Trusting ourselves is not trusting our thinking mind,
but trusting our feeling intuition.
It is about sitting down, shutting up, and waiting for clarity
by recognizing an emotionally charged sense of right direction
when one arises.

Trusting ourselves to know the way when the light comes on
is essential trusting.

And we just wait to know,
knowing that we will know when we know.

Sometimes it comes as a flash of insight,
and sometimes it comes as a growing sense of surety.
Knowing it when we see it, feel it, is a felt sense of certainty.
And I have complete confidence in the validity
of the felt sense of certainty.
Though it rarely comes as quickly as I would like.
So I sit and wait some more.

We have to not care what our chances are,
or what the odds are,
or what our outcomes are.
These things cannot matter to us at all.

Our filial loyalty and our life-long devotion
have to be to who we are,
not to what we achieve,
or what difference we make.

We all live and die,
and who knows who we were or what we did
or did not do two generations hence,
much less 100 generations hence.

We live for here, now,
with the gifts we have to offer:
Our original nature,
our innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
our inherent imagination,
our intrinsic intuition
and our unique psyche,
in the service of what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
whether any one is watching or not,
for no reasons other than the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

One situation after another
all our life long.

Got it? Do it! That's all there is to it!

Instead of the word "prayer,"
I prefer and propose the word "communion."
We commune with the Holy, Hidden, Other
when we drop into the silence and wait
for realization, recognition, comprehension, knowing...

"Prayer" suggests to me a grocery list of needs and wants,
and the more people we have praying for us,
the better our chances of getting what we need/want.

You can run your own test in the matter,
but I have found that crossing my fingers
works as well as praying for my team to win the World Series.

Communion works every time when
understanding "works" to be immersion the presence of 
the Holy Other with the vision and courage
to know and do what needs to be done.

On one hand, 
I would like to be able to say
that I am not going to kill anyone intentionally.

On another hand, I recognize
that there are people who need killing,
and, given the right circumstances, 
I could and would do the job.

That opens the door to the contradictory essence
of good and evil--
that good has to be able to do what would be evil
in some circumstances,
and evil has to give itself to the service of good
in some circumstances.

We live between contradictory realities
all our life long.
And need to be able to do what is called for,
when, where and how it is called for,
in each situation as it arises.
No matter what.

Doing what is called for,
when, where, and how it is called for
is the highest good,
making the right thing the wrong thing
from time to time.
And we are here to make it happen,
exactly as it needs to happen.

We get up and meet the day every day.
The day asks things of us,
and we find treasures and joy scattered throughout the day.
Perspective,
expectation,
attitude,
balance and harmony
impact the day's impact on us
and help to make things better or worse
throughout the day.

For me, fatigue and nutrition/hydration
are the primary factors determining
how I react to and deal with 
what the day brings my way.

Being mindfully aware of the flow
of what's called for
and what's coming and going
helps maintain my readiness
for what's next
and lets me know when it is time
to call time out for rest and recovery
in order to regroup and carry on.

Reflection and evaluation at day's end
helps me gauge my response-ability
situation-by-situation
and provides insight and adjustments
in preparation for what's coming
in the days that lie ahead,
which my nighttime dreams also help with
in my on-going work to be/do what needs doing
day-by-day all the way.

We do what is called for
when it is called for,
where it is called for,
the way it is called for,
anyway, nevertheless, even so--
whether we feel like it or not,
whether we want to or not,
whether we are in the mood for it or not,
with the gifts that are ours to serve and share:
our original nature,
our innate virtues--the things we do best
and enjoy doing most,
our inherent imagination,
our intrinsic intuition,
for the joy of doing it, 
and the satisfaction of having done it,
because we are who we are
and that is what we do.

It is up to us to be who we are.
No one can do it for us.
We realize who we are
and live in ways that express/exhibit that
in each situation as it arises.

Start with selecting two symbols
that express who you are 
over the course of your life.
Live the remainder of your life
in the service of those two symbols--
consciously, deliberately, intentionally.

One of my symbols is a combination question mark 
and exclamation Mark: ?!
and the other is a huge Macy's Parade balloon man.

Signifying my determination to ask the questions
that beg to be asked and to say the things that
cry out to be said.

The balloon man is my determination to be bigger than that
in response to whatever is happening here, now.

I am going to live consciously in the service
of these symbols throughout the time left for living.

Your turn.

Photography is a miracle of time and place.
Everything is.
And it goes mostly unacknowledged and unappreciated.
We should be walking around agape with wonder
at every here, now we experience.
Instead, we rush on to the next here, now,
having not noticed the last one at all.

Our life is wasted on us--
we live without bothering to pay attention to
where we are,
when we are,
how we are
or what we are doing.

Because we are thinking about other things.
And a good bit of the time 
we couldn't tell you what we were thinking about
if you asked us.

What are we thinking?
What do we think we are doing?

We tend to think that getting/doing what we want
will bring us joy.

And we generally want what other people are getting/doing.

If we want joy in our life
we have to do what brings us joy,
whether other people are doing it or not.

How do we know what we want? What to want?
Is it what we want or what we think we ought to want?

Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Money are diversions, distractions,
addictions, and we think we ought to want them
because they are in such high demand.

They create noise, complexity and complication.

How much joy do we associate with them?

We might take these questions into the silence
and sit with them there, and see what comes of it.

Life consists of meeting the moment
the way the moment needs to be met,
doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for,
in each situation as it arises
throughout our life.

The things that interfere with this
are the things we want/desire/fear/feel obligated to do.

The freedom to live our life 
the way our life needs to be lived
is difficult to arrange even for single people
with no family to take into consideration.

Issues arise. Complications and complexity interfere. 
Things come up. It isn't easy doing what is called for
with so many other things to take into account.

Returning to the silence helps to put things in order,
allowing us to "rise to the occasion"
and do what needs to be done.

Just being quiet helps to sill the clatter
of the 10,000 things
and settle "the dust of the world,"
so that we might collect ourselves
and find the way through all that is in the way,
regain our balance and harmony
and get back on the beam.

The most important thing is knowing and doing 
what is called for here, now,
in each situation as it arises--
doing the right thing
in the right way
at the right time
in the right place.

This is to be aligned with the Tao of life and being,
at one with the intuition of the Cosmos 
and of all things ert and inert therein.

We approach the sphere of the Tao,
of intuition,
seeing, hearing, knowing, being, doing
through trance states and alignment with
Truth! Justice! Equality! Liberty!
Bearing the pain, anguish, agony, agoné of the questions:

How good is the good we call good?
Whose good is served by the good we call good?
What good will it do to do the good that is good
anyway, nevertheless, even so, whether it does any good or not,
against all odds, not caring what our chances are, with
nothing in it for us beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
in each situation as it arises, regardless of the circumstances,
here, now, always and forever.

Amen! May it be so! No?