December 28, 2020

03

Confluence 07 10/29/2014 Oil Paint Rendering — Ramsey Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Greenbriar District
We all possess a super weapon
that is well within our reach,
yet far exceeds our grasp.

It is simply-and-simultaneously-impossibly
being mindfully aware
of what is happening
and what needs to happen in response
in each situation as it arises,
and how we might help meet that need
with the gifts/virtues/characteristics/
genius/original nature
that come with us from the womb
for just such an occasion--
to be used with innocence, sincerity and spontaneity,
with no investment in what we stand to gain or lose,
or any idea of exploiting the situation
for our benefit in any way.

That's it.

We are equipped to see and do,
to rise to every occasion,
and live out our lives
in the service of compassion and grace.

If that doesn't impress you 
as being much of a super weapon,
that is because you are thinking 
about weapons in the wrong way.

They are not for serving our needs
and interests,
but for doing what is right
at the right time,
in the right way.

Why do anything other than that?

–0–

02

Pawley’s Island Moon 03 12/16/2013 — Pawley’s Island, South Carolina
What do you care about?
Why do you care?
How would other people 
know you care about it
by the way you live your life?

Get to the bottom of all three questions.

Write down your answers
in a poem,
or an essay,
that speaks the truth
about you 
and what you care about.

Take your time with this exercise,
but do not put it off.

It will take you to the core
of who you are,
and what you are doing about it--
and call you to life.

–0–

01

Fall Woods Oil Paint Rendering 11/12/2006 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Martin Palmer says all of our lives
are grounded on faith,
but not all of us have any idea
of what the ground of our faith is.

It helps to know what grounds us,
and to know what we think about that
in terms of its helpfulness to us
and to the life we need to be living.

Martin and I give away something 
of our faith
when we imply that
there is a life we need to be living.

That is a statement of faith
if ever there were one.

Speaking of statements of faith,
here are two collections:

"It's fine.
It's all fine.
Everything is fine."

"It doesn't matter.
Nothing matters.
Nothing has ever mattered."

These are statements of faith
representative of attitudes,
frames of mind,
perspectives
that ground someone's life
and direct their living.

We all believe things
incapable of verification
that reflect our general orientation
and the effort we make
to shape our life
and impact the world around us.

What do you believe?
What is worth believing?
Everything about you/us hangs
on how we answer these questions.

The things we tell ourselves
and the seriousness with which we take them
make all the difference
in terms of the quality of the life we live,
and the enthusiasm with which we live it.

If you are going to take anything on faith
(And we all are going to take a lot of things on faith!)
let the importance of the things we tell ourselves
be one of the things on that list!

Martin and I would say
that our story--
the story we are telling about us
by the way we are living our life--
our life story,
is important beyond all we are capable
of imagining,
and, more than that,
it is a part of another, larger, story
that encompasses all of our stories
throughout time.

Our story is connected with all of our stories,
and all of our differences
create our commonalities
and produce the song
we all are singing
that we don't know anything about.

And everything we do has an impact
beyond anything we recognize as being impactful. 

Our influence is actual,
and it is amazing.

It matters how we live.

If you are going to believe anything
(And you are going to believe a lot of things!)
believe that!
And live as though it is so!

Moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
your whole life long!

December 27, 2020

04

Bog River Falls 09/29/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, New York
Here we are. Now what? 

The relationship between/among the individual 
and the collective 
required to produce and maintain, 
oversee and steward, 
meaningful change for the good of the whole--
the whole earth--
is governed by what? 

Who does what to whom, when, where, how? 

The Tao is doing the right thing 
in the right way 
at the right time, 
moment-by-moment-by-moment. 

Which is made possible by being quiet 
and living out of our own center i
n ways that incarnate our original nature 
in doing what is called for 
in the right way 
at the right time 
in each situation as it arises. 

And who is learning to do that? 
Who is living to do that? 

How many of us with it take to do that 
in order to "turn the light around," 
and transform the way 
life is lived upon the earth? 

And how do we get there from here?

Someone?

Anyone?

–0–

03

Blue Moon 06 01/31/2018 — Indian Land, South Carolina
The Tao is recognized and honored 
by all religions everywhere.

Everybody acknowledges the appropriate time,
the appointed time,
the fullness of time,
the right time,
the time to act
and the time to refrain from acting.

And everybody understands
that there is a right way
and a wrong way
to do anything--
and knows there is a right thing to do
and a wrong thing to do
on every occasion under heaven.

That is all the Tao is about:
the right way to do
the right thing to do
at the right time to do it.

We all recognize the importance
of the Tao,
but.
We don't do much about
putting ourselves in accord
with the Tao
in the times and places of our living.

And that's the kink in the hose.

We have to learn to lay aside
our will for the moment,
our wants, wishes and desires
for our life,
stand apart from our agendas
and our contriving
to have our way,
and live sincerely
in the service of the good of the moment,
spontaneously offering what we have to give
without seeking to exploit
any occasion in any way
for our benefit,
advantage,
pleasure.

That is all it will take.
Heaven won't be any better than that.

–0–

02

Live Oak Lane 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Undisclosed Location
Our work is integrating opposites,
creating harmony,
realizing balance,
honoring symmetry,
maintaining the tension
of mutually exclusive contradictions,
dancing/living with the rhythm 
of yin and yang coursing through
our veins
and meeting us a every turn
in the course of every day.

India's Hinduism and Buddhism
deplore duality.
China's Taoism and Zen delight in duality,
and see it as the heart of the cosmos,
the rhythm of life and being.

From the Tao te Ching (Chapter 42),
we read:
"The Tao gives birth to the One (The Origin),
the One gives birth to the Two (Yin and Yang),
the Two give birth to the Three (Heaven, Earth, Humanity),
the Three give birth to every living thing.

All things are held in Yin and carry Yang,
and they are held together in the Ch'i
of teeming energy."

Duality is One with Life and Being.

When we are most whole, we are playing
with what Joseph Campbell called,
"the potentials of this infinitely and incessantly
changing universal duad (Yin and Yang)."

Living authentically, genuinely, honestly
is being true to the contradictions within,
bearing the tension of being two things at once
(I want to be the best father/husband/etc. who ever lived,
and I don't want to be a father/husband/etc. at all!).

"This is the way things are,
and this is the way things also are,
and that is the way things ARE!"

"This is the way things are,
and this is what can be done about it,
and that's the way things are!"

We honor the rhythms of life
in the way we live with life,
within life.

"The tide comes in,
and the tide turns around,
and the tide goes out,
and the tide turns around,
and the tide comes in..."

Ebb and flow,
up and down,
right and left,
forward and backward,
Yin and Yang...

We dance with our circumstances,
moving with the rhythm of our life,
in sync with the Tao,
doing what is called for
by the time and place of our living,
through all the times and places of our living,
without imposing our idea of how things 
ought to be,
but honoring how things are,
and what needs to be done in light of it,
here and now,
all our life long.

"and there is only the dance" (T.S. Eliot).

–0–

01

Cypress Mandala/Adams Millpond Mirror-Mirror Oil Pant Rendered — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Our depth is without end.
We will never get to the bottom
of who we are.
There will always be
more to us than meets the eye.
Why do we stop exploring ourselves
so soon?

That is the line separating
ignorance from intelligence.

Intelligence has nothing to do
with how smart we are,
or how educated we are,
and has everything to do 
with how inquisitive we are,
and how playful we are.

Most scientists are intelligent people
because they love questions
and delight in playing with possibilities,
and imagining new worlds,
and seeing what makes things work,
and keeps things from working.

Ignorant people know what they like,
and what they don't like,
and that's that.
They think the way 
they are supposed to think,
and do things the way 
they ought to be done.
And that's that.

Ignorant people and intelligent people
have a hard time getting along,
and rarely spend much time together.
When they are thrown together
by a natural disaster
or a war,
they can cooperate in getting the job done,
but then it's back to their way
of being who they are
with people who are like them.

It is great to have people who are like us.
That makes it easier
and a lot more fun
being who we are.

But.

We have to learn to do that
without making people who are not like us
into enemies
whom we disparage,
berate,
ridicule
and monsterize.

We have to learn to listen to one another
around the table,
across the oceans.

We have to pretend we are all
in foxholes together,
saving the environment,
defeating the pandemic-of-the-day,
sharing resources,
and improving the quality of life
for everyone everywhere.

The world is not a friendly place.
And that's where we all come in.
We can befriend one another
without everybody being the same.

Why not?

2021-A

This is the parent page for the first quarter of 2021. I hope you like what you find here, and may 2021 be a blessing to all who know a blessing when they see one!

Ginkgos 03 11/27/2021 — Ballantyne Ginkgo Park, Charlotte, North Carolina
We are in a hurry
for things to be
as we want them to be.

Magic wands were invented
to rush things along--
in a "Serenity NOW! DAMNIT!!!"
kind of way.

We do not want to wait
for what we want!
Because it might not be
what we want!
And we want to be SURE 
it is what we want.
NOW!

And here we are.

Nothing changes until we do.
And we don't change
until we change our mind
about what is important.

Nothing will be different
until we are different.
Which means handing over control.
Surrendering what we want
in the service of what needs to happen-
in a whole-hearted,
total commitment,
"Thy will, not mine be done,"
kind of way
(With "Thy" being the way things need to be
for the good of the whole
in each situation as it arises,
throughout the rest of time).

It is amazing how well things work together
when nothing is striving to have its way
at the expense of everything else.

December 26, 2020

04

Colt Creek Cascades 02 04/14/2014 Oil Paint Rendering — Pierson’s Glen, Saluda, North Carolina
Our life is uniquely equipped 
to lead us to the heart 
of what matters most.

The problem is 
that we have our own ideas
about what that is.

And our life has to get us
to abandon our idea
of what matters most
and to embrace our life's idea
of what matters most,
and live in the service of that
with all our heart.

This is the story of Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden,
and the story of Jesus of Nazareth
in the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is the story of humankind.
We live to know what is important
and live in light of it,
serving it with our life.

And we interfere with that process,
with the process of life,
by forcing our idea of what is important
on our life.

Ideally, we live to comprehend--
and pledge our liege loyalty to--
the meaning of:
"Thy will, not mine, be done!"
with "Thy" understood as
"The flow of life and being,"
or "The Mystery of Life and Being,"
or "What needs us to do 
what needs to be done
here and now."

It would help to have this 
explained to us at the start,
and to be reminded of it often.

Our life is not ours
to do with as we will!
We belong to our life
to do what it needs us to do!

This is the call of Destiny
to acquiesce to it's demands.

Everything rides on our response.

–0–

03

The Bench 09/05/2017 B&W — Charlotte, North Carolina
Consequences are the only teacher.
Experience is the experience of consequences.
Reflection on experience
leads to new realizations.
Realization takes the past
and constructs the future.
Yesterday's wrong
is tomorrow's right.
It takes getting it wrong
to get it right.
Doing it wrong
to do it right.

We learn to make really good
chicken noodle soup
by making a lot of very bad
chicken noodle soup
with our eyes open,
seeing what we look at,
reflecting on our errors
to the point of new realizations
and informed hypotheses
and additional experimentation
all the way to perfection.

We live boldly,
courageously,
toward doing it better,
toward getting it right.
Right Soup,
according to our taste,
exists "out there."
We only have to find our way to it,
and trust ourselves
to know it when we get there.

It is the same 
with every aspect of our life.

We are making soup constantly.
The idea is to make really good soup,
to live a really good life,
one mistake at a time.

We get it right
by getting it wrong
with our eyes open,
seeing what we look at,
reflecting on what our experience
is telling us,
to the point of new realizations
leading to different ways of doing things,
all the way to perfection.

Throw away all of the rule books,
all of the doctrines,
creeds,
theology,
and live with your eyes open
to what is happening
and what the consequences
have to tell you
about what you need to do differently
in light of what needs to be done
to make things as good as they can be
as assessed by the majority of people
evaluating your life over time.

–0–

02

Adams Millpond Mirror Panorama 11/10/2014 Oil Paint Rendering –Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Fraser Snowden said,
"The only true philosophical question is
'Where do you draw the line?'"

Where do you draw it?

Only you can draw the line
where you draw it.
Where do you think it goes?
Only you know that.

What keeps you from drawing the line
where you think it goes?
Get to the bottom of that question.

Who draws your lines for you?

When we stop drawing our own lines,
it is all over for us.

Joseph Campbell said it all comes down to
drawing our own lines.
To having the courage
to draw our own lines.

His exact words are:
"The aim of individuation requires
that one should find
and then learn to live out of
one's own center,
in control of one's own
for and against."

In control of where one 
draws the line.

That is what makes us human.
Drawing the line where we determine
it needs to be drawn!

Oh, and we have to be right about it!

That's the catch with being human.
We have to say so,
and not so,
and be right about it.

Being right about it 
is where philosophy comes in.
Who is to say
what is right and what is not?
We are, of course.
But. 
We have to be right about it.

This being right
is completely of the moment.
It is ephemeral,
mercurial, 
fleeting,
and gone like that (snaps fingers).

Jesus said "The Spirit 
is like the wind that blows where it will."
Which means not even the Spirit
knows what it will do next.
Which means nothing can be 
written down,
set in stone,
declared to be so for all ages to come.

There are no laws.
No laws of nature.
This is what science has discovered.
There are only hypotheses. 
Only best guesses.
Of the moment.
To be verified or refuted
in the next moment,
or one of the ones after that.

There is right.
And there is wrong.
Which can be determined
only later.
In the meantime,
we are left with drawing our lines
for the time being,
and redrawing them again,
and again,
in light of future revelations,
when we are better able
to know what we are doing,
knowing that we will never know
all we need to know
to know what we are doing.

"Sin boldly!"
Said Martin Luther.
"And believe more boldly
in the marvelous grace of God!"

We have to live boldly,
from our own center,
from our own for and against,
from our own yes and no--
and be right about it.
Which means knowing when we 
are wrong,
or have been wrong,
and making adjustments,
and re-drawing our lines
in light of the best information
currently available.

Believing in--
counting on--
grace all the way
to the end of the line,
knowing there is no end of the line,
as far as we can tell,
given the information 
currently available to us.

–0–

01

Mesquite Dunes 04/06/2006 — Death Valley National Park, California
They want impunity and immunity.
They want a law that puts them forever
beyond the law.
A law that says they aren't liable,
which means they aren't responsible,
which means they can do whatever they like.

The top 1% I'm talking about.
Maybe the top 0.5%.
And also those aspiring to be
among the top 0.5%.

They want the Prince MBS Rule,
which says, "Anything Goes,"
applied to them.
Exclusively.

And they will do anything
for the privilege
of being able to do anything.

They all aspire 
to being who Donald Trump is.
Who aspires to be who MBS is.

Donald Trump will do anything
to remain in power.
Power is everything to Donald Trump
and to all of the people
who want to be just like him.

And power means making everyone
afraid to oppose you.
That is Donald Trump,
and MBS,
and all their doting legions.

Don't forget Mitch McConnell.
The Enabler in Chief.
When he says, "No Democrat bill
will ever pass!"
he is exercising the power
he envies and envisions for himself.

Total power.
Absolute power.
The power of God.

Republicans and their keeper/donors
want the power of God.
They want to be God.
They want God to be their toady. 

And they will do anything
to have what they want.

If we are going to stop them
it is going to be now.
Every eligible voter in Georgia
has to vote for the Democrats.
If they don't win,
it's over.

Why is this so hard to see?

December 25, 2020

04

Peach Orchard Panorama 01/17/2015 — Springs Farm, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Martha Graham premiered Lamentation 
on January 8, 1930. 
You can participate in her dance here:


Hers was/is the only appropriate response 
to her times
and ours.

Metaphors express what words cannot say.
The most important things cannot be said.
The deepest things cannot be said.
The truest things cannot be said.

Yet we have lost the medium of metaphor.
We don't know symbols.
If it isn't a fact,
it isn't real.

What are the meaningful symbols
in your life?
In the life of the nation?

We live in the absence of symbols
like a fish lives out of water.
Without metaphors to speak to us,
and for us,
we are dead people walking,
not seeing,
not hearing,
not feeling,
not knowing...

Plodding through our life
going nowhere.

Oceans of tears exist
just on the other side of silence,
but we will not be that quiet.
Noise is our salvation.
Noise and addiction du jour.

We have to talk, talk, talk,
defend,
explain,
justify,
excuse...

Anything but be still and quiet,
listening,
looking,
because we might see and hear,
and never stop crying.

Let Martha Graham say
what we are experiencing,
without saying a thing.

–0–

03

Maine Moon 09/27/2012 — Stonington, Deer Isle, Maine
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the Father 
of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.
His YouTube videos are not to be missed
(The shortest ones first)
in the work of establishing
ourselves in the practice of mindfulness.

But.

There is one thing he fails to stress
to my satisfaction:

Silence is the source of Good
and Noise is the source of Evil.

Blaise Pascal said,
“All of humanity's problems stem 
from (our) inability to sit quietly 
in a room alone.”

Being quiet
and paying attention
to the silence,
noticing what arises--
without engaging any of it,
but simply being aware of it,
and watching as one thing
is replaced by another,
with no apparent connection
and no inherent meaning,
and how your emotions
are aroused,
and how your body reacts physically,
to the thoughts that fly about
erratically,
haphazardly,
inexplicably...

And yet, the one thing they have in common
is you.

Watch for patterns to develop.
For themes to emerge.
For a story to take shape.

We do not think "just anything."
Our "monkey mind" is not swinging
wildly from tree to tree.
The chaos is ordered precisely,
and presents a clear picture
of how things stand with us
at this particular moment in our life.

Our mind is shouting,
"Listen! Look! 
This is how it is with you!
Pay attention to the apparent madness!
This is the mud
you must allow to settle,
so that the water can clear
and you can see what is interfering
with your ability 
to live your life as it needs to be lived,
moment-to-moment,
day-to-day!"

Being aware of the noise
in the silence
allows us to distance ourselves
from the turmoil
and just see, just know, just be
in the moment with it all
in our awareness.

Returning our attention to our breathing,
allows us to hold it all in awareness,
just watching,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just breathing...

And things shift.

Without our doing anything
beyond watching, seeing, knowing, breathing...

Wu-wei, as the Zen Taoists might say.

Make a regular routine
of sitting with the Silence,
and be amazed at how that simple act
transforms the way you live your life
over time.

–0–

02

Beaufort Fall 13 11/13/2017 Oil Paint Rendering — Beaufort, South Carolina
We are the final authority
in all matters of faith and practice.
We are the one who says so.
We are responsible 
for all of our decisions and choices,
and the burden of our outcomes
remains ours alone to bear
throughout all eternity.

Our life is our responsibility.

Life is constantly throwing things at us--
and that is where we come in.
We respond to each thing as it comes,
and the way we do that 
is the teller that tells the tale.

No matter what happens to us,
we say what it means,
and we say what we do about it.

If we yield our position
and allow someone else to tell us what to do,
we choose to yield and to submit to the other.

Our choices and our actions are inescapable.
We carry the weight of having lived
up to this point,
and will carry it forward
from this point on.

We are the authority
by which our life is lived.

That being the case,
you might think we would 
be more diligent about
our approach to the moment at hand--
more aware,
more intentional,
more alert,
more awake,
completely present 
and accounted for--
and ready to deal with 
what is ours to manage
as only we can.

Instead,
we allow ourselves to be swept along 
by our circumstances,
with no idea 
of what is guiding 
our boat on its path
through the sea.

It is time 
we take up the work
of getting to the bottom of it--
and assert our authority
over what we do about
what is happening
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

Our life is what we do
in response to our circumstances.
What we do is our call to make.
Moment-by-moment-by-moment.
If we aren't making the call,
we are making it by default
in a "Not to decide is to decide"
kind of way.

We are Luke Skywalker
with the training helmet on,
having to learn what it means
to trust the Force,
which is also the Source,
which is also the Mystery 
at the Heart of Life and Being.

Moment-by-moment-by-moment.

How well we do it is dependent
on how intentional and aware
we are about what we are doing.

It is all up to us.
For better, for worse.
All our life long.

–0–

01

Watkins Glen 07 09/20/2015 Oil Paint Rendering — Watkins Glen State Park, Watkins Glen, New York
The Christ I am
wishes a Merry Christmas
to the Christ you are.

If the Christ is anything,
the Christ is iconoclastic to the core.
No theology!
No doctrine!
No ideology!
No creeds!
Just being right about what is important,
and seeing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises--
doing it without considering
our advantage,
or what we stand to gain or lose,
with no interest in the outcome,
just giving the best we have to offer
to the true good of the moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.

Of course, 
the outcome of this moment,
will set up the next moment,
where we will again offer what is needed,
so that our work is never done,
which always gives us something to do,
so what's the problem?

Well, one problem is being right
about what is important.
We get better at that over time,
bringing our experience into play 
with our imagination,
and our intuition,
and our instincts,
and our sense of what's what,
but throughout time,
consequences remain our only teacher,
and we are always learning what is important,
and getting better at reading situations,
and having less at stake
in what is happening,
and becoming more aware of ourselves
responding to what is going on,
and what's pushing our buttons,
and yanking our chains,
and engaging our complexes,
as we work things out slowly
over time,
reflecting continually
in the service of new realizations
and an increasingly better alignment
with the Tao,
and a deepening accordance/resonance
with the Mystery at the heart of Life and Being
throughout our life.

The Christ is always becoming The Christ--
and we are always 
incarnating/embodying/expressing/exhibiting
the Christ in all that we do.

And my Christ wishes your Christ
the merriest of Christmases 
with good faith
and courage for the journey
through all that is before us
all along the Way!

December 24, 2020

01

Steele Creek Trestle Panorama 02/13/2014 Oil Paint Rendering — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
It is Christmas Eve. 
A wonderful time 
for re-evaluating your relationship
with your life.

We know all about what 
needs to be changed about the world.
What needs to be changed about you?

About your relationship with you?
About your relationship with the world?

It is a week until New Year's Eve.
The New Year is the traditional time
to consider what needs to be new about us
in honor of a new year,
a new beginning,
replete with resolutions and high hopes
for "this year being different."

We have a week to focus on our relationship
with our life and the world.
Not to think,
but to listen.

We do not get anywhere we need to be
by thinking,
but by listening,
by looking,
by seeing,
by hearing,
by reflecting/connecting
and forming new realizations.

What do we need to realize?
We have no idea.
So thinking cannot get us there.

Spend your time in the next week,
sitting still,
being quiet,
listening,
looking,
open to what comes up in the silence,
waiting for things to arise
with a particular "charge" about them
that "catches your eye,"
and "calls your name,"
and demands that you pay attention.

Look closer at those things,
just watching,
just seeing,
just hearing,
holding everything in your awareness,
writing down what needs to be written down,
and continuing to sit still,
be quiet,
and listen,
look...

And see where you are in a week.
Perhaps the mud will settle,
and the water will clear,
and you will know what
you are being called to do.

Then there is doing it.

Throughout the New Year,
and beyond!

December 23, 2020

02

Adams’ Millpond 11/10/2015 — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
"What should I do?
What response should I make?
What is being asked of me?
What is being called for in this immediate situation,
here and now?"

We only have to know what is being called for
in the situation that is most pertinent
in any moment,
to know what we should do.

What is your most pressing situation
right here, right now?
Only you can decide that.

What is being called for?
Only you can decide that?

If you are being paralyzed,
or held hostage,
or rendered hopeless,
by the absence of acceptable outcomes--
if everything you can think of doing
is useless in terms of its impact
on the situation as a whole,
think smaller,
think here and now.

Share cups of cold water,
or hot coffee,
or room temperature wine,
and talk of better days,
or of what would help to get through 
these days,
or simply share the warmth
of each other's company...

You know,
like that.

–0–

01

Charlotte Skyline 08/23/2017 Oil Paint Rendering– Charlotte, North Carolina
Enlightenment,
Illumination,
Reflection/realization
all result in
awakening to what is important--
that is,
knowing what we know to be important--
and being right about it,
so that we live out of that knowing
in each situation as it arises.

This is all it takes to put ourselves
right with ourselves
in the life we are living,
and with the world in which
we are living.

And that shifts the world on its course,
and puts the world in alignment 
with itself.

And that transforms everything.

Be right.
Do right.
Make right.

Get that down,
and we all have it made!

December 22, 2020

02

In the Beginning 07/28/2016 — Indian Land, South Carolina
We care too much
about the wrong things,
and we care too little
about the right things.

Consider what you care about,
and what you don't care about.

All of the time.

–0–

01

In The Marsh Panorama 08/22/2015 — Beaufort, South Carolina
We are on our own.
No one can do it for us.
Teachers, at best, can only offer
their experience as a guide,
and, at worst, can only tell us
what someone told someone who told someone
who told someone...
who told them.

Too many spiritual guides
and religious leaders
only know what they got
from someone else.

Ask around:
"What do you know of God
that you did not get from
some other source,
including the Bible?"
Ask the people who claim to know
more than you know,
"What do you know of God
that you discovered on your own,
without help from anyone else?"

The old Taoist Masters
cut to the chase, saying:
"Seek the Source
in the Silence!
Live with sincerity 
and spontaneity 
out of your own sense
of what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
incarnating/expressing/exhibiting
the face that was yours before your
grandparents were born!"

No theology there!
No doctrine there!
No creedal formula there!
Only personal experience at the core!
And your personal experience
will be different from everyone else's!

Their slogans,
for example,
"Eat when hungry,
rest when tired,"
mean "Live out of your own sense
of what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises!"

True to our own sense 
of what needs to be done,
we gradually learn to read
our situations with a perceptive eye,
and get responding to them appropriately
down to a fine art--
and no one can tell us how to do that!

So, "Get in there and do your thing,
and let the outcome be your teacher
in knowing how to apply your thing
to each situation as it arises!"

That is all there is to it!

December 21, 2021

04

The Sun 06/03/2019 — Indian Land, South Carolina
Today is the Winter Solstice,
the shortest day in the year,
and the day the sun turns back toward the earth.

The day all those human beings were sacrificed
through the ages
to bring The God back--
and it WORKED!!!

All of our ideologies "work" the same way!

"Let it be!" said the Beatles.

You can't beat that 
for a life-giving attitude.

Let the sun go
if it's going!
Let it come back
if it comes back!

We can't do that with The God.
We have to impose our will
with our supplications
and votive offerings
and even human sacrifices.

We are stupid in so many ways.
Let's see how many ways 
we can not be stupid any longer.

–0–

03

November Orchard 10 11/03/2013 — Springs Farm, Fort Mill South Carolina, Oil Paint Rendering
Joseph Campbell said,
"One should find,
and learn to live out of,
one's own center,
and be the source
of one's own
for and against."

This cannot be done
without killing the dragon
with "Thou Shalt" engraved
on every scale.

We cannot submit to the expectations
and mores of parents
and society,
and speak with our own voice
and follow our own sense
of what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

What is ours to bring forth
is unique among the ages,
and we cannot give birth to ourselves
following the dictates
of "Those Who Know Best" (Truman Capote).

We are different from everyone else,
and must have compassion 
for our different-ness,
and courage to befriend it
by living in ways
that allow it to shine through
and be known
all along the way!

–0–

02

Jenne Farm 04 09/28/2015 — Reading, Vermont
The next time you hear 
a politician denouncing/decrying socialism
ask them who pays their salary.
Ask them who pays for their health insurance.
Ask them who pays for their housing.
Their meals.
Their eye glasses.
And all things pertaining to living their life.

Then ask them who pays public school teachers
and employees,
including equipment and facilities.

And who pays law enforcement officers,
including equipment and facilities.

And who pays military service men and women,
including equipment and facilities.

And who pays all politicians, 
including their equipment and facilities
on all levels of government,
national, state and local.

And then ask them why it is okay
for taxpayers to pay all these people,
and it isn't okay for taxpayers
to pay for their own health care
out of the taxes they pay
which pays for all these people.

And why isn't it okay to subsidize 
their own salaries when a pandemic 
forces them into joblessness,
the way their taxes are used to subsidize
farmers when crops fail,
or businesses and corporations,
including air lines,
when their income is disrupted by a pandemic?

Ask them why socialism is okay in all these areas,
but it isn't okay for the people
who are paying the taxes
that support people in all these areas.

Ask them that.
And don't let them put you off
with anything less than
a completely satisfactory answer
that explains clearly
why you are less worthy
than any of these other people
of benefiting from the very taxes you pay.

Don't let them go 
until you know why you aren't as important
as all these other people are.

Your taxes benefit them.
Why do politicians oppose your taxes
benefiting you?

–0–

01

Catawba Trestle 05-B 12/21/2015 — River Walk Park, Rock Hill, South Carolina
The term "Truth Commission"
seems to have limitations and restrictions
that would interfere with its implied purpose
of getting to the truth,
so, let's call it
"The Katie Porter Grand Inquisition"
(The very Katie Porter who is
the Representative from California's 45th District),
and authorize her to determine
the most efficient and expedient way
of getting to the bottom of
"Who authorized whom
to do what to whom,
where, when, why, and how--
in regard to everything done
under the Trump Administration
from start to finish,
including what laws were,
or may have been, broken,
and what penalties have been called for
that need to be applied
to see that justice is done
and grievances addressed,
in every instance,
with no exceptions or exclusions."

And have her do it
however she determines it needs to be done.

Beginning on January 21, 2021.

December 20, 2020

02

Islands in the Stream 01/11/2013 — Lake Jeanette, Greensboro, North Carolina
Joseph Campbell said,
"The crucial thing to live for
is the sense of life
in what you are doing,
and if that is not there,
then you are living according
to other people's notions
of how you ought to live."

Whenever that describes our current situation,
we have to stop.
Look.
And listen.

We have drifted away from the path,
and have to get back on track
by re-orienting ourselves,
turning the light around,
re-establishing our relationship
with our center,
re-connecting with the guiding sense
of what matters most,
re-aligning ourselves with the force
of our own life-energy,
and seeking ways to express
that which is deepest,
truest
and best about us--
the virtues,
character
and manner
which are the gifts
that came with us at birth
and seek expression,
incarnation,
embodiment
in-and-through us 
and the life we are living.

This is our life's purpose,
our destiny:
to be who we are
in the way we live.

Getting back to that,
and living from it,
in service to it,
and letting everything else
fall into place around it,
is to find the sense of life
in what we are doing,
to be one with the Tao,
and to dance with the Mystery of Live and Being.

We can't beat that anywhere.

–0–

01

Making for Home–The Mailboat’s Wake, Stonington Maine
We live to know what owns us,
and to choose to be owned by it
or not.

We choose our owner.
It is the only choice we get to make.
Beyond that,
it is being owned.
Like it or not.

Truth is a harsh taskmaster.
Reaping what it did not plant,
harvesting what it did not sow.
Asking us, "Did you think
you were just along for the ride?"

We have to work out for ourselves
how much we can get by with,
and where to draw the line.
That is where we find out
who owns us.

We are who we show ourselves to be.
Regardless of who we think we are,
or who we say we are,
or who we wish we were.
Where we draw the line
reveals the truth of who we are.

What are the lines we live within?
Who draws them?
That is who owns us.
For better and for worse.

Better and worse.
Good and evil.
Those are coins 
that have no edge.
Now it is up,
now it is down.
But, both are up and down
at the same time.
Each goes over into the other
like that,
and where does that line lie?

Whomever/Whatever owns us,
there are advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage/disadvantage is already
good/evil,
better/worse,
right/wrong.

Beyond good and evil
is out of the question.
We take the good along with the bad
and let it be
because it is.

Who owns us is who we are.
For better and for worse.
Forget advantage and disadvantage!
Decide this day whom you will serve!
Because that is who you are!

We are to be who we are because we are,
and let that be that,
because it is.

What can you live with,
being and doing,
with full awareness
of who you are being,
of what you are doing?

Be that!
Do that!
And let the outcome be the outcome.
For better and for worse.

Only God can worship God.
Everyone else 
is just trying to get something
they don't deserve.

December 19, 2020

02

Storm at Sea 09/26/2008 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
The Holy Grail represents the full realization
of the potentials
that came with us from the womb.

This is the culmination of The Hero's Journey:
Being Who We Are!
Who we are capable of being!
Fully Born,
as one Thus Come,
at last!

The secret ingredient is compassion.
Compassion for ourselves.
Compassion for others.
Compassion for the world as it is.

This is not striving to be anything
beyond compassionate,
not trying to gain anything
beyond being compassionate,
not trying to do anything
but be compassionate--
not in order to attain anything,
but to simply be compassionate.
Knowing/feeling that is enough.

That is Christ on the cross.
The Buddha under the Bo Tree.
The Dali Lama leaving Tibet
without a disparaging word
about the Chinese.
And it is the heart of Motherhood
around the world,
bearing out the truth of Simeon's word,
"A sword will pierce your very soul!"
even so.

Can we say it?
"Bring it on!
Let it be!
Anyway!
Nevertheless!
Even so!"

It requires no attachment
to fear,
desire,
or duty.

And exemplifies the complete freedom
and spontaneous readiness
to do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
for nothing beyond the joy
of doing what is ours to do
with the gifts and potentialities
that are ours to share and exhibit
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

01

Mallard in Flight 16 01/29/2013 — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
Where do we go from here?
Or, as it is sometimes phrased,
Here we are, now what?

Now, we wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

It is that simple every time.

Do not be impatient with the future!

It comes in its own good time!

In the meantime,
wait, watch, listen.
Seeing and hearing 
come in their own time,
in their own way.

When the door opens,
walk through?

What door?
Which door?

All this will be revealed to us
in its own time.
In the meantime,
wait, watch, listen.

If you haven't watched
Jon Kabat-Zinn's YouTube videos
on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction,
now would be a good time
to do that (The shortest ones first).

Practice waiting, watching, listening
in each moment.
You will be amazed 
at all you have been missing!

And, what's your hurry?
There is only seeing, hearing and understanding.
And you will never get beyond
those things,
even if you lived forever.
There will always be more to see than we see,
more to hear than we hear,
more to understand than we understand,
more to know than we know,
more to do than we do,
more to become than we are.

There is no arriving on the way
that is The Way!
Only the next thing to be aware of.

And that's where we came in.

So be aware of now,
and catch it as it evolves
into what's next!

And do what is called for
in response to both!