May 20, 2026 – B

Artist’s Bridge — Sunday River, Newry, Maine

I wish I could be there with the Sunday River in Newry, Maine until I was ready to be somewhere else. What this image means to me is peace, silence, quiet, solitude, etc. All of which I take to be the solid gold foundation and the essential necessities of life. But. For the most part our lives, our life, consists of noise, complexity, distractions, complications, disruptions… I don’t know how we do it.

I do not remember it happening, or when it happened, or how it happened but. Tao, Psyche, Intuition came to live with me as essential factors to be taken into account, noticed, felt, experienced, embraced, welcomed, perceived, comprehended, understood, etc. as That Which We Cannot Live Without. They are as essential as air and water. And it is our place to know that, realize that, and live with them front and center in our lives.

When did I start writing about them? It has a recent feel about it, as though it were only yesterday. And this image of the Sunday River and the Artist’s Bridge in Newry, Maine would be a good symbol reminding us of their place in our lives. We cannot hope to live well without them, front and center, in our lives. What do we do to give them that place and bestow upon the the devotion the place of the sacred deserves in our lives. For they are sacred. Beyond theology! Without theology! With nothing but experience–the lived experience of the day-to-day to ground and center them in the place of highest honor and devotion in our life day-to-day.

We could start with noticing our intuition at work in our life. Intuition is the most readily available experience of the three (The REAL Holy Trinity!). And is, to my way of thinking the source of all of our imagining about God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost–All of that came to be out of our early forebearer’s experience with their Intuition. Inner experience is founded upon emptiness, stillness, silence–and that is all there was in the early days, in the earliest days. Ample time to be aware of and in relationship with Intuition and its wonders. And those wonders became stories, became ritual, became religion, as “we” projected our inner experiences outward into the vast imagined world of invisible beings, gods and ghosts and all of the invisible world that we created to comfort and terrify ourselves over the course of history from then to now. It only was Intuition at work in our life.

And Intuition is the interface between ourselves and Psyche. Psyche is the foundational knower/doer/be-er of life. Psyche IS Life. IS the Life Force of every living thing throughout the Cosmos. Connecting all of life. Overseeing all of life. Tending all of life. The vital source and foundation of life. And she has a central role to play in all of life. The more we are able to move our connection to, relationship with, Psyche from Unconscious to Conscious through our interaction with Intuition, the more aware we can be of the place of Psyche in our life, the more fully we can be aligned with, directed by the Intuitive/Psychic connection, the more satisfying and fulfilled, joyful and delightful our experience of life will be.

Which leaves Tao as the flow of time, circumstances, events, experiences, etc. through both physical (material) and spiritual (invisible) strata of existence and experience. When Stella got her grove back, she got back in alignment with Tao. To live at one with, in synch with, in tune with the Tao is to be at “the sweet spot” of life and being, and everything is humming along, on schedule and in balance, harmony and rhythm with the timing and the patterns of the Cosmos. When the Force was with Luke Skywalker, the Tao was strong in him, with him through out time and space, physically and spiritually, visibly and invisibly. We cannot talk about it, define it, explain it, but we can know it, and not know it, and be lost without it. The old Taoist of The Rainmaker is a metaphor for Tao, as is this illustration: A Zen master was walking with a student when they came to a bridge. The student ask the master, “What is Zen?” Whereupon the Master pushed him off the bridge into the water below, saying, “That is water! Wade in it, swim in it, bathe in it, drink it or drown! But DO NOT TALK ABOUT WATER! To talk about water is to not-know water! To talk about Zen is to not-know Zen. To talk about Tao is to not-know Tao. To know when we are in the flow, in the balance, harmony and rhythm of the Tao is to know as much of the Tao as we will ever know. To know how to be in the flow of Tao is not to be told how to know. It is to know without knowing how or what we know. The experience is its own teacher. And we live to know what we can know of Tao, Psyche, Intuition–and our life will be better for knowing, and it will be worse for not-knowing. And that is all that can be said about that.

May 20, 2026

Hanging Out on Hanging Rock — Hanging Rock State Park, Danbury, North Carolina

I don’t see prayer as having an impact on anything in the cosmos. If prayer worked there would be no cemeteries, or hospitals, or poverty…and so on forever. What does work is emptiness, stillness and silence (One thing, not three), being here, now, present with, and conscious of, what is present with us, here, now, in a physical and spiritual way (I using “spiritual” to cover all that is beyond our physical senses. If we don’t/cannot know it is there, it is spiritual, like high and low frequency’s and what is going on with Tao, Psyche and Intuition (I have written books on these things, might check them out. They are all priced in the range of a cup of coffee.)

Spending time with things spiritual is a fine way to spend time, actually, the best way to spend time. Dropping into the emptiness, stillness and silence, is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” The silence is home to everything spiritual, and is a great way to hangout. Call it meditation if you want to, or prayer, just go there a lot and become aware of what is with us there. Knowing what meets us in the silence is the kind of knowing that changes the material world in the way that prayer does change things. Beyond question. Without a doubt.

May 19, 2026

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Knowing what is called for in each situation as it arises, being right about it, and doing it is all that can be asked of anyone, ever, throughout time. Even if they don’t believe in God. Even if they don’t believe they ARE God.

May 07, 2026

Here is one way of thinking about life without theology and with Psyche, Intuition, Tao:

Theology says:

“Truth comes from outside you.”

Psyche says:

“Truth arises within you.”

Intuition says:

“Truth is recognized by resonance.”

Tao says:

“Truth is lived, not believed.”

And the question becomes: What do WE say?

May 07, 2026

Fall Pond — Anne Spings Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina

My idea of love, as in “I love you,” is no expectations, no requirements. I have come to this point by being told, “I love you,” by family members from birth to the present day, and those older than I am had plenty of expectations and requirements, my father especially. Out of that ages long experience, when I say, “I love you,” I mean, “You are free to be you, no strings attached.” If the Spirit can “Be like the wind, blowing where it will,” surely we can follow suit as it suits us to do so.

May 06, 2026

Carver’s Gap — Tennessee/North Carolina

All we have to work with comes down to ourselves and our good looks, each other, our collective ingenuity and Psyche, Tao and Intuition. That’s all there is when we plop out of the womb, and that remains all there is throughout the time left for living. You might think that Psyche, Tao and Intuition would play a larger role in our life than they currently do, but. They get no respect and practically no playing time at all. You might think that we would devote ourselves to their tender care and the development of our relationship with them throughout our life, but. We use Psyche to talk to the dead, take our intuition to the roulette wheel in Vegas, and mispronounce Tao at every opportunity. Not exactly what we would call making the most of our chances, eh?

May 06, 2026 – B

The Katahdin Range — Sandy Stream Pond, Baxter State Park, Millinocket, Maine

The secret of photography is to be there when the picture is no matter what the price. That is the only thing that sets photographers off from people with cameras. Everybody has a good enough camera these days. But everybody is not there when the picture is. And these days, I am not there when the picture is.

A reporter asked Carl Jung if he believed in God. Jung said, “I don’t believe. I know.” And the reporter did not follow up with, “What do you know? How do you know it?” And in failing to do so, the reporter failed us all. But there is enough here to encourage the rest of us to make our own discoveries in throwing away belief and digging deeply into knowing. Ask! Seek! Knock! Turn the world upside down until we KNOW what needs to be known! That’s the way to do it. And sitting with our intuition is a big help along the way. Intuition doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. And the Psyche has been reduced to talking to the dead. There is more to Psyche than telling fortunes, and more to intuition than knowing when it will rain.

We can make a regular appointment with our Intuition and with Psyche (Intuition is the interface between us and Psyche, and it would not be too far wrong to think of Intuition as Psyche’s interpreter.) Dropping into the silence and asking Intuition about knowing, not as conviction, but as experience, and anything else you would like to talk about with your Intuition. Ask and sit quietly, seeing what comes to mind. As we practice this practice we will develop a perceptive depth that we might not have without it.

May 05, 2026

Hemlock Woods, Maine

The Maine woods are special places to be. I wish I could wish myself there and avoid the hassle and agony of actually traveling there. Traveling and I do not do well in my advancing years. It is “noisy” in the sense of being an utter disruption in my life, as you know well from your own experiences in getting from place to far off place. I could bear it when I was younger, but with age I don’t bother myself with things that are invasive and not “my thing.”

This plays on my shift into stillness and silence generally speaking. I am quieter than I used to be, intentionally so. I think, and I’m sure I have said this here before and I will, I am certain also say it after. Here it comes now: Our problems could be diminished significantly by decreasing the degree of noise in our life and increasing the degree of silence in our life. The right kind of silence is the solution to all of our difficulties.

Primarily because it introduces us to the here, now–which we all take for granted as the place we have to be between where we have been and where we are going (Like getting from here to Maine). But the here, now is all there is. And we hardly spend any amount of time there at all. But really being aware of being here, now is the source of deep and abiding joy and gladness, though you will have to take my word for it before you have your on experience of it. If you can simply relax into, settle into here, now, it expands and deepens and opens itself before you with all manner of amazing realizations and experiences. Like Intuition, for example. If you fall into the right kind of recpetivity, your Intuition may step out of hiding and remind you of things you have forgotten, and take credit for you remembering, and probably doing them initially because your intuition made it possible. And when we establish an enjoyable kind of friendship with our Intuition (Pal-hood, I call it), our life takes on a certain kind of energy and “shine” (I call it) that makes it fun to be alive just being aware of Intuition’s influence and presence in our life. And Intuition is the interface between ourselves and Psyche and Psyche is the life force throughout the Universe, all living things in the Cosmos are awash in the environment of life that is Psyche. I think of Psyche as God without the theology. Theology is really the hostage takeover of God, and there is now only Psyche left to the area she used to share with God before theology came on the scene with all it’s nonsense that imposes onto God all of the projections that humans have loaded God down with making God a “Projection Magnet” and leaving it to Psyche to be life’s source of tender love and care while God, thanks to theology, is always threatening people with hell and punishment on earth if they don’t toe the line and blah, blah, blah. But Psyche may come to life in the silence in ways that are caring and life affirming, and she is wonderful company if we display the right variety of quiet receptivity and interest.

Anyway the silence is the source of wonder and joy, and a very special gift all its own. So meet it with open arms and enjoy settling into your times of presence in the silent quietness of your life.

May 04, 2026

Easter Lily — Pike Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina

The Parable of the Prodigal Son trumps Original Sin. Jesus told the Parable of the Prodigal Son to flip the fundamental religious assumption of the day and the foundation of Jewish religion, and religions world wide, that God was angry with the entire human race and that it is the burden of humans throughout every generation to make God happy so that God would forgive their sins and all would be right with the world. Jesus had a different take on things. And he lived to turn the light around. “You have heard it said,” he said, “but I say unto you!”

Where did he get the gaul? How did Jesus get to the place of being able to throw out everything the Jews had believed for centuries? The Parable of the Prodigal Son transforms the theologies of every religion of every age. We don’t have to say we are sorry. We don’t have to repent and be baptized. We don’t have to make anything up to God. God is like the Prodigal’s father. All of humanity is like the Prodigal Son. The interesting thing about the traditional understanding of the parable is that it completely ignores the entire point of the story. The traditional understanding is that the Prodigal said he was sorry. Read it out loud. Slowly. The Prodigal wakes up in the foreign land, down and out, with no money and no future and says, “If I go home and tell my father that I am sorry, he will welcome me home and even if I have to work in the fields I will be better off there than I am here!” Note that he doesn’t say “I am so sorry for all that I have done.” He says “If I say I am sorry for all I have done.” Big difference.

And we might imagine him rehearsing his lines all the way back to his father’s house: “Oh Father, Father, I am SO SORRY for all I have done….” And when he gets home and his father runs to great him while he is still a quarter of a mile away from the gate to his father’s farm, the son starts his well-memorized speech, “Father,” he starts, “I am so SOR” And his father cuts him off mid-word, saying, “Get out of here with your prayers of confession and your litany of forgiveness and restitution! There is no need for any of that! For you were lost, but now are found! You were dead and now you are alive! Come into the joy of your father and the feast of joy and celebration!” And that is the way it is with God and with all of the people of every age. And the people of every age completely ignore the point of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which is “Confession and repentance are not necessary. Nobody has to say they are sorry. All they have to say is, “Here I am!” and, like that, all is well!”

But, the churches don’t tell the people that. The churches repeat the same old song and dance that was popular in Jesus’ day. Jesus changed nothing about the way religion works. The Church as the Way to Salvation is the story all of the churches tell. No church ever says, “All you have to do is show up!” No, not one. All of the churches say, “You are all SINNERS AND GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL if you don’t repent and give us your money and we will teach you how to say you are SOOOOO SORRY in ten thousand ways, so that you can get on God’s good side and go to heaven when you die.”

The Parable of the Prodigal Son makes all religion and all churches obsolete. All we have to do is show up. Everything has always been fine with God. God has never been angry. The religious establishment as always said God is angry, and told the story of the Garden of Eden and of Original Sin to give themselves a foundation that creates a need for the church and establishes the church’s future forever. BUT, Jesus came along with the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and set the record straight for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. All we have to do is show up!

May 03, 2026

Blue Ridge Parkway, Floyd, Virginia

Living as those who are mindfully aware of Tao, Psyche and Intuition, puts us in the company of indigenous peoples throughout time. They were led, guided, directed throughout each day by the Holy Trinity of the inner world providing them with a felt sense (a bodily awareness) of what’s what, and what’s called for here, now throughout their days. This could involve knowing if rain might be in the forecast, where game might be found, when it was time to move their camp grounded, and all matters related to making their way through the world they lived in. Time passed and civilization progressed, and the processes governing life changed dramatically in the life time of the Elders. And people drifted away from the ways of reading the inward sense of knowing what was called for and what needed to be done about it. Even the knowledge of the Holy Trinity faded from the collective memory of the peoples, who became increasingly alienated from the world of here, now until even the memory of Tao, Psyche and Intuition disappeared and was forgotten.

But how could they find their way without their guides? What would become of them without their foundation? Where would they turn for comfort and assurance? What would they do with no one to tell/show them what to do? And so it was that the people drifted without direction through the hard times that came upon the entire world, cut off from their moorings and drifting endlessly through the times and places of their abandonment which continues to plague the people of planet earth to this very day.

And, thus the need to recover what has been lost for ages in order to restore our relationship with Tao, Psyche, Intuition. The path to doing that is the way of becoming knowledgeable of the practice of seeing, hearing, understanding, what’s what and what is called for here, now in finding our way back to Tao, Psyche, Intuition. Is the way of reducing the amount of noise in our lives and increasing the amount of silence. We do that by honoring the experience of emptiness, stillness and silence (one thing not three) with daily returns to the silence, intentionally and devotedly dropping into the silence and waiting for what the silence has to show us, teach us about the inner world of knowing what’s what and what is called for just by opening ourselves to what we know in the silence, and what we sense in our body, and where knowing and sensing lead us in the field of action as we follow the urgency of our original nature into doing what needs to be done here, now in each situation as it arises throughout the time left for living.