Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
Adams Mill Pond Mirror 11/10/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
The people who so proudly
take it on faith
that everything in the Bible is so,
because it is proof of their
celestial worthiness
and the quality of their faith
to do so,
are quick to toss faith aside
from there on,
and speak not of what they believe
to be so,
but of what they know to be so
because the Bible says so.
What they just took on faith,
they now take to be a fact,
ignoring the fact
that a fact based on faith,
in complete disregard of the evidence
and the requirements for rational
discourse
has no standing whatsoever.
A fact has its own validity
regardless of what is believed
about it.
People of faith say things like,
"God hates gays,"
and "God will send sinners straight to hell!"
Without introducing either statement
with "I believe..."
They declare it to be a fact
beyond doubt
and not beholding to belief.
Because they say so.
It is their opinion.
And that is all it is.
The rest of us are free
to form our own opinions
about their opinions,
and leave them in their own world
of "Let's Pretend,"
for as long as it pleases them to do so.
Baxter Creek Bridge 11/05/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek District, Waterville, North Carolina
Trusting ourselves to our original nature
and our innate virtues/specialties
is the grounding principle of our existence.
We are one with ourselves
or, we are split off from ourselves,
divided within,
without guidance or direction,
lost in the wasteland of discontent.
The way out of the wilderness
is the way of deep listening
to ourselves--to our body,
our bones and our stomach,
to our symptoms,
to our heart,
to our nighttime dreams,
to our instinct and intuition,
our uh-oh feeling,
our sense of "Yes" and "No,"
our balance and harmony,
and the flow of our life energy.
All of which can be skewed
by drugs/sex/alcohol/money.
When addiction to drugs/sex/alcohol/money
is running the show,
it's time to close things down,
go into hibernation,
isolate ourselves from
the disruptive influences,
and sit facing the wall
until we are sober
and capable of independent,
reliable,
judgment.
How long has it been?
It may be a slow road back
to being able to trust ourselves
in knowing what is good for us
and what is bad,
with the wherewithal to say "No"
to the bad
and "Yes" to the good.
All the Twelve-step programs
come down to having what it takes
to surround ourselves with the right
kind of people
who are sources of the right kind
of support,
enabling us to find the way
to saying "No" when "No" should be said,
and "Yes" when "Yes" should be said.
Woe be unto those with the wrong kind of company!
Appalachian Barn 06/16/2016 Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain, Tennessee
The art of hermeneutics
is seeing/hearing what's what,
knowing/doing what needs to be done about it,
being right about all of it
and doing it with the gifts
of our original nature
and our innate virtues/specialties
in each situation as it arises
al our life long.
Hermeneutics is reading/interpreting/understanding
the situation as it unfolds before us,
around us,
moment to moment,
and responding to it
in ways appropriate to the occasion.
The art of hermeneutics is the art of life.
It depends upon the right kind
and amount
of stillness,
emptiness
and silence,
and feeling/listening/seeing/knowing
our way into the field of action/doing.
It is an experiential knowing/doing
that cannot be explained or taught with words.
It is dancing with the music
that cannot be heard
but can be sensed/felt/grasped/comprehended/understood.
We live our way into it,
picking up on the subtleties
and nuances,
and fine distinctions
between what is called for
and what is one step over the line.
It takes a lot of living
to be able to see.
Hear.
Know.
Understand.
And respond in the right way
in the right place,
at the right time,
time after time.
And, that is what is asked of us all,
all the time.
It is called "Walking on water,"
and "Skating on thin ice,"
and "Living on a slippery slope,"
"A dangerous path,"
"Like the razor's edge."
Not caring what our chances are.
And not keeping score.
Or nursing old wounds.
But "boldly going
where no one has gone before."
Day after day.
Time after time.
Bog River Falls Adirondack Park, 09/29/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Tupper Lake, New York
If you take something, anything, on faith,
you can't say that's the way it is--
it is the way you believe it is.
The distance between the way things are
and the way we believe they are,
and the way we wish they were,
is the distance between here/now
and the other side of the universe.
But, we don't let that stop us.
We are always taking the way we believe things are
to be the way things are.
It is a trick we play on ourselves
and any un-savvy others who happen to be
in the neighborhood.
We see something we would like to be so
and declare it to be so,
and it suddenly becomes so,
just like that.
Of course, nothing changed
except the way we think about the things
we believe to be so.
It is magic in action.
When people start talking about
the things they take on faith as being real,
like hell, say, or "the plan of salvation"
(Which we believe to be so as a counter weight
to our deserving to go to hell,
which we also believe to be so,
because we angered/disappointed God,
which we also believe to be so...)
we have to either walk away,
or step right in and say,
"You only believe it to be so.
It isn't so or you wouldn't have to take it on faith."
Being clear about what's what
and what's not
is steady work between this world
and the made-up imaginary world
of things we believe to be so
because somebody told us they are,
when what they really told us
is that they believe they are.
"Fair winds and following seas"
sailing the course that is set before us
all the days of our lives!
Monument Valley Sunrise 09/26/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona
Here's one for you:
There are people who take it on faith
that there is a god whom they call God,
who gets pissed off like that (snaps fingers)
and sends people to hell
for, like, not honoring their father and mother,
whatever "honoring" means,
and other slights like "keeping the Sabbath holy."
(Now the Sabbath used to be Saturday,
but it became Sunday when somebody
took it on faith that Sunday would be better,
which certainly seems to qualify
for not keeping the Sabbath holy,
but, whatever, which brings us to this:
If you are going to take something on faith,
why not let it be "Whatever happens is just what happens,
and we deal with it as best we can,
doing what seems to be called for
in each situation as it arises,
and see where it goes"?
No God, no Master Plan, no hell, no theology,
just seeing what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
and doing it,
situation by situation
throughout our life.
If you are going to take something on faith,
why not that???
The old Taoists did that.
They took that on faith,
and recommended going with the flow
of life's energy
(Which they called "Tao")
in deciding what needs to be done,
and letting that guide us through our life.
And, they are still doing it.
It has worked for them
since before the Buddha.
And, speaking of the Buddha,
there is someone who advised
seeing what we look at (Right seeing)
and doing what needs to be done about it
(Right doing).
Taoism and Buddhism are clear, simple,
ways of sizing things up,
rising to any occasion,
and doing what is called for
here/now day-by-day
without having to take anything on faith,
other than that's all it takes
to live well and enjoy what is to be enjoyed
about every day.
Monument Valley Moonrise 02 -09/25/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona
If you are against gun control
or vote for people who are against gun control,
you are complicit in the deaths
of those killed in school shootings
and in all other mass shootings,
and are an accomplice in their deaths.
You turn that around by being for gun control
and by voting against those who are against gun control.
Starting now.
Moonrise at Monument Valley 09/02/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona
Waiting on the next thing
is a great place
to recover from the past
and store up for the future,
just being still,
quiet
and empty of all thoughts
and emotions.
How long has it been?
How still,
quiet
and empty can you be?
For how long?
What drives you to noise?
Complexity?
Drama?
Get to the bottom of it.
See what's there.
What does thinking about
what you think about
keep you from thinking about?
Realization is possible
apart from thinking.
Things come out of nowhere
to those who are still, quiet, empty
enough long enough.
That is what the Native American
vision quests were all about.
Being still enough,
quiet enough,
empty enough,
long enough
to realize what our psyche
has to say to us
all along the way.
Our psyche is a resource
we would do well
to access on a regular basis.
Tuning out
to tune in,
making ourselves available
to realizations
beyond rational thought.
Meditatively making ourselves available
to psychic resources
throughout the day
every day.
I wonder why no one
has ever thought of that.
And why more of us don't do it.
North Rim 05 05/20/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Canyon National Park, Utah
Living with integrity,
sincerity
and spontaneity,
transcends
the contriving,
willful,
pursuit of the acquisition
of wealth and power,
and opens the way
to following the flow
of life energy
through circumstances
and situations as they arise.
In so doing, we create a path
that can only be recognized
as a path
in hindsight
by those who are living as if
it matters that they do right
by the moment,
from moment to moment,
with no sense of the bigger picture
anywhere in sight.
"As if" and "as though"
do not get enough press.
Assume for the time being
that there is no absolute reality,
that everything is only apparently real,
and we all are living "as if," "as though"
what appears to be real
is actually real.
We do not need anything
to be actually real
if we are all in agreement
with one another in acting
"as if," "as though"
things are real whether they are
or not.
This is the flip side of R.D. Laing's
observation, "They are playing the game
of not playing a game."
We, on the other hand, are playing the game
of playing as though the game we are playing
is real, even though it is only real
because we say it is.
We play religion as though it is real.
We take everything on faith
as though it is factual,
and, like that, it becomes so
on the strength of saying it is.
Just so, when we live with integrity,
sincerity and spontaneity,
intent on following the flow of life energy,
through circumstances
and situations as they arise,
we create a path
that can only be recognized
as a path
in hindsight
by those who are living as if
it matters that they do right
by the moment,
from moment to moment,
with no sense of the bigger picture
anywhere in sight.
Yet, when we look back from any point
in the future,
it is plainly evident that circumstances
and situations have fallen into place
as if (That term again) by magic
and leading us straight away
to right here, right now.
"As if," "as though," are the golden keys
to life with direction and purpose,
foundation and validation
in the most adamantine and unshakeable
kind of way.
When we give ourselves over to "as if," "as though,"
we put ourselves on a track
that validates itself
and our trust in it,
with a life of examples proving
the absolute reality
of what is only apparently and ostensibly actual.
Try it for yourself,
and see if it isn't so!
Tri-colored Heron Reflection 08/30/2013 — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
I've been retired ten years,
and hope I'm just beginning.
Retirement is a place for refining,
perfecting
and applying
the lessons of the aging process--
it is all practice!
In retirement,
we continue the eternal practice
of seeing what we look at
and doing what needs to be done about it,
when, where and how it needs to be done,
repeating with increasing acuity
until we transition
back into the light.
It's all practice!
We live to refine,
perfect
and apply the eternal practice
of being alive
with our eyes open,
attuned to what needs to be done
here/now
in each situation as it arises,
in a here we are,
now what?
Kind of way.
There is only the practice!
The practice IS
the performance!
Our opus!
Our legacy!
From that,
we never retire!
Mothball Fleet 10/13/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Swanquarter, North Carolina
We help each other
find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our lives long.
It isn't about getting ahead
or having it made.
It is about having what it takes
to do what needs to be done.
The right attitude
is one if the things it takes.
Adam and Eve did not have the right attitude.
Jesus did.
Jesus was a see what needs to be done
and do it kind of guy.
Life can be a sorrowful existence
if entered with the wrong attitude.
"Oh, woe, boo-hoo," you know.
"Here I am and this is what I can do,
where shall I get started?"
Doesn't have time for sorrow and woe.
We can feel bad if we enjoy that kind of thing,
and we can look until we find something
we can do
with our original nature
and our innate virtues/traits/specialties,
and get to work.
Helping each other find what we need
to do what needs to be done
is a job that always needs doing.
Asking, "What do you need
to do what needs to be done?"
Is a good place to start.
Asking yourself
and everyone else who comes your way.
Angel Oak Oil Paint Rendered 11/04/2015 — Angel Oak Park, Johns Island, South Carolina
A) This is the way things are,
B) and this is what we can do about it,
C) and that's that.
D) And THAT'S the way things are!
The A-B-C-D's of life/living/being alive.
Coming to terms with them,
making our peace with them,
being okay, alright, fine with them
is the work of being alive.
Why do we fight it so?
Hate it so?
Resent it so?
Deny it so?
Denial is our most popular response.
Drugs/Sex/Alcohol/Religion, you know.
Compensation for being stuck in a life
we can't bear to live.
We take our mind off our plight
anyway we can.
Thinking about heaven
and how it will be one day
by and by.
Or just not thinking about it at all,
with the other three options
offering distraction and diversion
all along life's way.
Through it all,
the reality remains.
I recommend embracing the reality.
Dancing with the reality.
Doing what we can with the reality.
And letting that be that.
Doing what we can with the reality
includes not taking it seriously.
And doing what needs to be done
within the givens of our life
every day
in a "So What? Who Cares?
Anyway! Nevertheless! Even So!"
kind of way.
If soldiers on the battle front
can face what awaits them
in that way,
the rest of us can apply it
wherever/whenever/however we are
as well.
What is our life asking of us?
Do it! Smiling, laughing,
dancin' in the rain all the way!
Live each day like it needs to be lived!
Like it needs us to live it!
Like only we can live it!
Anyway!
Nevertheless!
Even So!
Every Day!
In spite of the fact
that we need better choices!
These are the choices we have!
Drawing from our original nature,
our innate virtues/specialties
the silence/emptiness/stillness
and choose what needs to be chosen
doing what/when/where/how
it needs to be done!
Every Day!
Lake Francis 10/31/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Luck is the ground of life and being.
And, the old adage applies:
"The more I practice, the luckier I get."
What is your practice?
How often do you practice your practice?
It is amazing what
sitting still,
being quiet
and empty--
and having no expectations
and nothing stake in the outcome--
can do for our luck quotient.
The right attitude
and the right practice
lend themselves to being lucky.
I became lucky
the minute I quit
trying to effect outcomes
and have things go my way.
Being a cork on the water
makes it easy to find things
to like about every eddy
and crashing wave.
It is always my lucky day
with nothing to gain
and nothing to lose--
just being glad to be here
and watching for what happens next,
it's amazing the things you can find
to like about what comes your way.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 