December 03-A, 2022

Web Mandala Oil Paint Rendered
This is a culture
that will make you crazy.
It will split you away from yourself
and offer you diversions/distractions/denial
in place of providing the ways and means
to a life that is sustainable
and vibrant,
grounded in direction, 
meaning
and hope.

This is a culture devoid of direction,
meaning
and hope.

All it has to offer are diversions,
distraction
and denial.

Substitutes for life.
Facsimiles of life.
Plastic facades in place of life.

Take away the drugs and alcohol
that form the ground and foundation
of life 
for most of the people you know,
and what would their life hold for them?

And here is all I have to offer them:
Emptiness,
stillness
and silence,
and the proposition
that out of those three things
properly applied
in conjunction with their essential nature
and their innate virtues/character,
life will take root in them
and grow them beyond anything
they are capable of imagining
for themselves.

How many of them do you think
have a chance of buying into that deal?

Life pouring out,
spilling over
is well within our reach 
as a culture,
and it far exceeds our grasp.

And who can do anything about it?
So we don't think about it,
and take a pill.

It's going nowhere.
And gaining momentum.

–0–

December 02-C, 2022

Flat Branch Greenway 01 10/21/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — Mecklenburg Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina
"Why did this happen to me?" 
"Why does this always happen to me?"
"Why do things like this happen?"

We ask these questions as though
if "these things" have a cause or a reason,
we could say, "Oh, okay,"
and live happily ever after. 

In possession of the best reason in all the world,
we would still be outdone, 
we would still protest,
we would still be miffed,
and miss again the one thing
"things like this" offer us--
an opportunity to turn the light around,
shift our point of view,
change our perspective.

Nothing happens in order to set up 
something else happening
that will make whatever happened
be just fine.

Life is not a game board,
and we are not pieces being moved about
by invisible hands
in order to realize a great win
at the end of the game.

Things happen because circumstances are such
that they are naturally called forth
by the time and place of their occurrence. 

No purpose.
No reason.
Just "things like this happen all the time."
Don't take it personally,
respond to it appropriately
by working with your perspective,
your point of view,
your way of seeing and assessing reality,
your practice of making meaning of daily events.

The meaning of everything that happens to us
is what we do in response.
How we respond,
and how our response patterns change over time,
is the foundation of our maturation,
of our growing up.

If we respond to similar events
in the same way,
year after year,
we are not maturing.

We are not changing for the better.

We are not learning anything from our experience
that will enable us to live better
in response to future experiences.

We are wasting our time.

–0–

December 02-B, 2022

Two Ducks Flying 05 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
Doing things differently
changes everything.

Changing our mind 
about what is important
changes everything.

What is as it needs to be in your life?
What holds it in place?
How does making something better somewhere else
mess with what is just right as it is?

How can you make things better
without making them worse?

Trade-offs are everywhere.
We give up this to get that all of the time.
We often don't realize
we are making a trade-off until after it is done.

We could go slower
and clue-in faster.

That would change things!

Wanting what we want NOW!
keeps the pot boiling
when it just needs to simmer.

Go slower.
Clue-in faster.
Know what's what
and what doing this
is going to do about that.

Enlightened choices 
are the best kind of choices.

And the only thing enlightenment
is good for.

–0–

December 02-A, 2022

Cattails 10/25/2011 Oil Paint Rendered –Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Ordinary is the stone the builders reject,
the pearl of great price lost among the costume jewelry.
The you in you and the me in me.

To do ordinary really well
is to do you as only you can do you,
to do me as only I can do me.

And in that collection of small deeds done well
"sways the future,"
and everything depends upon good people
being who they are,
when they are,
where they are,
how they are,
the way only they can be themselves
in the hidden places of their lives,
where it makes all the difference.

If you are going to take something on faith,
let it be this,
and bust it being ordinary
the way only you can be ordinary,
trusting it to be enough.

It will be more than enough.

Just do your best Nobody Special everyday,
and discover what I'm talking about.

–0–

December 01-B, 2022

The Tree on the Hill Oil Paint Rendered
Finding people we can trust 
who know more than we do
about what's what
and what the rules are
governing what to do about it
is our life's task
through all of the stages of life,
and there be many.

Who, okay, whom, do you trust?
How many people belong to your
circle of trust?

These are your companion/guides
who will need to be replaced
as your circumstances in life change,
moving away,
health issues,
loss of mobility...

And they will not be easily replaced,
so we have to be alert
as circumstances bring other people
into our life,
wondering,
"Can you be one,
or shall I look for another?"

Zooming makes things easier,
but does not remove the need
to find replacements for 
our circle of trust.

Be awake,
alert,
aware.

Companions and guides are lifelines
to balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and life.
And we fare much better with them
than without them.

Be well-stocked with the right people
in your life,
and be well!

–0–

December 01-A, 2022

The Last of Fall 11/29/2002 Oil Paint Rendered –Flat Branch Greenway, Charlotte, North Carolina
The tides and the seasons,
going and coming.
My wife and I are reaching the end of our lives,
and we have a great-granddaughter due in April.
It doesn't end.

Our genes and our influence continue
to impact life
long after we are gone. 

Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 CE) said:
"Cold or warm. 
Tired or well-rested. 
Despised or honored. 
Dying...or busy with other assignments. 
Because dying, too, 
is one of our assignments in life. 
There as well: 'To do what needs doing.'"

He said that 2,200 years ago.
I'm saying it still after all these years.
Things are passed on.
And what is gone
comes back around.

And we may well discover
that "one of our assignments"
is to come back around,
like the tides
and the seasons.
Just to enjoy the ride.

December, 2022

Path to the Big House 02/22/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Moses H. Cone Manor, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Deep space probes receive speed boosts by passing
near-by planets/moons 
at just the right distance
in just the right way.

Human beings experience the same boost
sending us on our way
in relationships with certain people, but.
The "Just the right distance
in just the right way" principle applies
and is a tricky one to master.
There is no mastering it.
It comes down to being lucky,
just like everything else,
everywhere else.

A relationship can result in crashing and burning,
or in being captured by the planet/moon's gravity
and being stuck forever
far from the path.

Speed boosts don't come guaranteed.
Neither does anything else.
We give it our best,
and see what happens.

The ultimate goal,
whether for deep space probes
or individual human beings,
is to find our life and live it,
with ease of functioning
and all systems optimally working.

Anything that assist that is a boost.
Anything that prohibits/inhibits that is a scrapped journey.

Keeping that in mind,
we mind all sensors
and proceed with care
along the way.

–0–

November 30-B, 2022

Price Lake Rhododendron 07/02/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The difference between astrology and astronomy
is roughly the difference between
religion and spirituality. 

Religion asks us to take its postulates on faith,
spirituality requires us to know what we know.

Religion asks us to believe its theology and doctrines,
which are collections of opinions and convictions,
while spirituality tells us to see what we look at
and to trust ourselves to recognize what needs to be done
and do it
in each situation as it arises.

Religion is about believing.
Spirituality is about knowing.

Religion is theoretical.
Spirituality is practical.

Religion is abstract.
Spirituality is of the earth and rivers,
darkness and light.

Religion is made up.
Spirituality is recognized/realized.

Religion is from the top down,
and outside in.
Spirituality is from the bottom up,
and inside out.

Religion is artificial.
Spirituality is natural.

Religion is inorganic.
Spirituality is organic.

Religion is of the head.
Spirituality is of the heart and spirit.

We have to get religion.
We have to be spiritual.

Those who believe, believe different things.
Those who know, know the same things. 

And that's pretty much that.

–0–

November 30-A, 2022

Puckett Cabin 02 10/25/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Hillsville, Virginia
My drift through the aging process
appears to be away from activity
and involvement,
and toward observation,
reflection,
exploration,
and playing with my life
just to see what it can do,
and what I can do with it.

I don't have any goals
or intentions
beyond being present
and seeing what happens.

Staying home and looking out the windows
sounds like a good enough life plan
for my remaining years.

And seeing what happens.
I like that a lot.

And, when I go,
I expect I will be glad
I've been here,
and glad to be wherever 
what's next is.

I hope it's a do-over.
Endless rounds of life
has a positive impact on me.
It isn't all drudgery and sorrow,
toil and pain.

I've gotten better 
over the course of my life--
in a "I'm more like I am now
that I was when I got here!"
kind of way.

Endless courses of better
would be fine with me.
Mixing it up with time and chance
is a right interesting way of life,
with amazement and wonder everywhere.
And I'm looking forward
to another chance to see what I can do.

–0–

November 29-B, 2022

Rakes Mill Pond 11/02/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, Vrginia
The things that restore our soul
are the essential things.

The wasteland is everywhere.
Oases are hard to find.

When we stumble upon them,
we need to mark them well,
and return to them often--
spending as much time in their presence
as circumstances allow.

What form does your yoga take?
Where do you find the experience,
the regimen,
the practice,
the program
that connects you with the ground
of life and being?

What brings joy to life in you life?

Where do you go to be healed and whole,
revitalized and well?

When was the last time you were there?
When will the next time be?

–0–

November 29-A, 2022

Roaring Fork 04/17/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
If you understand timing
and can sense what is happening
and know what is called for,
the circumstances will reveal themselves
to you
in a way that will seem magical
and mysterious,
and you will find doors opening 
where there would not ordinarily be doors,
and opportunities revealing themselves
where otherwise there would be no opportunities,
and your life will have a sheen of luck about it
that will be impossible to explain,
or count on,
so that you will be able to trust your luck
without ever being able to push it,
or take it for granted.

You will be blessed
but you will be incapable 
of turning that to your profit or gain,
and if you begin to contrive ways
of using it to your advantage 
it will dissolve and disappear,
and you will have missed the point
of being at one with the Tao,
with the way of things,
with the movement of life and being.

That is the wonder!
And it cannot be used to lever greater wonders.
There are no greater wonders.
There is only living in sync with time and place,
aligned with Yin and Yang,
and at peace in your own soul,
in love with life and with the world.

How could you think of gain/profit/advantage?
What could be more valuable than what you 
are experiencing?

Simply relax into where you are,
and allow yourself to be carried along
to wherever you will be when you get there,
neither knowing nor caring where that is,
or when it will be.

–0–

November 28-C, 2022

Smoky Woods 10/27/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
Trials and ordeals, Kid.
Trials and ordeals.

Trials and ordeals are eternal
and everlasting--
because our wants and desires,
expectations and opinions
are eternal and everlasting.

A river never encounters 
a trial or an ordeal.
A river just does what it does
no matter what,
doing what needs to be done
to take its context and circumstances
into account
and flow on, flow on.

Be the river.
Do it like the river does it.
Flow on, flow on.

–0–