Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

March 07-B, 2026

In my eBook, The Tao of Jesus, I wrote, “When we find our life and live it, everything falls into place around that. To do it, to find our life and live it, we follow the pattern of all the heroes on all of the journeys throughout time. In doing that we have to put desire, fear and duty in their place, and live beyond them, beyond desire, fear and duty. Which is to say without desire, fear and duty, in order to find our life and live it.

This is to say that we have to simply give ourselves to the work of doing the things that need to be done no matter what–no matter what it means for us personally, or for those we love.

Which snaps us bak to Jesus and his declaration about austerity: “Those who would follow me have to leave father and mother, brothers and sisters, and take up their cross daily in finding their life and living it.”

This is asking all would be followers of Jesus, “Do you have what it takes to stick with it? To do what is required of us, asked of us, in each situation as it arises? Day in and day out? Whether we feel like it or not, want to or not, are in the mood for it or not? For not other reason than because this is what is ours to do, and go go on doing, throughout the time left for living, no matter what?”

“No matter what?” means we have to find our life and anchor ourselves to it with an adamantine declaration of allegiance and fidelity that puts liege loyalty and filial devotion to shame.

This is what all of those old love stories are about. They aren’t about boy and girl finding each other and swearing their troth to one another forever. They are about men and women finding their life–their life together and their individual lives apart–and doing living together in ways that enhance their ability to be who they need to be through all of the situations and circumstances that arise in their lifetime, together and apart.

It is not about finding the right person meant for them, but about finding the right life for them, the life they are meant to be living, together as a couple, and apart as individuals, through all their years of being married.

Can each person find the life partner who will aid and assist them in living their own life? This is the question at the heart of all of the boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl stories. Can we be good for each other in bringing the other forth and helping the other live their life to the fullest possible extend in the time left for living?”

Find the person who can join you in creating this kind of mutual environment, and stick with them throughout eternity! We are here for the life that is ours to live! And for helping on another find and live the life that is theirs to live! And nothing can knock us off our mission!

We have to learn how to read the signs, to know what the symbols refer to–the symbols that catch our attention eye, that speak to us. We have to know what they are saying. Our task is to learn how to live symbolically, metaphorically! In doing what is ours to do and in being who we know ourselves to be throughout the way that is The Way.

March 07, 2026

**Black Australian Swan — Swan Lake Iris Gardens — Sumter, South Carolina**

What language do swans (And all of nature) think with? Hunger, for instance, must make an impression, create an awareness, that spurs them to eat. Fear inspires escape behaviors. Mating means a host of things resulting in cygnets… When they answer the call to migrate with the seasons, do they wonder what is going on? Do Australian Swans migrate in Australia? If so does that make them crazy in South Carolina? And is that another reason their wings are clipped to keep them from flying off and getting lost? So many questions. So much to know.

March 06, 2026

**Goshen Creek — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

Listening to our body, knowing what our body knows, allowing our body to guide us on our path through the sea, is a savvy choice for finding our way along The Way.

Our body talks to us all of the time. Instead of listening, we opt for Over The Counter remedies to over ride the wisdom of the ages and impose our idea of how things ought to be on the life we are living.

The life we are living fails to take our best interests into account in favor of what we want when, where and how we want it.

Ignoring what our body knows in the service of Having Our Way Now is not the best response to doing what is called for in each situation as it arises–especially when that which knows what’s what and what’s the best response to the options available to us here, now is right here, right now waiting to take the lead if we will only sit down and listen to what it has to say all along the way to The Way.

March 05, 2026

**An Egret’s World — The Low Country, South Carolina**

There is benign neglect and there is benign devotion, and the difference is indecipherable. If we treat people lovingly, they won’t be able to tell the difference. And neither will we. If we treat everyone lovingly, the world will be a better place and we will be better people, so why not? We may as well treat everyone as though we care about them whether we do or not. It has been a long time since some people have had a kind word spoken to them. Uplift their spirits! Increase the world’s kindness quotient! Make an indecipherable difference in the way life works!

March 04, 2025

**Catawba River Flyover — Landsford Canal State Park, Catawba, South Carolina**

Enthusiasm and vitality are not constant, regular, daily experiences. Boredom, ennui and monotony are much more reliable and frequent occurrences. And that’s a problem because we are addicted to the rush of wonder and delight, to the point of artificial applications of highs from a bottle or a pill. We will do anything to feel better about a life with not much to show for all the time we’ve put into living.

“Is this all there is?” becomes the theme song for generations looking for something more than they have been able to put together. Which is also known as, “Won’t somebody make me happy–no, thrilled–to be here, now?

Did somebody just say, “here, now?” That’s strange, because I was just thinking of here, now, and how that is all there is anywhere, all of the time. There is nothing but here, now for as far as we can see in any direction. And it is not enough! We want to spice things up and “let the good times roll!”

And that runs headlong into the Buddha’s recipe for really living: “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” Wow. Talk about a cultural clash! And Jesus is no help at all with his, “Consider the lilies of the field…” analogy and its “Bloom where you’re planted, and enjoy where you are, when you are, how you are for as long as you are,” implication.

How do we square how things are here, now with how we want them to be and wish they were? When the Blues meets the here, now, where does that leave us other than wanting something more always and forever? And how often does music and entertainment sub for “not much going on in this ol’ life, here, now”? With sex, drugs and alcohol doing their best to make up for nothing going our way? For our certainty that things ought to be different than they are, and our disappointment with “this being all there is”?

While all this time we are only a slight shift in perspective from life being packed down, over flowing, pouring out, just by seeing every moment as the opportunity to know what’s called for and do what needs to be done–by taking up the work of replacing what we want to happen with what needs to happen with the gifts that are waiting to come to life in us in the form of our original nature, our intrinsic virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our intrinsic intuition, our inherent imagination and our love for playing with the possibilities and opportunities waiting to come to life in us and through us in this old here and now, just in time to see what we can do in the time left for living!

March 03, 2026

**Ballantyne Gingko Park — Charlotte, North Carolina**

It comes down to our relationship with Psyche and with Intuition, and they may be the same thing. How can we deepen, enhance, expand, enlarge our relationship with, awareness of, Psyche and Intuition? That is the only thing that matters in the time left for living.

Reflecting in emptiness, stillness and silence will help. Taking our time, moving slowly, noticing everything, being curious about it all, talking to them as though they are God (They are better than God–they have a sense of humor and would never require the death of anyone, especially of “Jesus Christ God’s Only Son, Our Lord,” for the atonement/redemption of everyone’s Sins. Psyche and Intuition would just get over it in an “Of course they did,” kind of way). They make a very nice, in every sense of the term, improvement over God, and are built to be cuddly with us as well.

Tuning in to Psyche and Intuition is a matter of just being aware of their presence, of their company, in making decisions and choices and sensing, knowing, what each situation as it arises is calling for, what the movement, flow, drift, current is here, now, and what it asks for from us, and joining into the spirit of things as “one thus come” to be what is needed in doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done whether we are in the mood for it or want to do it, or not, no matter what, like any good sport would do.

When we cooperate with our life in this way, instead of commandeering it and trying to force it to be what we want it to be, or not want it to be, we contribute to the flow and everything becomes just what it ought to be, in a throughly satisfying and magically “right” kind of way.

The old Taoist term “Wu-wei” (meaning “not doing,” “not striving,” “not forcing,” “not swimming against the current”), comes to life here, and is, perhaps, the essential feature of Psyche and Intuition, in that we will never be close to Psyche and Intuition without a primary relationship with Wu-wei. If we practice living in a Wu-wei kind of way, we will soon become one with Psyche, Intuition, and live happily ever after regardless of what our life situation may be.

March 02, 2026

Psyche and Intuition are all we need in seeing what’s what and what is called for and what to do about it. Things get out of hand quickly when we strive to impose our will for the situation upon the situation–which generally comes down to trying to get what we want in/from these circumstances, here, now. That mode of operation can be trusted to churn calm waters into the heaving waves of the wine dark see in no time at all. If you want to make things crazy quick insist on having what you want right now!

Starting from emptiness, stillness and silence gives Psyche and Intuition an opportunity to take the moment into consideration, reading body language around the here, now, and tones of voice in a what’s what and what’s called for kind of way. Tuning into Psyche and Intuition gives us a sense of knowing what they know (Which has nothing to do with getting/having our way, and everything to do with seeing/knowing what’s what and what’s called for. And that’s all we need to know to do what needs to be done here, now. Which is to help everyone know what’s called for and what needs to be done about it.

It comes down to seeing/feeling, knowing/doing. The things that Psyche and Intuition do best. Living aligned with them is being at one with the Tao and that comes down to the Buddha’s way of life: “Peaceful abiding, here, now.” It is the way to The Way in all times and places. With wanting, striving, having to have what we want or else nowhere around.

March 01, 2026

**Adams Mill Pond — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina**

Opening ourselves to Psyche and Intuition, and to the possibility/likelihood that they are the same thing, would be a project worthy of the rest of our life. It would make us all aspects of the same thing, which would make us all one thing, one psychic thing. And getting to know each other would be getting to know ourselves as extensions of one another. Which would make going to war even more incredibly stupid than it appears to be–and would call us all to sit down, shut up, open our eyes and see who we are and what we are doing, and consider what we might be doing instead. No?

Spring Months 2026

**Sunrise — East Fork Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway, Mile Post 418.3, North Carolina**

Psyche and Intuition are all we need–and they may be the same thing for all we know. Carl Jung said, “We can know nothing about the substance of the Psyche, when the sole means of knowing anything is the Psyche.” I think of Intuition as the Psyche’s way of guiding us through our life. Together, I see them as the source and ground of life and being. And we know nothing about them. We experience them, their reality, constantly, and we know nothing about them. We are manifestations of Psyche and Intuition. It all flows from them, returns to them, is nothing but them. Why don’t we just sit down with them, open ourselves to them and see where it goes?

February 28, 2026

**Lake Andrew Jackson Mirror — Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina**

“What’s the most important thing?” I asked my hair stylist. “Kindness,” she said without hesitation. “I can’t argue with that,” I said. Kindness would certainly have made a difference in our lives, and still would. So, we treated each other kindly throughout the rest of the cut, and promised to do so again next time.

I don’t know if it is the MOST important thing, oxygen and water might fight it out for the top spot. But it IS important. And easy to do. I don’t know why it doesn’t play a larger role in our life, both in receiving and in sending.

But here we are with Trump bombing Iran and Israel joining in. For what? Fear and insecurity and just wanting to show off rank high in the rationale department, I’m thinking. Pluck and Bluster rank high among world leaders it seems, along with swagger and strut. With kindness nowhere to be found.

Jimmy Carter would be the kindest world leader I can think of, and he was derided and chided for it from the start. Abraham Lincoln would qualify for consideration. And with that, I am out of candidates. And am sorry I brought up the subject. I’ll count on your kindly not mentioning it, and just letting it go.

February 27, 2026

**Moose Flats — Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies, Alberta**

I am a strong believer in trance states. Self-induced trance-states. Looking out the window. Drifting off into wool-gathering or taking a walk-a-bout to nowhere in particular. Not going anywhere and not being here, now at the same time. Aware only of what occurs to me/you, to what appears out of the mists, to catch our eye, produce reflection and perhaps, if we are lucky, realization.

We know more through reflection and realization than we know by thinking. Trance states are good for reflection and realization and not good for thinking.

Where do you go for trance states? How often do you go there? How long do you spend there? What do you know that trance states have produced for you? Have called forth from you? Have led you to realize, understand, comprehend, know?

Our trance states are vital to our life, and are life, are alive and bring us to life. Our trance states are our teachers, our gurus, our sources of knowledge, realization, truth. Doorways to knowing more than we know we know.

Sitting on the beach, or walking along the beach, being with the ocean, is an extended trance state. The ocean wakes us up by putting us into a trance. The trance makes possible a depth of realization that is kin to remembering something we have always known. And is a source of comfort and contentment reminding us that we are not alone.

Carl Jung said, “There is within each of us, another whom we do not know.” Trance states usher us into the presence of the other within–are thresholds between worlds. Inviting us to know more than we know we know, and become more than we think we are capable of being, calling us to open ourselves to what is open to us. And see where it goes.

February 26-B, 2026

**Borax Vista — Death Valley National Park, California**

We know things we don’t know how we know. If we sit quietly without thinking but being aware of the things that come to mind “out of nowhere” and following the things that have an attraction about them, we will come into realization “like a bolt from the blue.” And we will not have thought it up. We will simply have realized that it is so.

You could start with this photograph, and just sit quietly, emptying your mind of all thoughts, emotions, desires, wants, etc., and just be open to and aware of whatever associations this picture brings to mind. Don’t start thinking about them, just be aware of them and follow the associations that you find to be interesting, just going where they take you, like you might look out a window, seeing but not thinking about what you are seeing, just being drawn along by your associations to the point of realization, awareness, knowing, as though you are making a connection between the photograph, the associations and some truth you never saw coming in a “this means that” kind of way that was not something you might normally think about.

This process of drifting along with associations is one means of self-induced trance states. There are as many ways of inducing trance states as there are people. Looking out the window being one of my faves. And in the trance state, we are assessable to our intuition which is a word for our unconscious seeking an audience with us, trying to commune with us and open us to aspects of our life that we might never be aware of just by thinking.

I have mentioned here before of currently dealing with cognitive dissonance, muddled thinking, not being able to remember something I should know quite well, like what I am doing in the kitchen standing before the refrigerator, or opening a cabinet door. If I try to think in that situation, I only frustrate myself. But, if I open myself to the moment and simply wait for my unconscious to bring an association or a memory to mind it works better than a thought and, like that, I know what I’m doing there. My thinking mind is garbled, but my trance state openness to being here, now works just fine.

I recommend taking up the practice of tuning out of the here, now by opening up to the here, now, not by thinking, but by drifting off into “just being” and seeing what comes to mind by way of associations, or “wool gathering” or just watching whatever images or memories may arise and going along with them wherever they go, waiting for realization, for knowing, to come out of nowhere “just like that.”