Wandering around looking for something
to catch my eye is my idea of really living.
And I do it for nothing.
I get nothing out of it beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.

The same thing applies to all the words
I have ever written,
and, likely, to all those I will ever write.

Money is only good for what it enables us to do
with our life.

There is what we do to live,
and there is what we live to do.

What do we live to do?
What do we do with all our heart?
What is worth our time?
What is worth what remains of our time?

Drop into the silence wondering about these things
and see what arises to call you
to serve and share the gifts of your original nature,
your innate virtues (The things you do best 
and love to do most),
your inherent imagination
and your intrinsic intuition
in the time left for living.

Joseph Campbell said, "We cannot rid the world of its sorrows,
but we can choose to live in joy."

We can think of this swan as drying her feathers. 

And, we can think of this swan as opening itself to the world
in a "You want some of this? Come and get it!" kind of way.

And, she is looking Donald Trump in the eye.

This is not a rational, logical, sensible universe.
Life eats life.
Except for black holes.
They eat light. And everything else.
I like the no beginning, no end guess,
with energy neither being created or destroyed,
only transformed or converted, 
meaning that we are all on the way
to becoming something else,
and dancing with all that comes our way
in the meantime.
"There is only the dance," as T.S. Eliot suggested.
So find what is meaningful, blissful, graceful, joyful
and invite it to dance while you can.
Because there are black holes lurking about
itching to dance with us.
Or have us for dinner.
It's all the same to a black hole.

We can think of the end of the world 
in a number of ways. 
Apocalypse is one way to do it.
Drop enough atomic weapons,
creating a "nuclear winter" 
and all life would cease to exist,
ending the world for all living things.

An esoteric could end the world 
for her-or-him-self
by taking a vow of silence and poverty
and closing themselves off from all 
association with the world of social interaction.

We could end the world by limiting or stopping
our primary associations with the world as we know it.

We could identify certain aspects of life in the world
which we decide to no longer engage in
and effectively ending the world we lived in yesterday
by going on a diet, say, and starting life in a new world today.

"The end of the world" can be a metaphor,
and it can be an event.

What are some of the ways the world as you know it
need to end for you?
What are some of the ways the world as it could be
need to begin for you?

Today is Easter Sunday.
In what ways could you "rise from the dead"
and begin living life anew?

We are familiar with the phrase "Turning over a new leaf."
We could also think about transforming our life 
by living in a new world.

People do it all the time. 

Most of the people who voted for Trump 
did not vote FOR Trump. 
They voted AGAINST Democrats. 
They will vote against any Democrat.
It's a problem for every election.

The Extreme Right Propaganda Media Machine 
is at work 48 hours a day spewing out
the twenty-eight ca-billion reasons
to not vote ever for a DEMONCRAT!!!
And people are raised on that from birth
so that voting is not what it once was
before the Newt Gingrich era
and the politics of polarization changed
the way business is done with propaganda year-round
and gerrymandering ongoing in every district
tilting the table in Republicans' favor in all elections
all the time.

The age of Democracy is past 
and even the pretense of Democracy is on shaky ground.
Where do we go from here is the question 
for the foreseeable future.

Spiritual reality is numinous in the sense
that it can be sensed but not said.

Physical reality can be weighed, measured, seen, felt,
defined, said...

I don't know if Psychic reality is the same as spiritual
or on a different level all its own.
I lean toward different all its own,
in that it can announce its presence
by splitting wood and knives,
and slamming doors among other things.

How many levels of reality are there?
And why do we think we know all there is to know
about things that matter?

And reading stars and tea leaves?
Do they warrant serious consideration
when it comes to knowing things beyond the obvious
and taken for granted things?

It is all a mystery to me.
I have no idea how it all ties together,
or if it does.
And I don't know who does.

But, I know plenty of people
who think they know it all,
and that the way they see things
is the way things are.

I call that arrogant and self-centered.

When Trump was running for his first term of office,
I lived in South Carolina
and Lindsey Graham was stumping for Trump
not far from my house. 
His most memorable line in that speech was,
"I know he's a rascal and no Boy Scout,
but at least he won't take our guns away."

His speech was not pro-Trump,
but anti-Democrat.

Nothing changes over time.

This is the strategy that will get Trump elected
for a third term, and a fourth...
Assuming he doesn't just declare himself to be King of America
before this term is finished.

The Extreme Right Propaganda Media Machine
has been at work for a generation or longer
laying the groundwork for "Anybody but a Democrat"
mentality nationwide.
The indoctrination has been effective and is complete.
No Democrat can run against it and survive/win.

And when the country goes to hell,
at least it wasn't Democratic.

The western landscape overwhelmed me. 

Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Arches, Yellowstone, Death Valley, the Tetons, Bryce and Zion, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, Glacier and Grand Canyon, and Crater Lake in the US, then Banff and Jasper in Alberta all left me with the feeling that I missed too much because it was too much for me to experience and frame with a 35mm Camera. And even though I made multiple trips to several of the parks, I am not finished, and cannot imagine being finished.

I was able to spend late October and early November for ten years running on Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and returned each year for 12 or more years to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah, Acadia, Baxter State Park in Maine, Congaree National Park in South Carolina are all I feel like I "did right by," and cannot imagine what I would photograph that I haven't already photographed in these "close to home" parks.

The Western Landscape eludes me. And I'm planing passing on heaven and spending eternity walking through the western parks to my satisfaction before moving on to the Cosmos and all it has to offer. I can barely wait to get started.

In a land where money rules
everything is owned by the one
who has the power to cut money off from
and provide money to.

Which makes everything in the land
subject to the caprice of the person
in charge of the distribution of money,
whose greatest pleasure is the power
of his position in pushing people around
and making them bow to him
and tell him loudly how majestic and wonderful
he is.

The irony is that everyone knows how pathetically 
mad he is--how sad and tragic he is,
and what a comedic presence he presents as a shadow
that goes with him everywhere he goes, which he knows not,
thinking only that he is great beyond measure
when the truth is that the King is wearing no clothes.

There are people who take religion seriously.
Qualifying them for a psychological diagnosis of delusional,
if not schizophrenic.

They sometimes hear voices and see visions,
and frequently speak of "God's will."

What starts out with them
"taking things on faith,"
quickly morphs into certainty and conviction,
leading them to transform  things they believe
into factual reality in no time at all.

People who have been "brainwashed"
have to be "deprogrammed"
and are sometimes slow to transition
back into "normal reality."

How does religion escape the designation
of psychological abnormality?
Perhaps because of the large percentage of
the worldwide population who are so affected?
Which means we are living in a certifiably crazy
environment wherever we live. No?

We are on our own from the start,
and our life is a reflection of--
evidence of--
the quality of the company we keep.

We are walking/talking exhibitions
of who has influenced us throughout our life.
We are who we hang with.
From the books we read
to the coffee we drink.

When you look at us,
you see where we have been
and who we have been with.

I am proud of my crew,
which includes all of you!
And I look forward to the rest of the way!

You are the best sounding board I could hope for!
And sounding boards are the most important
addition we can hope for in our life.

Sounding boards are mirrors with a plus.
The plus is reflecting what we say,
enabling us to hear ourselves talking,
and enabling us to correct what we say
to better express what we mean.
That is the kind of help that 
makes it possible for us to 
be who we say we are.

You are helping me find my way along the way!
Where would I be without you???