight
of our life experience up to this point...
The list is long of the things
that cant us toward seeing the way we see.
The big thing on the list
is failing to see ourselves seeing.
Seeing in ways that do not take our seeing
into account
guarantees that we will see everything
with a "jaundiced eye."
When it comes to seeing what we look at,
nothing beats seeing our seeing--
which means seeing in ways
that take our seeing into account.
A perspective that is self-reflective
is the most important acquisition
we can add to our life.
It will completely transform the way we live
by enabling us to "look at life from all sides now,"
which will avoid the rush to judgment,
jumping to conclusions,
assuming,
inferring,
conjecturing,
surmising,
and making a fool of ourselves.
Seeing what we look at
is seeing ourselves seeing,
is the foundational step
toward self-transparency,
which is the essential feature
of a life worth living.
You might think someone
would have told us about that
before now.
Maybe, constantly,
without pause,
all our life long.
An Afternoon at the Beach Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
If you have been with me
for a while,
you know that one of the central
features of my faith
is the crucial importance
of knowing what you would go to hell for--
being right about it being worth
going to hell for--
and being willing to go to hell for it.
Now, the catch is being right about its importance.
How do you know that what is important to you
should be important to you?
We all know people whose judgment is suspect.
We would not want them
looking after our children,
or taking care of our lawn,
or choosing our desert.
There is general agreement
that they don't know what is important.
And we know people whom we admire
for their tastes
and the quality of their life.
They live with grace and kindness,
and have a firm sense of direction
and do not waffle on matters of grave importance.
They know what they are doing,
and do it well.
They would all be on our list of admirable people.
So there is common agreement among us
as to what good judgment is and is not--
as to what is important and is not.
We all know what should be important,
and what should not be important.
How do we know?
Cultural cues perhaps.
We have a common culture.
We know how it is to be done in our culture.
We know how "we do it" here.
Put us in a different culture,
and it probably wouldn't go so well for us
until we learned the cues.
Until we learned how they do it there.
Then we could fit right in.
What is important is a cultural preference.
We think it is an individual choice,
but we are children of our culture.
Our culture can just be the group we run with.
What is important to us is important
to everyone in our group.
We take our cues for living from them.
We do it the way it is 'spozed to be done
within our sub-culture.
It still isn't an individual choice.
Cut off from others,
we don't have a clue about what is important.
We would go to hell for anything at all.
So, who composes our culture?
Who are the people we look to for guidance?
Who do we want to be like when we grow up?
Or just when we wake up each day?
Who do we try to please?
Who would be most happy with the choices we make?
That is who calls our shots,
directs our life,
guides us along the way.
And we talk about being free.
Being ourselves.
Making up our own mind.
But our mind is made up for us
by the people who are important to us.
The important thing to us
is keeping the right people happy with us.
That is what we would go to hell for.
Think about that.
What makes us think that the people we run with
know what is important?
How do they know?
What makes them think so?
How free are they
to decide for themselves
what is important?
Or, are we all tricking ourselves
thinking someone knows more than we do
about what matters most?
And, if so, where would that leave us?
Going to hell for what?
–0–
04
The Watchman and the Virgin 95/20/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
We live with a foot in different worlds.
There is the world of rock-solid,
tangible,
concrete,
factual,
weigh-able,
measure-able,
see/feel/touch/taste reality,
and there is the world
of numinous,
ineffable,
instinctive,
intuitive,
unconscious (because we are not conscious of it),
undetectable,
imperceptible,
undefinable,
inexplicable,
unsay-able reality beyond words.
It is our place to know more than words can say,
and to live in this world
of normal, apparent, reality,
as the incarnation,
expression,
exhibition,
living proof
of a reality that cannot be told.
–0–
03
Alligator Lake 05/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Santee State Park, Santee, South Carolina
Liberty! Justice! Equality! Truth!
Are the four corners of democracy--
and the essential rights of human development.
We have to be free to live our own life
without the constraints of injustice
and discrimination,
while honoring one another's right
to their own life.
That is what it takes to be true to ourselves
in the work
of finding and living our life--
an opportunity and a calling
that we have squandered and wasted
on entertaining pastimes
and addictive escapes
in avoiding our responsibility
to be who we are
in ways that incarnate/express/birth/exhibit
ourselves in service to the good of the whole.
It is time we stepped back
from our rush to wealth,
privilege and power
in the service of greed
and get to work
transforming our relationship
with ourselves
and living to answer the question,
"What should we do with the time left for living?"
With what we want being restricted to
doing what is called for
with the gifts that are ours
to serve and to share,
moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises,
whether we feel like it or not.
–0–
02
Six-mile Creek Road 07/12/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Lancaster County, South Carolina
Martin Hägglund has written
This Life--Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom
in which he says,
"Our time together is illuminated
by the sense that it will not last forever
and we need to take care of one another
because our lives are fragile."
His is a beautiful book
offered precisely at the right time,
with exactly what we need
to gather ourselves
and find our way forward,
individually and collectively--
and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
This is our time on the earth.
It is all we have to work with.
We are the only ones here to do the work.
It is all up to us--
the present and the future
hang in the balance,
waiting for us to stand up
and be who we are.
There is no one here but us.
No one is going to rescue us.
No Savior is going to deliver us
from the work that is ours to do,
from the times that are ours to live.
Fred Craddock said,
all those years ago,
"The message of the Messiah is,
'THERE IS NO MESSIAH!!!'"
There is only us.
And we have to make the most
of the time that is ours to live.
Beginning right here.
Right now.
Hägglund writes:
"My freedom require3s that I ask myself
what I should do with my time.
Even when I am utterly absorbed in what I do,
what I say, and what I love,
the possibility of this question
must be alive in me."
And, as with him, so with us all!
–0–
01
Smoky Mountain Winter 03/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Nothing can change
until something else does.
That is what keeps things
as they are.
Waiting for things to change.
We have to change what can be changed
in order for anything to change.
We start with changing nothing
but our awareness
of the situation
in each situation as it arises.
Awareness doesn't change anything,
but it is the foundational change
that changes everything.
Sit still and become aware
of sitting still.
Center yourself sitting still
in the present moment.
Realize that sitting here, now,
you are the center of the universe.
Breathe in the truth
of your being here, now,
at the center of all things.
Be aware of your breathing.
Control your breathing
by taking a slow, deep, breath
in through your nose
to the very bottom of your lungs.
Watch as your diaphragm expands
and your belly protrudes
to allow that to happen.
At full lung capacity,
release your breath slowly
to a full exhale,
contracting your stomach
to expel the air completely.
Between breaths,
pause for a slow count of five,
and repeat this process five times.
At the end of the last, sixth, breath,
focus your awareness on your sitting
and the space around you.
You have distanced yourself
from the world
of normal, apparent, reality
for the space of six breaths.
This distance is the space required
to observe the situation
without attachment to the situation.
detached awareness observes
without investment/involvement/participation/
judgment/concern/caring/opinion/etc.
Just watching.
Just seeing.
Just observing.
Just breathing.
That's all.
For six breaths.
Repeat this exercise
as frequently as you are able
throughout the day,
each day,
for the rest of your life.
Just sit.
Just breathe.
Just be aware of the moment,
sitting, breathing.
You will be transforming the world.
One breath at a time.
You don't have to believe it.
Just. Do. It.
What are we doing with our life?
What are we doing with our time?
How do we know it is the right thing to do?
Who says it is right, or wrong?
How would we know whom to believe
in case of a disagreement?
How do we know what to do with our life?
With our time?
"The answer, my friendis lying deep within,the answer is lying deep within!"
And we are back to my favorite
Joseph Campbell quote:
"That which we seek
lies far back in the darkest corner
of the cave we most don't want to enter."
That cave is deep within ourselves.
We seek what is seeking us,
and we don't want to have anything
to do with it.
It takes getting to the end of our rope
before we can change our mind
about what is important.
Waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear
is the worst kind of waiting
there is.
What are we going to do
with our life and with our time?
What is going to inform our living?
What is going to guide us along the way?
"The answer, my friendis lying deep within,the answer is lying deep within!"
Get your spelunking clothes on
and sit quietly
in the silence,
listening to, watching for,
experiencing,
all that arises from within.
You are listening, watching, for
what resonates with you,
for what picks you up
and propels you into your life
with an urgency that cannot be denied
or delayed.
You could call this a vision quest.
We never outlive the need for one of those.
We are waiting to be snared by a mythic vision
and hurled into our life
on a mission of meaning and purpose.
And all that is required of us
is that we sit still and be quiet,
watching and listening.
As often as we can,
as long as it takes.
–0–
04
Along Cane River 01/30/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Our imagination is the source
of everything we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
We have all we need
to live our life as it needs to be lived
every moment of every day.
All we have to do is access it.
And be aware of it
when it attempts to access us.
When we have an imaginary conversation
with God, say,
or anyone, living or dead or fictional,
Yoda or Obi-wan Kenobi,
we are having a conversation
with our imagination,
with ourselves!
We are all we have,
and even when we talk to other human beings,
we are talking to our projection of them,
we project ourselves onto them,
and hear ourselves saying
what we need to hear.
We cannot hear what we do not need to hear.
We have to hear what we need to hear,
knowingly,
so that our need to hear it may grow beyond it,
and, knowing what's what with us,
grow to need to hear something more,
something different,
so that realization "dawns" on us suddenly
over a gradual period of time.
To put this another way,
we have to keep listening to what
we do not need to hear,
and can make no sense of,
until we need to hear it,
and then it is like, "Of course!
Why didn't I see this before?"
Everything we need to hear
is already "there" within each of us,
waiting for the opportune time,
for the time we become capable of hearing it,
in order to welcome what we have to say.
In order to do our part
in growing ourselves to readiness,
we have to begin paying attention to--
being aware of--
all the ways "we" are trying to commune
with ourselves.
Our Unconscious, our Psyche, our Mind,
is always talking to us
with dreams,
hunches,
nudges,
insight,
ideas,
realizations,
instinct,
feelings,
urges,
urgencies,
resonances,
pulls and pushes, etc.
It is our place to tune into
what is going on
and stop, look, and listen
to what is being said,
and know what is going on.
Our imagination is our guide!
We have to open ourselves to it,
trust ourselves to it,
and allow ourselves to be led
along the way,
finding our life and living it,
with the help of our Invisible Friend.
Living in neutral,
without an investment in the outcome,
with nothing at stake--
nothing to gain,
nothing to lose--
unattached to self-interest
or personal concerns,
frees us to respond to what is happening
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
in light of what is being called for,
here and now
in the situation as it arises,
just as it is.
Expectations,
assumptions,
inferences,
tradition
and precedent
can be set aside
in favor of the merits of the case
and the needs of the moment
"thus come."
This is the way to take a photograph.
And it is the way to live
in each scene throughout every day.
The scene calls for the approach to the scene.
We cannot decide beforehand
how the photograph ought to be taken,
or bother even with wondering
how it is supposed to be done.
It is supposed to be done
by seeing what's what
and responding in ways
fitting to the time that is at hand.
Just breathe.
Just see.
Just hear.
Just take it all in.
Allow the mud to settle
and the water to clear,
and wait to see what you do
free to do what needs to be done
in the moment that is here, now,
spontaneously,
sincerely,
with everything on the line,
and nothing personally
to gain or lose--
like the archer before the target
before the arrow flies.
–0–
02
The Grandfather Mountain Variations 02 Oil Paint Rendered–Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We see the way we see.
We think the way we think.
We feel the way we feel.
We believe the way we believe...
Why?
What sets us up to see,
think, feel, believe...
the way we do?
What makes it easy for us to see,
think, feel, believe...
the way we do?
How do we know that the way we see things
is the way to see things?
Or that the way we think about things
is the way to think about things?
It is just "spontaneous," isn't it?
We don't know why we do it the way we do it, do we?
We don't think about any of it, do we?
Why not?
Why don't we think about it?
Examine it?
Inspect it?
Make inquiries?
Get to the bottom of it?
How much time do we spend looking into
the way we see things?
How much effort do we put into
seeing differently?
Who do we live to please
with the way we see things,
think about things,
feel about things,
believe?
Who do we live to displease
with regard to these things?
Who would be most happy with us
about the way we see things, etc.?
Who would be the least happy?
Who influences/controls
our seeing, thinking, feeling, believing?
How would we go about deciding for ourselves
how to see, think, feel, believe?
Who is in charge of who we are?
Who will not allow us to be different?
We experience something
and respond to it in some way.
All the time.
Everyday.
Seek the source of the response.
What creates our way of responding
to the experiences of our life?
Our entire history of responses
have a theme running through it.
What is the nature of that theme?
How do we always respond to similar situations?
How do we never respond?
How do the ways we respond
perpetuate the responding environment
we have created and live out of,
insuring habitual responses
day after day?
How much awareness/reflection of our response
is included with each response?
How self-aware are we?
How self-transparent are we?
How often do we wonder why we respond the way we do?
Or why we never respond the way we never respond?
Do we ever talk to anyone
about our response pattern?
Do we ever think about it?
Do we ever change it?
How does alcohol fit into our response pattern?
Marijuana?
Inquiry into the nature of our responses?
Examination of the elements involved?
Experimentation with different ways of responding?
How thoughtfully do we live?
How mindfully aware?
How much do we know about
what outside of us
triggers what is within us?
What flips the switch that sets us off?
What is the origin of "the switch"?
How did it come to be?
How would we have reacted
before "the switch" was formed?
How does the process of "switch formation"
continue to work in our life?
How much time do we spend in a week
getting to the bottom of who we are?
What goes into our being the way we are?
What do we regret about the way we are?
How do we wish we were?
What are we doing to assist the transformation?
Where do we go from here?
Fillmore Glen 10/03/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Fillmore Glen State Park, Moravia, New York
We are the center and ground
of our own existence.
We interpret our experience (reality)
to suit ourselves.
What we say goes.
We are our own authority.
Our own God.
We see all we look at,
all we experience,
in light of all we have looked at,
experienced,
and how we have responded to all of it
up to now.
Past experience influences present experience,
and we cannot get outside of,
or away from,
what we have experienced to this point,
in order to experience things afresh,
with no assumptions or expectations,
here and now.
We see here and now,
from the perspective gained
then and there--
and we guide ourselves forward
based on the impact,
and our interpretation,
of our past.
We live in a bubble
generated by the assumptions
and expectations
flowing from the past interpretation
of our experience.
Our life is as we say it is
based on the way we have said it was
from our beginning
to our here and now.
We cannot see any way other
than the way we have seen--
until we begin to see in ways
that take our seeing into account.
When we begin to see our seeing,
we become free-enough
to talk about "hypotheses"
based on our assumptions
regarding "reality,"
and "see more than meets the eye,"
by bringing ourselves into the picture
as the origin of the projections
we bestow upon the world around us
and all that is therein!
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Blue Mailbox 11/17/2013 Oil Pant Rendered — Botany Bay Heritage Preserve, Edisto Island, South Carolina
Living well comes down to two things:
seeing what is happening
and doing what needs to be done about it.
This is difficult
because we interfere
with both the seeing and the doing.
Interpretation is everything.
Right interpretation is everything!
Right seeing and Right doing are everything!
Learning to see our seeing/doing
is the primary task of the Hero's Journey.
Self-transparency,
self-examination,
self-realization,
self-correction,
are the four steps
in self-direction.
And we generally have
more important things in mind.
Which makes being right
about what is important
the most important thing.
We are all sure we are right
about what is important.
We are all sure we are right
about what is right
and what is wrong.
What is right
is what we say is right.
What is wrong
is what we say is wrong.
How do we know what we are talking about?
We "take it on faith"!
Everything hinges on how right we are
about the things we take on faith!
Whether we live in the Wasteland
or in the Promised Land
depends on our being right
about the things we say are right.
And the journey from the Wasteland
to the Promised Land
is how long it takes us
to change our mind about what is right--
and be right about it.
Crabtree Falls Panorama 05/30/2008 Oil Paint Rendering — Blue Ridge Parkway, Little Switzerland, North Carolina
What is the organizing idea
of our life?
The original Oomph driving
our original nature?
We are here to do what?
What drives us?
What shapes our life?
What does our particular constellation
of interests/abilities/knacks/proclivities/
virtues/characteristics
equip us to do?
What calls us forth?
Leads us on?
What fascinates us?
Attracts us?
Spellbinds us?
What is the theme running through
all that we are enthusiastic about?
What brings us joy?
What is the spark that lightens up our day?
And leads us along the way?
Sit with these questions.
See where they lead.
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McMullen Creek 12/28/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — McMullen Creek Greenway, Charlotte, North Carolina
Native Americans have a saying:
"It's a good day to die!"
That means,
it is a good day to die
in the service
of what needs to be done--
in the service of what needs us to do it!
There is only us
and what is ours to do--
beyond what we want to do,
beyond what we feel like doing,
beyond what we are in the mood for,
beyond what we are interested in,
beyond what is on our agenda
beyond our idea of how our life
is to be spent...
Who are we?
What are we about?
What are we to be about?
We only have to be who we are,
and be about what we are to be about.
That is all that is asked of us ever.
But, we have our mind on other things.
We have the time left for living
to find our life
and live it.
And we are burning daylight.
What???
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The Grandfather Mountain Variations 01 10/15/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
There are those
who cannot bear the world
as it is,
as it is becoming,
as it needs to be.
Jesus said about them,
"Leave the dead to bury the dead,
and you go find your life
and live it!"
Native Americans said about them,
to their young leaving home
to find their way in the world,
"As you go to seek your gifts
and the things that need
what you have to offer,
the birds of the air will shit on you--
do not pause even to wipe it off."
We are born with a mission,
with a purpose beyond all of our purposes,
with a calling to go and be who we are,
and let the outcome be the outcome.
We leave the womb
and enter the world
of 10 billion distractions,
10 trillion diversions,
and 1 better idea
of what would make us truly happy forever
after another
for as long as we are alive.
And our task is to find our life
and live it.
How are you doing with that?
Here is the test for knowing:
How often can you sit still
and be quiet
for how long?
The silence reveals
who we are
and who we are not
and what is ours to do
and what is not ours to do.
How long can you be quiet?
How often do you seek out the silence?
Balance and harmony
come to those who wait quietly
for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.
And all of that,
and all that follows,
is up to us.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 