Our life is our path.
How we live it is who we are.
What we do with our life is who we are.
What we do is who we are.

"What I do is me--for that I came,"
said Gerard Manley Hopkins,
for all of us.

What is it about your life
that you are proud of?
Do more of that.

What is it about your life
that you are ashamed of?
Do less of that.

There you are.

Live to be you--
consciously,
intentionally,
deliberately--
in all that you do.

We cannot ask for more than that,
and to do other than that 
is to betray ourselves.

We have what remains of the life
left for living
to express/exhibit/serve/be who we are.

Why waste a second not doing that?

If you don't know who you are,
examine what you are proud of
and what you are ashamed of,
and live to be proud of you.

Our Psyche is a wonder of wonders
with depths untold,
taking care of us from the beginning
with what we need when we need it,
enabling us to engage the world
and its people
while maintaining our own balance and harmony
and living to express/exhibit/serve
our original nature
and our inherent virtues/virtuosities
by sensing/seeing/hearing what is needed
and knowing what is called for
and responding to what's what
with what we have to offer
in each situation as it arises
as the child of Psyche that we are,
who protects, guides and enables us
to grow into who we are 
over the full course of our life.

Getting to know Psyche (Soul, Higher Self, Self,etc.)
is an aspect of our life's work,
and trusting Psyche is essential to that work.

We trust Psyche by knowing we are not alone,
and engaging Psyche as a Thou within us,
though where Psyche is located is probably 
beyond us,
and we are probably intricate receiving devices
capable of being in touch with realities
on different frequencies, wave-lengths, energy levels,
"out there" and "right here/now."

And our place is to know what's what
and what is called for in response
in doing what needs to be done
with what we have to offer
the situations and circumstances of our life.

Yet, we are used to thinking in terms of what we need
and what we want,
and live to have our way and get what we want
in each situation and circumstance that comes along.

So first up is turning the light around.
Changing our mind about what's what,
and revising our mode of operating day by day
to take Psyche into account
and live in relationship with Psyche
as the Moved to the Mover.

It is a new way of thinking,
so take your time with it,
and take it up as a meditative/reflective exercise,
you reaching out consciously/mindfully to Psyche,
perhaps by imagining yourself sitting in
stillness and silence in whatever setting you conjure up,
and waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,
and taking whatever comes as being sent to you
from Psyche.

And see where it goes. 

–0–

We have to live as though 
everything hangs on how we live,
because it does.

We have to live as though
everything matters
because everything matters
on how we live.

We have to live as though we care
about all of the things 
we should care about
because when we don't care for
what needs us to care for it,
it all goes to hell in no time at all.

We have to live as though we mean it
because it all hangs
on our living as though we mean it.

We pretend we are who we are not yet
because the way we live
makes all the difference.

We have to fake it so well
that even we can't tell 
if we are faking it or not.

When we can fake out the faker,
all is well.
(Whether it is or not).

So, get in there and do your thing
as only you can do it,
whether you feel like it or not,
whether you want to or not,
whether you are in the mood for it or not--
because that is the only thing that matters.

–0–

Nothing ever ends.
There are no final outcomes.
Everything is always "in process,"
being transformed and converted
all the way.

Growing up, you might say.
World without end.
Just "more like we are now
than we were when we got here."

Picking up different accents
and attitudes all along.

"Adjustment and accommodation, Kid,
Adjustment and accommodation."

–0–

Everything is coming or going,
and our place
is to let come what's coming,
and to let go what's going,
in a "This is now, so let it be,"
kind of way.

It's called, "Going with the flow."
That's "the flow of life and being."
Like "The tide comes in
and the tide goes out," about every
twelve hours on most days.

Understanding how things are
and accommodating ourselves to them,
is a big part of growing up,
and one reason we will never be able
to prop up our feet,
light a cigar,
and declare ourselves to be Grown Up.

Grown Up is not a steady state of being,
any more than being Enlightened is.
Being dead is the only steady state of being,
and there is even some misgiving about that,
given that "dead" is but a transition
between different types of energy fields,
and we hop out of one way of being
into another, "like that" (Snaps fingers).

Of course that is hypothetical, 
but so have been heaven and hell all these years.

–0–

Awareness fosters reflection
and nurtures realization.

Start with awareness,
and see where it goes.

Knowing what's what
and what's happening
and what's called for
in response,
is essential knowing--
leading directly to 
what needs to be done.

If we are right about
what is called for
and do what needs to be done
about it
in each situation as it arises,
who could do more?

Being quiet and sizing things up
is the foundation of all that follows.

Fully attending here/now
changes everything.

They should tell us this 
from the start.

–0–

There is nothing wrong with us
that getting rid of all of our
opinions, ideas, judgments, expectations,
desires, fears, animosities, ways of seeing,
thinking, believing, points of view, etc.
wouldn't cure "like that"!

So why not get rid of them?
Just stop engaging in any of them.
Simply settle into seeing/hearing
what is called for 
in each situation as it arises,
and doing that
with the gifts of our original nature
and our inherent virtuosities
(The things we do best
and enjoy/love doing most),
when, where and how it needs to be done,
and letting that be that,
moving on to what else is called for here/now,
day-by-day
throughout the time left for living.

That would transform everything. 

–0–

Who is your favorite human being,
real or fictional?

Tevya ranks as mine.

I would love to spend some time
with Tevya.

Mostly, laughing.

So, I spend time with Tevya
in my mind.

Who do you spend time with
in your mind?

Spending time with our favorite people
is time well-spent,
whether it is real
or imaginary.

Of course, the imaginary time spent
is all projection,
revealing all about us
and nothing about them.

We make them up,
but that is added value!
Because it shows us better who we are
than an actual favorite person ever could.

What we imagine that we need
IS what we need!
And we need to sit with that
and allow it to grow us up
a bit more, yet again.

I need to be 
who I imagine Tevya to have been.

Same goes for our most despised person.
We need to see all the ways we resemble
him/her.

For, they, too, are mirrors showing us
who we are,
or, at least, who we are capable of being.

And, give us something to work on
for the rest of our life.

–0–

There are books I think everyone
should read and refer to 
throughout the time left for living. 

A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living,
by Diane K. Osbon Note: There are two books by the same title out, this is the oldest and the best in my opinion. I don't know if it is still in print, so used bookstores may be your best bet.

Focusing, by Gene (Or Eugene) Gendlin

The Radical Acceptance of Everything, by Ann Weiser Cornell

Teaching as a Subversive Activity, by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn

The Tao of Zen,by Ray Grigg

The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap into Your Unconscious and Transform Your Life, By Jeremy Taylor

I'm surprised there aren't more than this,
and these seven books will tell you all you
need to know about me.

May the singers not run out of songs,
may the poets not run out of poems,
may the stars not run out of shine,
may the oceans not run out of waves,
and may things be always the same enough
to be known,
and different enough to be what we need,
time after time,
day after day.
And may we be exactly what the day needs.
Time after time.
Day after day.
World without end.

I invite you to consider your life
and see how long you can make a list
of things worth knowing.

Here follows my list
which I am creating on the spot,
right here, right now.

So you might stop reading until you have
composed your own list
to keep me from influencing you.

1) The most important thing I consider to be 
worth knowing is mindful, attentive, awareness
of each moment that is here/now.

The next most important things that I find to be 
worth knowing are our original nature,
and our inherent virtuosities--the things we do best,
and enjoy/love doing most.

The next would be knowing what's what,
what's happening
and what is called for in response
in each situation as it arises.

Additional things worth knowing in no particular order are:
Where I stop and you start.
What is my business and what is not my business.
What is worth my time and what is not worth my time.
How to recognize, access, realize, trust and follow
my intuition,
my body's felt sense,
and my nighttime dreams
through all the situations 
and circumstances of my life.

If I had all these things going for me,
I think I would have what it takes
to do right-enough by my life
in the time left for living
to be proud of what I'm doing
and to enjoy doing it.

Reserving the right to know more things
as they occur to me as being important
from here on out.

–0–

Is God male or female?
Is the question appropriate
to the occasion?

Is light male or female?
Is electricity male or female?
Is hope male or female?
Is AUM male or female?

Is "man" different from "male"?
Is "woman" different from "female"?

Where does male or female
become irrelevant?

What does "oneness" mean?

What questions do you
refuse to allow yourself to ask?

What questions do you
refuse to allow others to ask?

Where do you draw the line
between "male" and "female"?

Between "man" and "woman"?

Does "oneness" disappear all lines?

Is God one with all things?

Inseparable from all things?

What is "life"?

Where does "life" come from?

Where does "life" go?

Where does harmony belong?

What disrupts the flow of harmony?

What are the forces of destabilization?

What are the forces of stabilization?

Of harmony?

Of peace?

Discord?

Accord?

How do you harmonize yourself
with your environment?

With your life?

Are you more in accord with your life
or out of tune with your life?

How do you lose the AUM?

How do you get it back?

–0–