August 15-A, 2022

Sunset at Delicate Arch Oil Paint Rendered — Arches National Park, Moab, Utah
When you are fragile and fragmented
I recommend being fragile and fragmented.
That's one less thing you have to worry about.
Then do the breathe in, breathe out, count to five
(If you can time the counting with your heart beat,
so much the better!),
for five rounds five times a day.

It won't usher in peace and serenity,
but it's better than slugging whiskey straight from the bottle,
which also won't usher in peace and serenity. 

And wait it out.
Peace and serenity that is.
Wait it out.
If we don't do anything 
to keep it away,
it will settle in with us
in its own time.

Going, "How much LOOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGEEEERRR???"
every four minutes
keeps it away.

–0–

August 14-B, 2022

Boone Fork Cascade 03 08/08/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Julian Price Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The way I imagine it 
is to say that
our DNA is equivalent 
to a seed's epicotyl.

Whether or not that is accurate,
both terms "DNA" and "epicotyl"
are words denoting mysteries
no one comprehends.

How does the stuff that comes 
encoded in our DNA, 
in a plant's epicotyl,
get there?

I have not conducted the experiment,
but I have read of it from several sources,
wherein it is established 
that chicks fresh from the egg,
scurry for cover
if the shadow of a hawk moves over their pen.
But not if the shadow 
moves over it backwards.

How does that information get to be stored
in the chicks DNA?

Experiences trigger something akin to a memory
of an experience the chicks have never had.
How does that work?

Here's one for you:
It would work if the chicks had had the experience
in an earlier life,
and their DNA is a storehouse of important data.

The mechanism by which the data 
gets into the DNA is yet to be determined.

Which is the way it is with everything
that is stored in the DNA.

DNA has been doing its thing(s) for a long time.
It knows what it is doing.
It has always known what it is doing.
The same thing goes for the epicotyl.
How do they know?

Do you see how large words like "know" and "knowing" are?
And how "experience" is related to both words?
And "intention"?

We toss these words around as though they are commonplace,
which, of course, they are,
and they also are "mysteries without any clues"
(Bob Seager).
All real mysteries have no clues.
And we have to let them be as they are.

So much of our life comes down to,
"I do not have a clue"!

We have to stop pretending
that we know what we are doing.
And be stunned into silence.
And stunned by what the silence reveals.
More mysteries without any clues.

If we start with being as clueless as we are,
there is a good chance that we will
respond more appropriately to what
is being asked of us,
than if we think we know what we are doing
and force our way through life
to goals we think are important.

What does thinking know?
What does thinking think it knows?
How different are the answers
to these two questions?

Live to know what you know.
And what you don't know.

–0–

August 14-A, 2022

The Mittens 02 Oil Paint Rendered — Monument Valley Tribal Park, Arizona
Our life is always saying,
"Here. See what you can do with this."
And it is our place
to see what we can do with it.

Our creativity and playfulness come into play,
along with our intuition and instinct,
our original nature and innate virtues,
every time we get the
"See what you can do with this" invitation.

If we take it into the emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and sit with it,
waiting for something to arise,
emerge,
occur to us there,
we will be bringing our full range
of resources into play,
and relying on the ineffable source 
of realization and illumination
to come to our aid and guide the way.

If we opt for fear/depression/anxiety/uncertainty
instead of silent emptiness,
we will be assisting the problem
and not the solution. 

Just turn to emptiness, stillness and silence,
and wait confidently for the way to appear.
Sleep on it.
Walk around with it
tending the affairs of life
while waiting.
Give it time for the egg to hatch.
And see what you can do with it.

–0–

August 13-B, 2022

The Path Through the Woods 10/28/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Springer’s Point, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
There is no Dark Side.
There is no Evil Force.
There are only foxes and rabbits.
Lions and antelope.
And human beings driven by
ruthlessness, greed and fear,
who want what they 
have no business having,
and demand a profit at any price
every day.

Enlightenment,
realization,
awakening,
illumination
is the end of selfishness
and the need for conquest
and triumph.

But even there,
the fundamental laws of nature apply,
and we have to be aware of where we are
and what is appropriate 
for the time and place of our living,
and it will always be wise to follow 
the rule:
Do not go without a big-enough stick
into the woods.
To have something to put between you
and a rabid racoon
or a hungry bobcat.

–0–

August 13-A, 2022

Photographing the Dunes 03/23/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California
Do you think Jesus had something
you don't have?
That would be different from Michael Jordan
having something you don't have?
And different from your best friend
having something you don't have?

I'll give Jesus a tender heart,
a godly bearing,
and an orientation toward,
and perception of,
the numinous,
the ineffable, 
the things that cannot be said,
that are rare among people generally,
but not beyond anything many people
are and have been capable of.

And we are all called/asked 
to do Jesus as only we can do Jesus.
Even Jesus said that those who come after him
would be capable of doing things he never did.
And they would do it their way--
not imitating Jesus,
but being as Jesus was,
in touch with numinous/ineffable things
beyond words,
and living in ways that make them evident
in the world of normal, apparent, reality.

We live to bring Jesus to life in our life,
by being alive in our own life
in ways that bring us to life in our life,
so that where we stop and Jesus starts
is too fine to make out
even with an electron microscope.

That would be doing it the way it needs to be done!

–0–

August 12-C, 2022

Delicate Arch 09/21/2007 Oil Paint Rendered –Arches National Park, Moab, Utah 
If Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbot, and their clan hold the slightest attraction,
the barest fascination, for you,
what are you doing reading this?

You belong to the Anti-Woke segment of society,
and should be chanting the chants
and waving the flags of your kind.

You should be lapping up the drivel and the slime
of the people with all the answers,
spewing hate and vindictiveness,
wallowing in misinformation,
alternatives to truth
and alternate facts,
and looking for people to pin it on
("It" being everything you hate,
detest
and blame for things being the all the ways 
you want nothing to be).

You should all pack together,
run together,
and fall off the waiting cliffs together,
because that is the quickest route to waking up,
seeing what's what
and realizing what you are doing and have done.

Everyone wakes up eventually
at the end of some rope,
at the bottom of some wall,
in the grip of some demonic fend of reality
crashing their party
with the truth of their utter abandonment of truth,
compassion and grace,
the ghoulish nature of their being,
and the utter void surrounding them forever,
knowing no one can save them from who they are,
and are of all people the most to be pitted.

August 12-B, 2022

Beidler Forest 11/22/2019 13 Panorama B Oil Paint Rendered — Audubon Four Hole Swamp Wildlife Refuge, Harleyville, South Carolina
If we don’t know 
whether something will work, 
we only have to give it a spin. 

Everything becomes clear with time, 
even to those seeped in denial. 

Start walking with awareness 
and the path will open before you—
and if the path you think is the path 
turns out to not be the path, 
sit with emptiness, 
stillness and silence 
until something arises 
that beckons you, 
and start walking. 
If that turns out to not be the path, 
sit with emptiness, 
stillness and silence 
until something beckons you 
and start walking… 

And so on, 
for the rest of the time 
left for walking.

–0–

August 12-A, 2022

Willow in the Fog 04/18/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Country Park, Greensboro, North Carolina
Luck is dependent upon the way we see what is happening. 
Good luck is always aligned with our wants, wishes and desires. Bad luck is always contrary to what we would like to have.

Change your mind about what is important, 
and you luck will always be good. 

And when something does not go your way, 
think of it as the luckiest day of your life—
and live as though it is.
And it definitely will be. 
That is how to always be 
the luckiest person alive.

August 11-C, 2022

The Path to the Path 08/09/2022 Oil Paint Rendered, Photo credit: Patrick Hood
The path to the path
is generally as close
as we get to the path.

The path to the path 
is everywhere.
Anywhere. 
It is all a matter 
of keeping our eyes open
and walking the path we are on,
being alert to the choices we make
as the path branches,
forks and dead-ends. 

What is guiding our choices?
What is leading us along the way?
Why this and not that?
We have to home in on our motives,
fears, desires, interests
and seek what drives us,
pulls us,
pushes us
and how that squares with
what we realize/become aware of
in the silent moments of our life.

And spend more time being quiet
in an intentional and deliberate way.

When we are quiet,
what comes to us "from outside" us?
Or "from inside"?
What is our heart and our body
saying to us?

What are we aware of beyond 
thinking/wanting/fearing?

The trick with awareness
is to just be aware
without engaging the objects
of our awareness,
just observing, 
just watching, 
just seeing,
just knowing...

Then we tuck this away in our awareness,
and continue being aware
of what arises in the silence.

Awareness leads to realization
and realization leads to action,
and action enlarges awareness,
and we find ourselves doing things
we would never have thought to do,
automatically,
spontaneously,
in response to realization
hatched in awareness.

And it is all a part of the path
on the way to the path.

Walking with awareness is the path
on the way to the path.

–0–

August 11-B, 2022

Lake Crandal 11/19/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
Here is a quote from my book,
"A Handbook for the Spiritual Journey,"
on WordPress:

"We can begin anywhere, any time, 
with anything 
because everything 
is equidistant 
from what is important, 
and everything will lead us there 
if we live with our eyes open."

Our eyes aren't open
if we cannot change our mind
about the meaning--
about the importance of--
of what we see.

All it takes is the freedom
to change our mind
about what is important.

There is a lot of talk about
"freedom of the will,"
or "free will."
Well.

Can we will our mind to change
about what is important?

How free is a will 
that is a slave to the way we see things?

Who wills their way of thinking about things?
Who can change their way of thinking/
seeing/assessing the validity
of how things are?

So much for "freedom of the will."
We are chained to our beliefs,
convictions
and opinions.
We have no choice in the matter.

And the only thing standing 
between us and peace and happiness
everlasting
is our inability to change our mind
about how things are
and what matters most.

If you want to do the one thing
that would instantly improve 
your quality of life,
change your mind about what is important.

–0–

August 11-A, 2022

Rainbow at Lower Falls 09/23/1999 Oil Paint Rendered — Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
I have walked through American wonderlands
with a camera. 
I can't think of a better epitaph.
And, since I'm not going to have a tombstone,
or be buried, 
but drift on the wind
like the spirit
blowing where it will,
you can do me the favor
of carrying my epitaph with you
in my memory
as you walk through your own wonderlands
wherever they may be.

Who we are in the memories 
of those who live after us
is who we are.

We all need to be living
to be remembered well.

I prefer kindness, gentleness, compassion,
sincerity, integrity, simplicity,
generosity, respect and honor
for all living things
to money, power and success
in pushing my way to what I think
is worth having.

I wonder what is worth being.

I aspire to a noble heart
and a tender spirit
and a quiet presence
on my way through this place,
and have enjoyed good company
and the natural beauty
of the land and its oceans.

What a life!
I am glad to have lived it,
and may it continue as long 
as it needs to through 
all that I have yet to experience!

–0–

August 10-B, 2022

Tree Tops 10/14/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Around Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
My wife and I
are treading boiling water
between Scylla and Charybdis
amid the heaving waves
and clashing rocks
of the wine-dark sea,
awash as we are
in the nightmare
of selling/buying houses
and moving 18 minutes
closer to our children
because age is limiting 
our ability to tend and care for
two floors, three bathrooms,
yard and landscaping,
and downsizing sounded
like such a good idea
in the halcyon days of lore.

Well.
It's different when you are doing it
and not merely talking about it.
Moving will not just rock your world
and give you an order of the day
and a schedule of things to get done
that have nothing to do with 
how things were done just yesterday,
it will also disorient you on every level
and leave you with only breathing to count on.

And I forget to do that occasionally.

So, I recommend giving yourself completely
and unreservedly to the process
and doing what you are told,
trusting that one day you will pop up
on the other side
and be glad to be there.

Trying to hold onto anything
you once knew and loved
is not going to help you 
with the transition to a Bold New World.

They tell me I am three months away
from normal and customary.
But, I do not believe them.
I'm just a cork on the water.
Counting breaths.

–0–