November 11-A, 2022

Among the Cypress Trees Oil Paint Rendered — Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tiptonville, Tennessee
The plan is to be aware  
of what is happening
and what needs to be done in response.

Awareness is the key 
to all that follows.

Jon Kabat Zinn
and his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR) YouTube videos
are the best approach 
to a mindfulness practice
that I know of.

No plans,
no agendas,
no expectations,
no opinions.

All of those things interfere
with seeing/hearing/knowing/doing
in response to what is happening
in each situation as it arises.

Plans,
agendas,
expectations,
opinions,
are instrumental
in serving what we want
and getting our way.

And are no help in assessing
what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
in light of what is called for
by the situation at hand.

This is the difference 
between imposing our way
upon each situation,
and seeing what needs to happen
from the standpoint
of the situation as a whole.

Living to have our way
keeps us from being alive
for the good of the situation,
situation by situation,
and guarantees 
that we will be awash
in conflicts of interest
all our life long.

When our balance and harmony
depend upon us having our way,
balance and harmony
are out of the question,
and our life is chaotic
and storm-tossed
day by day.

Living to be what is needed
is a different life
from living to have our way.

It is the kind of difference
that makes a difference.
If you know what I mean.

–0–

November 10-C, 2022

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 09/08/2016 Oil Paint Rendered — Scenes from My Hammock, Indian Land, South Carolina
Dylan Thomas' poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Light,
Rage, Rage Against The Dying Of The Light,"
misses the point that the light doesn't die,
and our dying may well be a transition
back into the light that is our origin and our destination.

One form of energy returning to another form of energy.
Energy being that which
"is neither created or destroyed."

 This is one of the qualities of God,
and now we see it is one of the qualities
of ourselves as well.

Nothing dies.
Everything is transformed.
As energy does what energy does.
Comes and goes,
to come and go.

We need to stop thinking
as we have always thought,
and consider the options
which, as William Blake suggests are infinite,
once the "doors of perception are cleansed."

We are limited only by the way
we see things,
by the way we say that things are.

We need to re-think the entire wad.
And let it be all about energy
coming and going,
to come and go some more.

–0–

November 10-B, 2022

Terraces 09/27/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 
We are to be about
creating an atmosphere
conducive to life and well-being.

Why is that hard?
Hard to grasp?
Hard to remember?
Hard to do?

Good/right is helpful to that end,
bad/evil/wrong is harmful to that end.

This is not difficult,
why is it hard?

What is good/right interferes with
what is good/right for us.
What is good/right for us
is often bad/evil/wrong for others.

Whose side are we on?
How good is the good we call good?
Whose good is served
by the good we call good?

In what ways do we share the good?
The wealth?
The power?

In what ways do we hoard it?
Squander it
in trying to keep it all for ourselves?
Create evil "serving" the good?

Who are we kidding?
Who do we think we are kidding?
Talking good/right,
doing bad/evil.

Nothing works like a reckoning.
Like paying attention.
Like seeing who we are and what we are doing.
Like squaring up to the truth
of how things are with us really.
Like calling BS where BS needs to be called.
Like shedding appearances
and embracing/exhibiting
the task of creating an atmosphere
conducive to life and well-being
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

–0–

November 10-A, 2022

Ginkgos 12/03/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Ballantyne Ginkgo Park, Charlotte, North Carolina
The human spirit 
is like the wind that blows where it will--
and it must be this way
in order to catch up with,
exhibit and reflect
the wind at the heart of life,
blowing where,
boundless,
without restraint or restrictions,
alive and living
to go and be and do,
where and when and how
things need to be done.

The necessity at the center
demands/requires the freedom
of expression to be who we must be
beyond all limits and boundaries.

What is called for?
Go there!
Do that!

Free to be what is essential
in each moment everywhere
in all times and places
for the sake of life and being,
world without end!

November 09-B, 2022

Wendy, Dear, 09/29/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Stonington, Maine
Determining what is necessary
and what is not
is an individual responsibility
and a personal right.

You cannot impose what is necessary for you
onto me, 
or anyone else.
Our necessities/urgencies are ours alone
to know and to do.

Our ability to size things up
and to be correct in our appraisals
of what constitutes an urgent necessity
varies from person to person,
and sets us apart from one another
into broad categories
of those who know,
and those who do not know,
who they are 
and what needs to be done.

We march to the beat of different drummers--
that is a necessity incumbent upon us all.
How well we recognize, 
accept that,
and place ourselves in accord with it,
tells the tale,
the tale that is ours to tell
with the way we live our life.

Doing what we determine to be necessary
in each situation as it arises,
what is needed,
what is called for,
what is urgent,
and what is to be done
is a reflection 
of who we are
and what tune we march to.

The more we are ruled be the culture
and ways of some collective,
the less we can claim to be individuals
in our own right,
and the less human we are
and more like automatons we become.

Whose song are you singing
with the life you are living?
Whom do you look to
before deciding what to do?
Who directs your life
on its journey through each day?
Who decides what is necessary for you,
and what is not?

–0–

November 09-A, 2022

Ponderosa Pine 05/25/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Red Canyon, Utah
The situation has its own drift,
flow,
spin, 
direction,
energy--
and we aren't likely to transform it
into the way we want things to be.

Neither Jesus, nor the Buddha,
were able to change minds
that were not open/ready to be changed.

We can show up
and give it our best,
but if they are hitting our curve ball,
it isn't going to work
to keep throwing it.

It is called dancing with the music,
and not forcing our way.

We take what we are handed
and do what we can,
and let that be that,
hoping things will be different
down the road.

–0–

November 08-B, 2022

Englehard Mooring 03 10/30/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Outer Banks, North Carolina
Awareness never hurts.
Seeing what we look at,
and looking at everything,
hearing what we listen to,
and listening to what's being said,
particularly to what we are saying,
is advantageous 
when the advantage we seek
is the good of the situation as a whole.

What is good for here/now?
What does Truth, Justice, Equality, Freedom
call for here/now?

We are responsible for the moment,
to the moment,
in terms of doing our part
to be what the moment needs us to be,
when, where and how it needs us to be.

Too often, we strive to force our way
onto the moment
instead of assisting the moment
in becoming what the moment needs to be
as a part of the larger sweep of things.

Being attuned to the moment,
aligned with the here/now,
seeing/knowing/doing what is called for
is our contribution to the unfolding
of life in each situation as it arises,

And awareness never hurts
(Although it can require us to die
again and again
in sacrificing ourselves
in the service of what needs us to do it,
but you know that).

–0–

November 08-A, 2022

Englehard Mooring Reflection 10/30/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — The Outer Banks, North Carolina
The old saw stands the test of time:
"Principles fly in the face of necessity!"

If you don't understand necessity,
and talk, talk, talk
about morality,
and right and wrong,
and good and bad,
and should and ought,
I have nothing to say to you
that you can hear.

What needs to be done in a situation
is the only thing that needs to be known
in the situation.

And need trumps good and right
in every situation.

Morality and ethics have no place
at the table 
where necessity sits.

And, if you have never borne
the burden for indispensable 
goods and/or services,
you don't belong there either.

We cannot talk about good and right
without understanding necessity
from a lived it, done it, know it
point of view.

–0–

November 07-B, 2022

Canoes on Moraine Lake 09/23/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta
The Farther Shore is never farther away
than the fore-shortened distance
from the canoes to the moraine.

It is a matter of perspective,
of "turning the light around,"
of seeing with eyes
that see things as they are:
Oneness everywhere,
right here,
right now,
for those with eyes to see.

What do you see?
Look again!
There is more to everything
than meets the eye.

All it takes is looking
in a different way
to see that it is so.

How we look limits what we see.

Expectations and opinions
prejudice the judge and the jury.

Seeing without expectation or opinion,
judgment or conviction,
transforms the world
by letting in the light.

Walking in the light
is seeing like that.

It takes a lot of looking
to be able to see.

–0–

November 07-A, 2022

Along Eagle Nest Trail 08/13/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Higgins Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Water seeks its own level,
as does every other thing.

The Cosmos and all there is therein
are all looking for balance,
harmony,
equilibrium,
stability,
homeostasis,
oneness within and without,
peace,
tranquility,
serenity,
the Elysian Fields,
the Farther Shore,
the Pure Land,
Nirvana,
Heaven...

The stable state of a gyroscope,
not static,
but fluid in a controlled,
well-managed sense,
always within the normal range
of operationally necessary wobbles and rolls,
steadily on the beam,
in accord with Yin and Yang,
aligned with the Tao,
doing our thing in ways necessary
to the good of the whole,
of the entirety 
of which we are a part,
true to ourselves
and to the collective--
at one with ourselves and all else--
in each situation as it arises
forever,
is the ideal
for which everything strives without end.

We do not know why.

It is who we are.

"Our hearts are restless
until they rest in Thee,
and Thee, and Thee..."

World truly without end, Amen.

–0–

November, 2nd Week, 2022

Bridge to Rough Ridge 03 10/13/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Spirituality has nothing whatsoever
to do with theology,
and everything to do with truth--
which means theology 
has nothing to do with truth.

Bringing to the forefront
Pilate's rebuff of Jesus,
"What is truth?"

Jesus' missed retort is simply,
"The bed you slept in last night,
the world you woke up to this morning."

The color of your eyes,
the shape of your nose,
your unique finger prints,
and way of sizing up situations,
and knowing what is called for there,
and way of assessing what is important
and unimportant,
your evaluation of the value
of everything you walk past every day...

An on, and on, like that,
down to the minute details of the day to day.
Meaning. 
Purpose.
Direction.
Hope.
Love.
Despair...

Truth which cannot be denied
because it is so.

Spirituality thrives there
in the ever-present preserve of truth,
pouring over, spilling out, 
revealing, expressing, exposing, exhibiting
who we are and what we are about
and what it means that we are alive
and what we are doing about it.

Theology is a pure pastime,
the purview of opinions and viewpoints,
talk, talk, talk,
blah, blah, blah,
about things incapable of being 
known/decided/evaluated/weighed/measured/verified/
and agreed upon.

Truth, on the other hand, is exactly what it is
even as it becomes something more/less/other than
what it is.

And spirituality is able to dance with truth
over the entire span of experience
through time and space forever,
world truly without end, Amen.

–0–

November 06-B, 2022

Bayou Teche 02 02/10/2013 Oil Paint Rendered, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
Meaning is the heart of the matter.

What governs what something means to us?
What is in charge of meaning?
Who says so?
Who knows so?

If our life is meaningless,
where does the blame for that lie?

What is the most meaningful thing
you could do in the next fifteen minutes?
In what remains of the day?
The week?
The month?
The year?
The remainder of our life?

A meaningless life
is the sum total
of all the meaningless moments
that comprise a life.

How many meaningful moments
comprise your day?
Your week?
Your month?
Your year?

If you allowed meaning 
to direct your life,
now differently would you live?

If you lived in light 
of the meaning quotient 
of each moment,
each choice,
each act,
to direct your living,
how differently would you live?

Sit with the matter of meaning
in the stillness,
and silence,
and emptiness
(Empty of all thoughts/fear/anger/dread/etc.),
and see what stirs to life,
and where it goes,
where it leads...

And allow meaning to guide you
through what remains
of the life left for living.

Do. Not. Live. Meaninglessly!

At the end of each day,
sit with the question,
"Where was the meaning found today?"

Live to increase your association with meaning
over time.

–0–