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?
Steele Creek Cascades 03/29/2014 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Dairy Barn Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina
The most important commandment in the Old Testament
didn't make the top ten,
though it lends itself to an interpretation
that makes it #1 even there.
Seeing "The Lord Thy God" in each of our neighbors
would put "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"
in the place of, as Jesus would say,
loving our neighbors as we love ourselves,
and as the most important commandment puts it,
"Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark."
Honor thy neighbor's right to themselves
and to all that belongs to them!
Do not mind thy neighbor's business!
Do not violate thy neighbor's boundaries!
Do not invade thy neighbor's sacred space!
Do not denigrate thy neighbor in any way!
Respect thy neighbor as thou desireth to be respected!
Know where you stop and your neighbor starts
and do not step over the line!
How may ways did Jesus say that?
He made it the central element in what he had to say.
Everything comes down to seeing our neighbor
as equal to us in every way.
And to seeing everyone as our neighbor.
And everyone is Every. Single. One.
We are to be everyone's neighbor,
treating them all as though they are our neighbor.
Why is this hard?
Why is it not being done?
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01
The Dairy Barn 02/18/2018 — Louisiana Central Hospital Grounds, Pineville, Louisiana
We do not receive the help we need.
And if it is offered,
it isn't what we have in mind.
Given the choice,
do you go for feeling better
or getting better?
When the treatment is worse than the disease--
or worse than the symptoms--
what do we do?
Where do we go with the pain
of damned if we do and damned if we don't?
With the agony of endless agony?
In the meantime, what?
When there is no balm in Gilead,
where do we go for relief from our anguish?
For alleviation from our pain?
Where do we find what we need
to do what needs to be done
about any of it?
Therapy is found in the damnedest places.
The dairy barn at the Louisiana Central Hospital
brought people back to life
by giving them cows to milk and feed,
to pasture and tend.
What does a cow have to do with our problems?
Who would ever think,
"A cow is just what I need"?
How long would a physician last
who prescribed a cow to care for
to those seeking solace for the burdens they bear?
Don't disparage cows!
Seek out their equivalent in your own time and place!
You who have needs,
lend yourself to the service
of that which has need of you!
You who languish for a lack of help,
provide help to that which languishes
for what you have to offer!
Be good for someone,
some thing!
The world will shift on its axis,
reorient itself in its orbit.
All because you dared
to love a cow!
The Horse Barn 10/04/2020 02 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina, Horse Barn Road Access
We live our way to the truth of who we are
coming to terms with the truth of how things are,
of how the world is,
of how life is,
of the way things work
moment-to-moment,
one situation at a time,
one day at a time,
over the full course of our life.
The Spiritual Journey,
is the Hero's Journey,
is another term
for Growing Up.
Growing up is coming to terms with how things are
and how we are
and how best to deal with the contradictions/dichotomies
at work within and without
throughout our life.
We want things to be different than they are.
We want to be different than we are.
And how well we bear the pain of the difference
between how things are and how we want them to be
on all levels of life and being
is the essence of growing up,
of waking up,
of squaring up
with how it is with us
at various points in our life.
Our identity changes over the time of our living.
Living changes us.
Living requires us to change.
The people who refuse to change,
who live static, rigid, lives
are dead people.
They may be 98.6 and ambulatory,
but they have no life about them,
they haven't been alive for years past remembering.
How we respond to our life
through all the stages of our existence
is the marker declaring our degree
of vitality,
interest in,
and enthusiasm for
our life and the experience of being alive.
Our life is naturally designed to bring us forth,
to show us who we are,
by requiring things of us
we do not know we are capable of.
We have to be fluid and flexible enough
to sit before what is being asked of us
and explore/imagine/consider how we might
best respond to it in the here and now of our living.
This is to say that new epiphanies,
recognitions,
realizations,
understandings,
visions
and additional illumination
are required--and available/possible--
at every point along the way
from birth to death.
And so, it is said that the awakening
of every enlightened being
requires a return to the state of unenlightenment.
We never out-grow the need to respond
creatively/imaginatively
to the circumstances and situations
of life here and now
throughout the times and places of life in the world.
The Spiritual Journey has no end.
The "Circumambulation of the Self"
(Carl Jung) is eternal and everlasting.
We are always becoming who we are.
And the longer we are conscious of the process,
the more we are able to laugh and dance
along the way.
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02
Afternoon Light 10/04/2020 — Black-eyed Susans, Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina
We cannot live one dimensionally in in a multi-dimension world.
This is the failure of Evangelical Christianity
and of strict religiosity world wide.
"Walking the straight and narrow"
is not about prudishly, puritanically, keeping the rules.
It is about walking gingerly, consciously, carefully
along the slippery slope,
the dangerous path,
the razor's edge,
between the Clashing Rocks,
the Scylla and Charybdis,
the dualities, dichotomies, duplexities
of day-to-day,
moment-to-moment,
life in the world of normal, apparent, reality.
There is no static way of being.
Balance and harmony are about controlling the wobbles,
like riding a bicycle.
We have to live free in our soul,
like the spirit that blows where it will--
which is another way of saying,
"Not knowing what it will do next"!
Jesus lived that way,
raising the dead in one minute,
and leaving the dead to bury the dead in the next.
Forgiven the woman guilty of adultery one day,
and cursing the innocent fig tree on another.
Do not look for, expect, demand, insist upon consistency,
uniformity,
absence of deviation
from yourself
or one another!
Sometimes, we do it this way,
and sometimes, we do it that way,
as the occasion requires.
We dance with the music of the times.
We do what the situation calls for--
without being burdened
with having to "toe the line"
and "mind our p's and q's"
by doing what we are "spozed to do"
in all times and places
because we dare not "get out of line"
or express our own individual gifts and genus
in the way we go about our life.
Grant yourself the freedom of getting out of character--
because it is required by the circumstances,
or just for the hell of it!
Do things that are "not you"!
Expand your range!
Open yourself to the possibilities!
Live beyond your limits!
Outside your boundaries!
Live to find out--to discover--
what you are capable of!
Experiment with new roles!
Try out for different parts!
Explore!
Experiment!
Bring yourself to life
in the time left for living!
Why hold anything back?
–0–
01
Stump and Sourwood 10/05/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
When the light comes on,
everything/nothing changes.
Life goes on as it always does
and nothing about life is as it was
for the one for whom the light comes on.
Now, that one has to live
with a foot in two worlds,
and walk two paths at the same time--
living in this world
in light of that world--
with this and that world
informing and influencing
the way they live
in that and this world.
The two worlds interact/interface
in the one for whom the light goes on.
They cannot live in either world
as though the other does not exist.
The two worlds are not mutually exclusive.
They both are conjoint with the other
and create the "Mysterium Coniunctionis"
(Carl Jung's term meaning
the "Mystery of the Conjunction"),
which is the ground of all of our dualities,
and which we live to integrate and express/exhibit
by the way we manage the challenge
of living in two worlds at the same time,
walking two paths at the same time,
and consciously realizing
and living in the tension
of the interplay between the worlds
(Which might be better thought of
as "dimensions" within the world of
normal, apparent, physical reality)
moment-by-moment
within all of the times and places
of our existence.
We are living within an optical illusion.
Now it's this way,
now it's that way.
Which way is is?
Both ways simultaneously!
How do we manage our life
living both ways at once?
Playfully!
Laughing and dancing all the way!
It is the Tevya dialogue in "Fiddler on the Roof":
"But, this cannot be so if that is so!"
"You are right! That is also so!"
Laughing and living in the tension of all opposites,
of all dichotomies,
being so at the same time!
The two become one in us!
And we become one with all things!
Integrating what cannot be reconciled,
and bearing the agona, the agony, of the tension
playfully, laughingly,
every step along the Way,
by doing it the way it needs to be done,
the way it is being called for,
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
Sometimes we do it like this,
and sometimes we do it like that,
and sometimes we do not do it at all!
When to do what is our call to make,
lovingly, laughingly, playfully,
doing what is called for in each moment,
the way only we can do it,
moment-by-moment,
"singing and dancing in the rain."
Two Mushrooms 10/05/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
The old Taoists recommended
that we "turn the light around,"
and look inwardly
for what we are seeking externally,
which would be something worth living for.
Some reason,
some purpose,
some meaning
for it all.
Life is its own meaning,
but it takes realizing that
and living as though it is so
to turn the light around.
Living as though our life is meaningful
just as it is
is the shift
that opens us to the truth
of the immense value
of the here and now.
This! Is "the still point of the turning world"!
(T.S. Eliot)
This! Is the moment of our Illumination!
It only takes looking
to see that it is so!
Two mushrooms seen properly,
are the bell of awakening.
Any time can be the time of our realization.
How we see what we look at
is more important than what we look at.
Turn the light around!
–0–
o1
The Live Oak at Springer’s Point 10/17/2013 — Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Attending what I am doing,
moment-to-moment
is among the hardest things
for me to do.
Just knowing what I am doing now--
not generally,
vaguely,
"I'm driving."
"I'm walking."
But specifically.
Precisely.
"My turn is coming up."
"Watch the kid on the skateboard!"
Being here, now, is the hardest thing.
Of course we are here, now.
We know that.
And we miss our turn,
and send the kid on the skateboard
to his heavenly reward.
All because we know what we are doing
without attending it,
without being aware of it,
without knowing what we know,
specifically,
precisely.
We live disconnected
from the time and place
of our living,
thinking about anything,
everything,
but the here and now.
So what?
How we answer that question
makes all the difference.
Here and now is all there ever is.
If we are not present and accounted for,
fully here, fully now,
when will we ever be alive?
We do not come to life
until something in our present moment
commands our full attention
and brings us to life.
Puppies can do it.
And kittens.
And babies/grandbabies...
We all can remember experiences,
good and bad,
that have grabbed us
and hurled us in to the Now,
but it takes something special.
We can't be here, now,
for no reason.
We are shanghaied by other things,
fear,
desire,
duty
drag us off into endless walk-a-bouts,
meandering among the possibilities
and the impossibilities,
lost and unavailable
to turns coming up
and kids on skateboards.
But.
Any moment can be "transparent to transcendence"
(Joseph Campbell),
transporting us instantly
into the rapture of awe and wonder--
not because it is obvious,
not because we are whammed by it unexpectedly,
but because we simply sat,
looking,
until we saw--until we see--it.
We can be so present to any moment
that every moment has the potential
of being a portkey,
transporting us from this dimension
into the other dimension
of numinous, ineffable, unspeakable truth.
Bringing that dimension
into this dimension,
moving from this dimension
into that dimension,
is the gift of attentive presence,
bringing us to life
in the life we are living.
Eyes that see
are the same eyes that don't see,
waiting us to open ourselves
to what is here and now
but turning the light around
and seeking within the switch
that turns the light on
and enables us to see what we are looking at
for the very first time.
Wildflower Grassland 01 10/04/2020 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina
What would it take for you to be at peace with your life
just as it is?
Which includes doing what it takes
to make your life more like it needs to be
than it is.
What does your life need to be
that it isn't?
Where is your life deficient?
Where is your life excessive?
Where is your life being neglected/ignored?
Where is your life being restricted/confined?
Where is your life being overrun/violated/disrupted?
In what ways do you need help with your life?
To what degree are you aware
of your relationship with your life?
In what ways does your life reflect/exhibit/express/incarnate/reveal
who you are?
In what ways does your life inhibit/conceal/deny/oppose/repress who you are?
How would you describe your relationship with your life?
In what ways do you tend and serve your life?
In what ways do you expect your life to tend and serve you?
In what ways do you cooperate/collaborate with your life?
In what ways do you contend/clash with your life?
What do you need from your life?
What does your life need from you?
–0–
01
The Horse Barn 10/04/2020 01 Panorama — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
If you wait until you are drowning
to learn how to swim,
you make it harder on yourself
than it needs to be.
See how many places you can apply
this pithy little insight
throughout your life.
It will change your life.
Muscadine and Sourwood 10/03/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
Living from our own center
with nothing at stake in the outcome
is like singing in the shower,
or dancing in the rain.
It is a spontaneous,
impromptu,
improvisational
response to our situation as it arises
and opens before us,
calling us to dance with life
in becoming one with the moment
and the opportunity it offers us
to express ourselves
by offering what is ours to give
in response to the need of the moment
and the time that is at hand.
And this,
without contrivance
or agenda,
or any thought of what is in it for us,
or how we might seize the moment
for our benefit,
advantage,
gain
or profit,
and "come out ahead"
in any sense of the term.
We're dancing, man!
"And there is only the dance!"
(T.S. Eliot)
The key to living well
is to live as though we are dancing.
When the music begins,
our cares drop away.
We don't know who the President is,
or what our worries are,
or how we are going to manage
with "the wolf at our door."
We dance.
And dancing brings forth
the joy of life.
The joy of being here, now,
alive in this moment
and able to dance.
The music is there in every moment,
waiting for ears that hear,
and toes that tap,
and hearts that can dance with life!
–0–
01
Two Rocks 02 09/24/2004 –Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine
Abraham's retort to God,
"Shall not the judge of the earth do right?"
is one Job should have used.
Instead, Job cowers before the "Might Makes Right" defense
God uses to justify leaving Job unprotected against the wiles of Satan.
And Baruch would have done well to use it
against God's, "I'll give you your life as a prize of war,"
excuse for refusing to be more of a
"very present help in time of trouble."
The question is one we shun and ostracize
in the forlorn hope that God will make it up to us
if we are patient and faithful
in trusting ourselves to the ultimate triumph of "God's Plan"
at work through inconceivable evil
to save the day and all the long-suffering True Believers
at the End of Time.
Habakkuk and Jesus stand out in having
the courage of their own convictions,
in declaring their loyalty and allegiance
to doing what is right in each situation as it arises,
no matter what--
with the outcome playing no part
in their ongoing and eternal devotion
to doing what needs to be done
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
their whole life long.
In so doing,
they point the way for us all.
Why something happens
or fails to happen
is irrelevant to the situation at hand.
Doing what is called for here and now
is our only concern.
"Here we are--now what?"
is our response to the times
all the time.
How we answer that question,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
sets the tone
and establishes the rhythm
of our life,
and shapes the future
better than any assortment of beliefs
and statements of faith
ever could.
Believe whatever you want,
but do what needs to be done!
Here and now and always and forever!
Two Barns 08/10/2019 Panorama — Kershaw County, South Carolina
Our life forms itself around us,
reflecting our choices and decisions
exhibiting our preferences and inclinations,
expressing our degree of creativity and courage...
We are content seeking shape and form.
Our life becomes us so.
And we blame our circumstances.
"If we had had more of this
and less of that!"
If this! If that!
Well.
Easy to say.
Maybe. Maybe Not.
What we know is that
we are the one constant
through all of the times and places,
chances and opportunities,
contexts and circumstances
of our life,
and here we are now.
We are the content,
and this is the shape and form.
If we would prefer a different shape,
a better form,
we only have the content to work with.
How different can we be in the time left for living?
If you are serious about finding out,
sit before a mirror
and see who looks back at you.
Consider the content of you,
and what is revealed/concealed
by your appearance,
body language--
including posture
and facial expression--
tone of voice
physical shape
and overall demeanor.
Take up the practice
of changing your content
and seeing what shifts
your shape and form
take in response
to the shifts made in content.
It will be a game
you play with yourself
for the rest of your life.
–0–
02
Goldenrod 01 10/01/2020–22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
We could make a list--
and probably should--
of the people who know the truth
when they see it,
as a source of encouragement
and motivation
in our own work
to see what we look at
and know what's what.
George Carlin
Claudia Conway
Dolly Parton
Linda Ronstadt
Eddie Murray
Richard Pryor
Jon Stewart
Stephen Colbert
Al Franken
...
Who stands out for you?
Let them be your soulmates,
your guides,
your gurus,
your spiritual family,
the people you turn to
in time of trouble.
Nobody can do it for long alone.
Not even the people on your list!
Live to be on somebody's list--
and keep going!
–0–
01
Water Rock Knob 10/29/2014 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Maggie Valley, North Carolina
The old adage gets to the heart of the matter:
"It's all grist for the mill."
What are we milling is the question.
What are we working to get,
acquire,
amass,
attain,
achieve,
have,
do,
be?
What is it going to take
for us to be
at absolute peace
with the life we are living?
What are we milling?
Producing?
Manufacturing?
Making?
Constructing?
Creating?
Processing?
Assembling?
Putting together?
What is guiding our boat
on its path through the sea?
How we discern a favorable wind
from and ill wind?
A good place to be
from where we have no business being?
What is our business?
What are we about?
What are we milling?
Where are we going?
How will we know when we arrive?
Who are we trying to please?
How do we know what is pleasing?
Who says so?
How did they become the voice of authority
ruling over our life?
What makes us think they know what is pleasing?
Our life is based on what?
What is guiding our boat
on its path through the sea?
Valley View 04/26/2006 — Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California
We hide ourselves
and hide from ourselves.
We speak in code about ourselves
and to ourselves.
Dismissing.
Disregarding.
Discounting.
Denying.
Ignoring.
What is important
in favor of what is trivial
and essentially non-essential.
We only have to look a our life
to know it is so.
Our life conceals and reveals us.
Our choices disclose and obscure us.
We don't like ourselves
and it shows.
Nothing is more apparent
than our refusal to be who we are.
We have what remains
of the time left for living
to turn the light around,
and redeem what needs redeeming
by serving the destiny
we abandoned shortly after birth.
We start by sitting down,
being quiet,
and meeting what meets us
in the silence
with nowhere to hide--
holding everything that comes up
in our awareness,
with compassion,
without judgment or opinion,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just looking,
just listening,
just being
with what is being with us,
waiting for the way
to open before us,
trusting ourselves
to know when it does.
The Way doesn't get any clearer than this:
Do your thing
with nothing at stake in the outcome.
In each situation as it arises.
That is all there is to it.
Or ever has been.
–0–
02
Ace Basin Collage 01/29/2015 — Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, Hollywood, South Carolina
We create the future
by the way we respond to our present.
Each present moment--
every here-and-now--
is a fulcrum,
a pivot point,
shifting how things are
into how things will be.
If things are to be different.
We have to think differently.
We have to live differently.
We have to see differently.
We have to interpret/evaluate/understand differently.
We have to be different.
We have to become different.
Here/Now.
We tend to think we are perfect as we are,
and it is our surroundings,
our circumstances,
that have to change.
If we want things to change
in relation to us,
we have to change
in relation to things.
It starts with us.
We are holding things in place
by the way we respond to things.
Until that changes,
nothing changes
(No matter how much it appears to change).
If things change
without our attitude changing,
nothing is different,
regardless of how much it changes.
The changes that make a difference
take place behind our eyes,
between our ears.
–0–
01
Mushrooms 01 09/30/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Happiness is not a function of circumstance or occasion.
Happiness is a function of perspective,
of evaluation.
Happiness is a way of seeing/being.
Why not be happy?
With things just as they are?
Why not say YES! to life just as it is?
Why not, as Joseph Campbell suggested,
"participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world"?
Campbell also said,
"The warrior's approach is to say 'yes' to life: 'yea' to it all."
And,
"We are not there until we can say 'yea' to it all."
And,
"As you proceed through life, following you own path,
birds will shit on you. Don't bother to brush it off."
(Pay it no mind.
Live to do what you are doing!)
And,
"Getting a comedic view of your situation
gives you spiritual distance.
Having a sense of humor saves you."
And,
"The very cave you are afraid to enter
turns out to be the source
of what you are looking for.
The damned thing in the cave
that was so dreaded
has become the center."
And,
The path requires "the love of your fate.
Whatever your fate is,
whatever the hell happens,
you say, 'This is just what I need!'
It may look like a wreck,
but go at it as though it were an opportunity,
a challenge.
If you bring love to that moment--
not discouragement--
you will find the strength is there."
And,
"Nothing can happen to you that is not positive."
And
"When we are on our own path,
what we need comes along just when we need it."
And,
"Have a theory that if you on your own path,
things are going to come to you.
Since it is your own path,
and no one has ever been on it before,
there is no precedent,
so everything that happens
is a surprise and is timely...
Nothing is routine,
nothing is taken for granted.
Everything is standing out on its own,
because everything is a possibility,
everything is a clue,
everything is talking to you."
Happiness is a function of perspective,
perception and evaluation.
Happiness is a function
of how we see what we look at,
of what we tell ourselves
about what we see.
We are either on the adventure
of being who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are,
or not.
"The future is up to us!"
(Enola Holmes)
"Anything can happen,
if you let it!"
(Mary Poppins)
"Whose side are you on?"
(Jim Dollar)
This is Home to all pages written in October of 2020. Hovering your pointer over a month listed in the header will drop down the daily posts for the month. Thanks for visiting. Stay safe and be well!
The Cabin 10/05/2006 — Jesse Brown’s place, Blue Ridge Parkway, near West Jefferson, North Carolina
Safety, security, stability are
the three foundational necessities
for life as we would like to live it.
They are as much an internal orientation
as they are an external reality.
Someone who has been physically/sexually/emotionally abused,
and place them in a safe/secure/stable environment,
and it will take them forever to feel safe/secure/stable.
Take someone who has been betrayed,
and how long will it be
before they can trust themselves to anyone?
This is where establishing,
deepening
and maintaining
a vitally alive relationship with our inner self
becomes essential.
What keeps us going
if not knowing who/what we can count on?
Who/what is the most reliable source
of helpful presence in our life
than the two million year old person within
who comes packed in the DNA
of each of us
to comfort and console,
guide and direct,
us on our way through
the contexts and circumstances
of our daily walk?
Why don't we devote ourselves
to the care and tending of our relationship
with the Other within?
What do you think Marianne Moore meant
when she said,
"The cure for loneliness is solitude"?
Who do we find waiting for us
in our solitude but The One Who Is With Us Always?
Our "Two Million Year Old Self" (Anthony Stevens,
Carl Jung) is an aspect of our Unconscious Mind
(So-called because we are not conscious of it),
and is "The One Who Knows" within
who we experience as "A Very Present Help In Time Of Trouble,"
and is the origin of our "holy nudges,"
and "sudden inspirations,"
and "providential realizations,"
and "propitious interventions"
in the form of things that occur to us "out of the blue,"
and change our course to "save the day"
and more than that.
Where would any of us be
without our "invisible means of support"
(Bill Moyers)?
Each of us is born with all we need
to find what we need
to make our way through our life.
Why do we ignore that,
or despise it,
in favor of "blind guides"
and bad bets?
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01
First of Fall 04 09/29/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Britain felt worse during the endless days of World War II.
And Rome during the forever-long collapse of the Caesars.
The people who have felt worse--
and faced worse--
through the bitter winds of time
from the beginning until now
would not fit within the confines of this country
or all countries on this planet.
So stop your whining.
Nothing is free.
We walked into the voting booths in 2016--
or didn't vote at all--
thinking it didn't matter what we did.
Has anybody ever been more wrong over the full sweep of time?
Our assumptions,
expectations
and the things we took for granted
have us here, now.
We did not know what we were doing.
We did not care what we did.
And we are looking for someone to fix it for us.
To make it go away.
"We did it to our ownselves."
And it will be a long time gone.
So put your walking shoes on,
and step into doing what needs to be done,
one day at a time
for as long as it takes
to be at a better place,
individually and collectively.
Start by voting for Joe Biden.
And by being right about what's important.
And being willing to go to hell for what is,
because we will certainly go to hell for what isn't.
And knowing when your assumptions are invalid
and your expectations are groundless,
and when you are failing to tend your responsibilities
to democracy and all the values worth living for--
and being who we all need each other to be
for as long as life shall last.
Teton Barn — Mormon Row, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
Consistency, reliability, dependability...
Can we maintain our connection with the center?
Can we remain on the path?
Can we retain our focus
amid the Clashing Rocks
on the Heaving Waves of the Wine Dark Sea?
It is one thing to grasp the truth
of what is needed
in the silence of circumstances
that are routine and predictable,
but.
Enter the unfathomable.
Put the Gauls or the Visigoths at the gates!
Remove the norms and standards.
Introduce uncertainty.
Destroy the systems and institutions
that hold life together.
Or, just take to bed with a migraine for two days.
See how you do.
An old Zen adage applies:
"The ability of the archer to hit the bullseye,
varies in inverse proportion
to the size of the prize for doing so."
"AUM" is the first thing to go
when the cat has diarrhea
and the electricity goes off
at 2 AM.
Where is the center then?
What happens to our focus then?
Who has time for the balm of realization then?
Then the time has come for action!
What directs our movement in the field of action?
What leads us there, then?
What becomes of us there, then?
Can we disappear there, then?
And become one with the action?
The dancer becomes the dance!
The singer becomes the song!
The musician becomes the music!
The Force is always with us, but.
Can we be one with the force?
Can we become the Force?
Can we become the Tao?
Dancing with Yin and Yang in the Here and Now?
Gracing the situation with exactly what is needed?
Spontaneously?
Improvisationally?
Without stopping to think,
"What would Jesus do?"?
Can we become Grace in Action?
That's how illumined we are!
How enlightened we are!
How awakened we are!
Can we disappear
and be what is needed
in the time and place of our living
regardless of the circumstances?
That is the test of our connection
with the center and ground,
The Source and the flow
of our existence.
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03
Swift River 09/26/2007 Watercolor Rendering — Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire
We are never more than a slight shift in perspective
away from having it made.
We are never more than that far away from Nirvana,
from illumination,
from awakening,
from enlightenment,
from Christ-consciousness
and Buddha-mind.
It all comes down to being right
about the way we see things.
To being right about what is important.
Seeing things with right seeing
makes all the difference.
How we see is a function
of how we look.
Of asking the questions that beg to be asked.
Of hearing the things that cry out to be heard.
Of saying the things that are dying to be said.
Of knowing what we know,
and what can be known,
and what cannot be known.
Instead of imposing our view of reality upon reality--
instead of imposing our ideas about how things are
upon how things are--
we wait in the silence to see,
to hear,
to know,
to understand.
When we reflect on what is before us--
upon what is happening
and what that means for us
and for the situation as it arises--
to the point of new realizations,
we are at the fulcrum,
being levered by forces quite beyond us
to seeing with new eyes,
which makes all things new.
And that is IT!
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Sunset at Water Rock Knob 08/05/2007 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Maggie Valley, North Carolina
There is nothing like coming to terms
with how things are--
and also are
(Which is how things actually are)--
for enabling us to let things be
without emotional reactivity
that interferes with how things actually are,
and creates complexity,
upheaval,
disruption
and chaos
on all levels simultaneously,
wreaking havoc,
destruction,
devastation
and misery everlasting.
Here's the deal:
We live on the boundary,
the border line,
the interface,
the pivot point,
the fulcrum
between how things are
and how things ought to be
in each moment
in each situation as it arises
day-by-day
all our life long.
And how we respond to what is happening
in that moment
makes all the difference.
The key to being able
to do right by the moment
that is at hand
in every moment that comes along
is caring enough about the right things
in the right way
to do what needs to be done
without interfering with what is happening
or getting in the way of what needs to happen.
The right kind of caring
is the difference between being helpful
and being intrusive,
between being engaged for the good of the whole
without being co-dependent
and overly invested in the outcome.
We have to live in each moment
as those who care enough about what is happening
to offer the best we have to give
in the service of the good of the whole
without being meddlesome,
over-wrought,
strung-out,
and personally in need of
things happening in a particular way,
to the extent that we try to will what cannot be willed
and force things to happen that cannot be forced.
We have to take things seriously enough
to do what is needed/necessary,
in the right spirit,
with the right frame of mind,
without taking things seriously at all.
This is called "maintaining working distance"
between ourselves and the situation.
Close enough to care
without having anything at stake.
Caring enough to give what we have to offer
with nothing to gain
and nothing to lose.
To live out of that place
is to be always "at the still point
of the turning world"
(T.S. Eliot).
The trick with that
is understanding there is no static way of being
in the daily interplay of life.
The "still point" is not stationary!
The still point that enables us to ride a bicycle
is within a range of controlled wobbles!
The same thing applies to the still point
of living in balance and harmony with our life--
and all of life!
Caring enough without caring too much!
Offering what is ours to give
to each moment of our living
without contriving to arrange
a particular result/end/outcome!
Letting things come and go
according to the rhythm
of their own timing,
and honoring, thereby,
the tides of life and living and being alive!
This is the art of being human.
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First of Fall 09/28/2020 02 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
So much goes on behind the scenes,
unseen,
unknown,
it's a travesty
and a betrayal of trust,
and we all should be ashamed,
and aware--
transparent to ourselves,
if not to everyone else,
and they to us.
At least, we could be sincere
about our lack of sincerity.
But who can risk absolute sincerity?
Who can be that vulnerable,
that known?
We hide things from ourselves!
How sincere is that?
We cannot bear the truth
of our own truth!
And other people know things about us
we do not know ourselves!
It is staggering--
the duplicity,
the deception--
and essential!
Necessary!
Unavoidable!
Because we need a double life
to have a life at all!
This is the other side of Yin/Yang--
the two sides have a second side apiece!
Hidden from themselves!
Our Shadow has a shadow!
This is getting fancy!
And we have no choice
but to bear our own complexity!
Our complexity is a compromise
enabling us to bear the strain
of the tension of competing needs--
financial, emotional, physical, spiritual, practical, creative...
how many aspects of us are there
that have to be taken into account
in order to balance the harmony of the whole?
However we look at it,
there is more to us than meets the eye!
Any eye!
And what you see--
what any of us see--
is the result of sanity management
undertaken to bear the pain
of getting through the day.
We have to kid ourselves
in order to play the game
of not kidding ourselves,
because otherwise it would be intolerable,
and too much of a stretch to keep it going.
It is what we don't know
that upholds what we do know,
and makes it possible
to go on!
First of Fall 01 09-28-2020 — 22 Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
I would like to sit down one-on-one with everybody,
and hear what they had to say.
I think that is all anybody needs.
Someone to hear what they have to say.
Everybody wants to tell people what they need to hear.
Nobody wants to hear what people have to say.
I would like to change that.
I've been doing it all my life.
I've also been saying what I have to say.
I don't hold anything back.
I'm doing it here, now.
I do as good a job listening
and speaking
as anyone I know.
It's what I do best.
Along with seeing.
Not that I don't miss anything.
Yesterday, I moved the butter out of the way
looking for the butter.
And last week, I left a crutch at the nursery
(I was one crutching it--
I use crutches to get about because of osteoarthritis
in both knees,
but my left knee is worse than my right one,
so I can manage for short distances
with a forearm crutch on my right arm,
and got distracted with buying the plants
my wife and I purchased,
and left my crutch behind).
I didn't miss it for a couple of days
(Don't use it around the house),
and had no idea where it was.
So, today, it occurred to me to ask
at the nursery if it were there.
And happy the reunion was.
All of which is to say I miss things all the time.
Without thinking anything of it.
I keep looking and seeing,
and not seeing.
Listening and hearing,
and not hearing.
It's what I do best,
and enjoy most.
And I look forward to continuing
to do it for long years
into the far distant future.
Holding the butter looking for the butter
was great.
I am very Zen-like some days.
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03
Reelfoot Lake 11/04/2015 50 — Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tiptonville, Tennessee
All religious wars are fought
between/among disciples
of a particular idea of religion.
They are fighting over their understanding
of theology, doctrine, dogma, creeds and catechisms.
Over words about their religion.
They disagree about what words are true
and what words are false.
They disagree about what they believe to be so--
to be factual, actual, real and, thus, true!--
because someone has said so.
All of this changes like that (snaps fingers),
when we shift from talking about belief
and start talking about experience.
Separate yourself from everything
you have ever heard about God
from all other sources including the Bible,
and focus exclusively
on what you have personally experienced of God
in your own life.
What do you know to be so
because you know it is so,
and not because you believe it to be so,
or have heard it to be so?
When we talk of our experience of God,
we do not speak of the God of theology and doctrine,
but of the Numen beyond all words and reason,
beyond all logic and intellect.
The experience of the Numen
sits us down and shuts us up.
Wonder and awe,
amazement and fascination,
do not lend themselves to words.
Lao Tzu said all that can be said:
"The Tao that can be said
is not the eternal Tao!"
There are neither wars
nor disagreement
among those who experience the Numen
in art, music and nature,
with childbirth and falling in love,
or being smitten by the encounter
with another human being,
all being as natural as nature can be.
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02
Jasper Wetlands 09/29/2009 03 Watercolor Rendering — Jasper National Park, Alberta
Friedrich Nietzsche said the goal of the maturation process
is to become "a wheel rolling out of its own center."
I envision a gyroscope turning out of its own center
as it moves in a direction suited to its purposes,
stabilizing itself in tune with its own balance and harmony,
and serving its own Original Nature
with sincerity and compassion
in all that it does.
We are our own authority.
We govern our own actions.
We evaluate our own values.
We live to ask the questions that beg to be asked
in each situation as it arises.
To say what cries out to be said.
And to do what needs to be done
here and now--
without contriving
or deferring,
seeking to please
or fearing repercussions,
but living to express
our own heart and soul,
and being true to ourselves
in all times and places.
We stand on our own feet,
live out of our own center,
with loyalty and devotion
to our own nature,
and let the outcome be the outcome.
To do this,
we have to devote time and attention
to cultivating our relationship
with ourselves
so that we know who we are
out of our on-going experience
with what is deepest, truest and best about us
all our life long.
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01
Sanctuary 10/24/2006 — Big Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Waterville, North Carolina, Watercolor Rendering
What keeps you going?
You live in the service of what?
What is your shtick?
Your thing?
Your art?
Your genius?
Your gift?
What are you here to do?
To bring forth?
Exhibit?
Express?
Love with all your heart?
Who are you here to be?
No matter what?
Do not stray from that!
Do not wander away from the center!
The core!
The essence!
The qualities that constitute
your Original Nature!
Be you wherever you are!
Regardless of your circumstances!
Bring your perspective forth!
Dance your dance!
Love your life!
Love being alive!
Let your love for life show!
Why hold anything back?
Let your little light shine!
Let your little toes dance!
Let your little heart love what it loves!
While it can!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 