Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

I've sold all of my proper camera gear
and will take the photos I take
with my cell phone,
and spend my time going through
70,000 + images on compact disks
to see what I can find hiding there.

It has been apparent for a while
that this was necessary and inevitable.
I could no longer get my camera
into scenes worthy of it,
and wasn't interested in another sunrise
or a bird in flight, etc.

And I am intrigued with what AI
(Which I think of as "Artists' Inspiration)
is able to do with images,
or even pieces of images,
and look forward to playing
with multitudes of renditions of images
while looking out the window
from my recliner,
and talking to you 
about the things that come to mind.

Like what you consider to be your strengths.
What do you do best?
What do you like most about yourself?
And your weaknesses.
What do you do poorly?
And like least about yourself?

Once you are clear about these things,
play the opposite game,
and consider how your strengths are weaknesses,
and how your "lesser skills"
are also additional primary skills in disguise. 

The things we like most about ourselves
can prejudice us regarding the things we like least,
and the things we do poorly,
can convinces us that we can't do anything well.

When it is all a matter of time and place,
circumstances and perspective,
how we allow ourselves to shine,
and how we prevent ourselves from shining.

One we begin exploring our "strengths"
and "weaknesses,"
things begin to shift,
new worlds open up,
new possibilities present themselves,
and the adventure begins!

Dancing with life is all there is.

–0–

We should be like ourselves,
caring what we care about,
loving what we love,
enjoying what we enjoy,
doing what needs to be done
the way only we can know and do that.

That's the way real people do it.
They are themselves
doing it the way they would do it.

In order to be that way,
we have to spend time with ourselves,
attending ourselves,
being attentive to ourselves,
knowing what we know,
seeing how we see what we look at,
feeling what we feel,
reflecting on our experience
and on our experiencing our experience,
and being comfortable
with who we know ourselves to be.

How much time do you spend with yourself?
Listening to yourself?
Knowing what you know?
Feeling what you feel?
Seeing how you see?

Without judgment or condemnation?
Just being at one with yourself?
Knowing what needs to be done 
and doing it the way you would do it?

–0–

Who is better off because of you?
In what ways?

How does your generosity and kindness,
compassion and grace,
manifest themselves in the lives of others?
In the life of someone else?

Who do you think about 
other than yourself?

Who are the people who are safe 
in your presence?

Who do you care for?
Protect?
Defend?
Befriend?

I think these are differentiating questions
in the lives of people worldwide. 
They separate us,
set us apart.
Declare who we are
and who we are not.
Say more about us 
than anything else
that might identify us
to one another
in ways that matter.

We can't be somebody
without being somebody
in the life of someone else.

We cannot matter
without mattering to someone
other than ourselves--
without doing it to matter.

–0–

We most need to hear
what we most have to say.

How often do we listen to what we are saying,
and, more importantly,
to HOW we are saying it?

What subjects do we pursue?
Return to?
What do we repeat?
Time after time?

How often do we hear ourselves
saying something new?
Something we have never said before?

Who are our best listeners?
Who allow/encourage us to talk
so that we might hear what we are saying?

Who ask us questions for clarification,
forcing us to think about what we are saying,
what we mean?

Where do we go just to hear 
what we have to say?

When do we talk just to hear
what we have to say?

How often do we surprise ourselves
with what we say,
and/or how we say it?

Automatic writing,
where we just start writing,
not-knowing what we are going to write/say
is an excellent exercise 
in opening an inner door
and listening/seeing what comes out.

It is what I do here every day,
and in other places throughout the day.

I am amazed at what I have to say.
And expect you will feel the same way
about what you have to say.

I don't know of a better way
to spend our time
than listening to what all we have to say--
and invite you to take up the practice,
and see where it takes you
in the time left for living.

–0–

How we see what we look at,
how we look at what we see,
determines,
or strongly influences,
what we do about what we see/look at.

What are we serving/seeking,
trying to do,
hoping to achieve,
avoid,
get to,
go?

What makes us think it is worth doing/having?

What is worth our time/attention?
How do we know?
What are we about?
What are we doing
with the time left for living?

Reflection and realization 
are big for me.

Looking/listening/seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/
sitting/thinking/being/
communing/wondering/imagining/...
the passions of silence/solitude.

Going where we are led,
doing what needs to be done,
making connections and transitions,
flowing along with delight/joy/awe/wonder
as long as we can
is enough for me
to get out of bed
and step into another day.

I'm here for the experience
of being alive,
and what I do with it,
and what it does with me.

And, if that is all there is to it,
that's fine with me.

–0–

We cannot fix/change/improve/etc. anyone
without their permission.

Psychotherapy comes to grief upon this.

And yet, 
we all grow up against our will.
If we grow up at all.

And yet,
we do change our mind about what's important.

So we keep saying what is so
and letting nature take its course.

I wish I had had me for a father.
And, of course I did--I do.

Where would I be without me?
Where would you be without you?
The part of you that has gotten you here/now?

We are not alone.
The best of us takes care of
the worst of us,
and we all benefit from
our association with all of us,
with who we are,
and also are,
and letting nature take its course.

–0–

We are made for wonder.

Wonder is the reason we are here.

Wonder is all there is.

We are here to look around and admire the beauty and the wonder.

The ground/foundation of existence is wonder.

We go to the moon–for what?
For the wonder of it.
The joy of it.
The WOW!

Period.

There is nothing to get, to have, to own, possess, do…
beyond looking around, going “Wow!”

I’m glad to be a part of that,
and to know that’s all there is to it.

Wow!

Where have you gone “Wow!” today?

–0–

There is only changing our mind
about what is important
until things click into place
and we know we are right about it
finally at last
and accord it its due place in our life
with fealty,
filial devotion,
allegiance,
and loyalty
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

We can speed things up a bit
by observing the mantra of the ages:
Sit Down!
Shut Up!
Be Quiet!

With enough of the right kind of silence
we can hear what's what
and do what needs to be done about it
when/where/how it needs to be done,
moment-to-moment
for the rest of our life.

And that is all there is to it.

"It" is primarily vibrations
and harmony,
balance,
being at one with,
aligned with,
in accord with,
in tune with
what is here/now
and what we need to do
in response to it--
the dance of life.

"There is only the dance"
(TS Eliot).

It has nothing to do with getting,
acquiring,
amassing,
having,
owning,
etc.

It has everything to do with
sitting down,
shutting up,
being quiet.

We can't do that
because we know what it will mean for us:
Not getting,
acquiring,
amassing,
having,
owning,
etc.

And we want all of that 
with everything within us.
Well.
Almost everything.
There is that "still, quiet voice,"
saying,
"Sit down,
shut up,
be quiet!"

–0–

There are two terms--
dissonance and resonance--
that can be experienced
but not taught,
known but not learned.

They have to do with vibrations
between a body and a force
with dissimilar (with dissonance)
or similar (with resonance)
vibrating frequencies.

Discordant or resonating frequencies
can be experienced with musical notes
and waves of sound or liquid.
And we can experience them personally
as a pull toward something
or as a push away from something.

We can walk into a place
that we can't get walked out of 
fast enough,
and into a different place
where we could sit and stay forever.

We know what's what in our body.
We dismiss/discount/ignore
what our body is saying
with "the uh-oh feeling,"
and end up saying ourselves,
"I knew this was wrong from the start."

Yes-but, here we are.

We have lived our way here
by being more-or-less sensitive
to what we are feeling on a borderline
conscious level.
We get where we are going
by being increasingly sensitive
to what we are feeling on that level.

What are the YES's in our life?
And what are the NO's?

What are the vibrations telling us?
Being attuned to
what is "in tune" with us
and what is "out of tune" with us
is a reliable guide through
a life strewn with possibilities
and options,
choices and decisions.

–0–

We feel our way into our life.
Practice doing that
by feeling your way into what you wear tomorrow,
and feeling your way into what you eat for lunch,
and into all of the decisions/choices you make
that are not forced on you by circumstances.

Learn to read your body,
to know your body's signals,
to allow your body to lead the way
through the day each day.

Check everything out with your body--
not with your head.

Our head is good for how to do things,
what things to do are the body's prerogative.

Letting our body take the lead
is essential in living in sync with,
aligned with,
in accord with,
the flow of vitality, life and being,
doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right way
in the right place,
laughing at how we can know 
what needs to be done
without thinking about it.

It is a wonderful mystery,
and links us with the heart
of transcendent being/reality,
which is more than words can say,
but not more than can be known.

And our body is the path to knowing.

–0–

We live our way to enlightenment/
realization/
understanding/
knowing/
being/
doing...

We don't think or way there.
No one can tell us how to do it
beyond,
"Practice, practice, practice!"

Practice what?

Listening to/looking into
emptiness,
stillness,
silence.

Listening/looking for
hints/expressions/exhibitions/revelations of
our original nature
and the innate virtues/traits/specalties
that reside in our DNA,
seeking the light of day.

When we get it,
what we get
is being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
when/where/how it is called for
in response to what is happening
and what needs to be done about it.

We live our way to US!
To being ourselves in ways
that serve a good beyond ourselves!

No wonder no one can tell us how to do that!
No one knows us the way we know us,
if only we will get out of the way
and look/listen for 
hints/expressions/exhibitions/revelations...
And start doing what only we can do
in meeting the circumstances of our life
as only we can
in the time left for living.

–0–

Stepping into each day 
with little in the way of plans and agendas,
conquest and triumph,
hoping to see how we are seeing
what we look at,
and help out where we can
in responding to what is happening
and what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

Trusting ourselves to have what we need
to find and do what needs to be done,
just listening,
just looking,
just seeing,
just hearing,
and responding spontaneously
out of our original nature
and innate virtues/traits/specialties,
puts us in position 
to enjoy our life as never before,
and to look forward to what happens next
and what we do in response,
moment by moment
all day long.

The adventure of being alive.

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