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 Morning — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Every New Year is seeing through the trees dimly, hoping for the best, so we say, "Happy New Year!" to encourage ourselves in facing what's coming, like it or not.
I take heart in knowing, not what's coming, but who is facing it.
That would be us, all of us. And we have what it takes to do well with whatever comes our way during, and beyond, every New Year that comes along.
It is only a matter of doing what's called for in each situation as it arises all year long, year after year.
And, we have been doing that all our life. We are well practiced in the art of dealing with New Years, and grubby, wrinkled, old ones.
If we have learned anything helpful-- and we have learned quite a bit of helpful things-- it is that the way we respond to what happens is the swing point to what happens next.
We can strongly influence our future by the way we receive and deal with our present. And that remains so throughout the year every year.
We are not at all helpless before the portent of time. We have a say in matter, and what we say matters.
We have all we need to do what needs to be done with and about everything that comes along. Listening in the silence, and looking for what our intuition has to say in guiding our actions and leading the way is like having an Elder Wand in hand as we meet the future and impact what the days bring, smiling as we think about what they will bring forth in us and what we will bring forth in them, as we experience additional episodes in the Adventure of Being Alive.
Let's go do these things that await us upon the field of action in the good company of one another day after day all the way!
Rocky Mountain Mirror — Yellowhead Mountain, Mt. Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia
Finding the way is waiting to see what is called for and doing that as it needs to be done, when and where it needs to be done all the way along the way.
If we don't know what is called for, we wait for clarity.
Everything flows from and leads to clarity. And it only take waiting to know what that is.
This is the way cats do things. They spend most of their time waiting for clarity.
The older we get, the more time we spend waiting for clarity.
Though it is best to not do that at traffic signals.
Hidden Falls 07/02/2011 — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Wyoming
We have to know what we are seeking. I am seeking truth. Other terms for the truth I am seeking are: Integrity. Transparency. Authenticity. Genuineness. Realness. Sincerity. Honesty. Spontaneity. Openness...
I am seeking "To live 'As One Thus Come.'" "To be the Christ." "To be the Buddha." "To be Myself." "Who I Am In Each Situation As It Arises." "Here, Now."
My Mission/Practice is to live the truth that I am here, now, in service to my Original Nature, Innate Virtues, Inherent Imagination, Intrinsic Intuition, by exhibiting them in service to what is Called For in each situation as it arises all my life long.
I realize this in the emptiness, stillness, silence, by emptying myself of all thoughts, desires, fear, emotions, duties, etc., so that I am as empty as the space between breaths, and remaining empty/still/silent waiting "for the mud to settle and the water to clear," so that I may see/hear/receive what arises/emerges/appears/occurs in the silence as realization, perhaps, or as a call to action, to do what is called for, here now, or an image to ponder/reflect on, etc. as a guide for my life here, now. And see where that goes. And how I apply that to my life, my mission/practice, here, now.
After Sunset Mirror — Grandfather Mountain and Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
There are problems I can't do anything about. Things like this reflection make that bearable somehow. You might say that it takes my pain away. They provide breathing room, allowing me to catch my breath, shift my focus and take heart in the presence of beauty and wonder that makes the insoluble contradictions tolerable, allowing me to do what I can do about the things that I can do something about.
That's what gotten all of us-- the entire species--where we are from where we have been.
We have never been able to do anything about the things we could do nothing about, and, yet, here we are, still going.
That realization is like this reflection, reminding me of beauty of wonder that exists all around me anyway, nevertheless, even so.
Encouraging me to carry on, carry on. Through all that comes my way. Doing what can be done and letting the rest fall out as it may for another day's work and another day's worry.
In the meantime, there is the company of others to be my comfort and consolation, and the sustaining presence of the natural world to carry me on.
ACE Basin Wildlife Refuge — Hollywood, South Carolina
Imagine yourself in this scene. What is to be done here beyond being present with what is present with you?
And doing what is called for from one situation to another? You might choose to stand or sit there, or walk through the scene, doing whatever occurs to you and seems to be appropriate to the occasion.
Being one with the scene as a participant doing what needs to be done in each situation as it arises, and leaving when you wish, or staying as long as would be fitting and proper.
And why not treat every scene that way? Being completely present, as a full participant for as long as that would be appropriate to the occasion, and then moving on?
Following the flow of scenes throughout our day as one who is a present participant in each one?
Fall Woods 10/24/2007 — Great Smoky Mountains National Forest, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
It is well within the Reformed tradition—the Reformed Jewish tradition, that is-- to see Jesus and John the Baptist as classical prophets of Judaism, come to proclaim “Now is the time!” To turn the light around and understand the present moment as the time and place for reformation of the religion of the forefathers and the reclamation by the people of the Land of Promise--by living in it as it should be lived in, welcoming the stranger and the foreigner alike, and bringing the Kingdom of God to life upon the earth.
Their message was reformation and reconciliation of the religion of the day with the way of the Father who led the people through the desert to the Promised Land.
Reclaiming the land was a spiritual, not a a political process.
In Jesus’ proclamation, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you,” and his “I am” declarations in John’s Gospel, and various “Sayings” scattered through the Gospels, he makes plain his intention for Israel to become the land of milk and honey for all people.
However, the Scribes, Pharisees, and Romans were not to be converted, and the people were more interested in being delivered than being transformed, and so Jesus’ “How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” etc.
His death and the testimonies of his resurrection played into the hands of opportunists (Paul and some of the apostles, with the “Thou art Peter” declarations and the proclamation of the Christian Church as the bearer of salvation for a new age catching on to the chagrin of both Judaism and Rome, and the rest is history.
But, how many are to see things in this light when the "Truth" has been proclaimed through the ages to the prosperity of those serving that Gospel? And, what’s the point of disturbing the Doctrines as they have been handed to us? To what end the folderol? When Bebe Jesu is all the rage?
With what might have been always on the scaffold, and what is always on the throne.
Zion Silhouette — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
We hold the power of creation in/over each situation as it arises.
What we make of it makes all the difference. What we say about it brings it to life. We speak/see reality into existence. It all--ourselves included--becomes what we say it is.
Be careful with your words-- you speak the truth into being.
What we say becomes real in the act of speaking it forth.
We speak the world in which we live into being. How we talk about it brings it forth.
We are God in this way.
It is the Way of life and being.
We are born with the power of the Way. How we wield it tells the tale.
Look at your life and tell me it isn't so.
Look at your future and tell me what you see. You are telling me what will be.
Let your seeing guide your saying. Once said, it is so.
If we understood the power at our disposal, we would speak less and contemplate, consider, more.
The world takes shape around us.
Emptiness is waiting for us to give it form.
"We are the hammer and the chisel, and the stone" (Alexis Carrel).
Tupper Lake Sunset Panorama 01 — 09/22/2015, Adirondack Park, New York
The associations we make with Christmas, and Christmas Day, stir emotions and cast moods for a life time.
I wonder what my associations would have been like if my mother had been a Jazz singer and my father had been a poet.
What would my Christmas memories have been then? And the emotions? And the moods?
Idle reflections, these, playing with reality.
But, reality itself is a reflection of projections we create and plant in our memories to produce "facts" that were more impressions of events than recollections of events "as they were."
The stories we tell ourselves sculpt a past life in stone, but how accurate are those perceptions that we have tended over time?
My mother was not a Jazz singer and my father was not a poet, and I would have been better off if each of them had been more self-aware and conscious of the truth of their own life, of their own original nature, their own innate virtues (the things they were capable of doing, the person they were capable of being), and their own inherent imagination, and their own intrinsic intuition.
If they had known and served those things, how different things would have been for all of us!
Carl Jung stated somewhere: “The development of personality means fidelity to the law of one’s own being.”
My parents, like the vast majority of all parents ever, knew more about who they "ought to be," who they were "supposed to be," than who they were. They felt like they were "not good enough," and never "just right the way they were."
My parents didn't have a chance because they had no one to tell them to listen to themselves, to trust themselves to the way their own heart told them was the way for them to be.
"Fidelity to the law of their own being" was not something they were ever told about, not something they ever considered.
And I have had many people, many voices, telling me those things, and I have found many models of people who told themselves those things-- and who have become for me the parents I sadly (for them and for me) never had.
I regret that my parents never had what it would have taken for them to have turned to the emptiness, stillness, silence asking, "What am I doing? "How can I do it better?" and sat waiting for the mud to settle and the water to clear, and for clarity to show them the way to the answer to both those questions over the full course of their life.
And my Christmas wish for all of us is that we take those two questions into the silence, etc., with us, and not leave until we have the answers we need for the remainder of our life.
When we wake up, we do what needs to be done in each situation as it arises with the gifts that we have to serve and share all our life long.
Jesus did no more than that. Nor did the Buddha. Being who we are "as those thus come," wherever and whenever we are, here, now.
This is not difficult. It only takes seeing/hearing/knowing what's what and what is called for moment to moment and responding to the occasion with the gifts we bring with us into every room we enter-- original nature, innate virtues (the things we do best and enjoy doing most), inherent imagination, intrinsic intuition-- doing what needs to be done with what we have to offer.
A child could do as much-- and does as much in each situation as it arises. So, Jesus could say, "All you have to do is become childlike." (Or words to that effect.)
Walking Down A Country Road — Backroads, North Carolina
We are on our own when it comes to living a meaningful life.
No one can tell us how to do that. No one knows but us what is meaningful to us. No one can tell us how to find that. There are no books to read to tell us what will constitute "our bliss." We find that by ourselves. We are alone when it comes to the essential knowing that forms the grounding foundation of our life.
What has been meaningful to you in the past? What are the most meaningful things you do presently? Start there in seeking out--homing in on--places to find meaning in your life here and now.
And if you have been with me for a while, you know that I am going to recommend emptiness, stillness and silence as your go-to place for everything related to seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/being all your life long.
Take all of your questions there, and "wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear," in order that realization/understanding/enlightenment/insight might emerge/occur/arise to catch your eye, call your name, and provide guidance and direction, winking at you and disappearing around a corner or down a rabbit hole.
What you seek resides within, and it takes listening/looking to see/hear what is waiting to be found as the treasure of lasting value, which, of course, has nothing to do with riches and wealth, and everything to do with the elan vital--the vital energy that will fuel your life in its service throughout the time left for living.
Your intuition leads the way via nighttime dreams and the "felt sense" that you can be conscious of in your body, along with "slips of the tongue," and synchronistic coincidences that can guide your boat on its path through the sea.
All of which happen most frequently to those with few stipulations to impose on their journey to the heart of their own personal truth which is ours to experience and to serve throughout the time left for living (whether we know it/acknowledge it or not).
Two Buds at Sunset — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Intuition is the way to the Way. There is no thinking, no believing, only seeing/hearing/knowing, spontaneously the way we know when our heart is in something and when it is not.
Living intuitively is living spontaneously, is living wholeheartedly, is seeing/hearing/knowing what's what and what is called for in each situation as it arises-- not in a rational/logical/intellectual kind of way, but in a see/do kind of way.
Something happens and we know what to do in response. Intuition at its best.
Our responsibility is to pay attention to what our heart/body is telling us, to what our intuition is saying to us, and to go where it is telling us to go, to do what it is urging us to do.
And to not resist, demur, refuse, because we don't want to, because we don't feel like it, because we aren't in the mood, because we have a better idea...
What does wanting know? Intuition KNOWS! When wanting trumps intuition we are off the path, we have lost the way, and are wandering in the wasteland where one direction looks as good as another.
When that is the case with us, the thing to do is sit down, shut up, be quiet. Is to drop into emptiness/stillness/silence and wait "for the mud to settle and the water to clear."
With clarity comes seeing/hearing/knowing what's what and what is called for and it is being/doing that that gets us back in the saddle and on the way the is the Way.
Until the next thing that we don't want to do...
Our best move is to let wanting go and to do what our intuition tells us what is called for and directs us to do about it.
