Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

I'm thinking what we are looking for
is peace and contentment,
a sense of satisfaction 
with our life,
and a "happy to be here, now" orintation
throughout each day,
being comfortable with our surroundings
and with our prospects,
and at one with ourselves
and the time and place of our living.

And I'm thinking we are never more
than a perspective shift
away from being at home 
in that kind of place.

"This is the way things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."

What's keeping us 
from being okay
with that realization?

If we can't do anything more
than what we are doing
to make things as good as they can be,
what's the point of stewing about it?

This is as good as things can be!
Why not make our peace with it?
Why make it worse by hating it?
makes it better or worse.

We only have to change our mind
about our relationship with how things are
for things to be as good as they can be.
And, that's as good as things can be!
Fuming about it makes it worse.

How we think/feel about how things are
when nothing we can do will improve them,
determines how things are.

Changing our mind about how things are
always improves them.

–0–

Every living thing,
every sentient being
(And sentience may be a quality
of rocks and soil and grains of sand,
light rays and lightening bolts,
who is to say?),
experiences, or engages in,
slack times as this Mallard duck is doing
afloat on the still waters
of the Bog Garden pond on a cloudy day.

Slack times are important times,
crucial times,
and we must see to it 
that we participate in them
more often than we do.

I have been looking out the window
all my life.

Some people call it "woolgathering,"
others say they are "musing,"
or "talking a walk-a-bout,"
or "reflecting,"
or "seeking clarity"...

Whatever we call it,
it comes down to entering a trance state
in which our Right Brain is communing
with our Left Brain,
resetting our internal clock,
or reorienting our internal direction, 
or getting us back on the path...

So that whatever is in charge
of guiding our boat 
on its path through the sea
is able to clear its desk
and put us on course again.

Slack time is the pause that,
not only "refreshes,"
but also recharges and redirects
us on our way.

So don't be ashamed of "checking out"!
Do it deliberately.
Call it taking a coffee break,
and do it looking out the window.

–0–

Wholeheartedness is the measure by which
we are to gauge the worth of our options
and choices.

Can we do it wholeheartedly?
Is our heart fully in it?
Does it make our little heart sing
and our little toes dance?

If not, steer clear!

Avoid all things we are iffy about!
Time is too short
to not mean it from the start!

I have an order of the day 
that I carry out wholeheartedly.

Other possibilities regularly come along.
I could give up This for That any time.

I have learned to say no with aplomb.
And if the person who initiated the invitation persists,
I, laughingly, reply,
"Why would I want to spend my time
with someone who can't take 'No' for an answer?" 

That nearly always leaves me with
having my heart in what I do.

If the other presses their point,
I repeat my previous statement
without laughing. 

–0–

"Being political" is getting what we want
and avoiding what we don't want.

Everyone has their own idea
of how things ought to be.

"Politics" is where we strive 
to have our idea implemented
and to prevent not-out-idea
from being forced on us.

"Politics" is the battle field
for having what we want
the way we want it
without actually going to war
and killing each other
over our preferences.

Although people still die
over how things are done
and not done.

Slavery and the genocide
of indigenous Americans
attest to that.

Why can't we just live together
in ways we all can tolerate?

Why can't we all just like 
the same things?
Why do some of us have to hate
others of us?

Why does intolerance
have such a hold on us?
Such power over us?

Where and how do we draw the line? 

–0–

The spiritual foundation of the Psyche
(The Greek word for "soul" personified
by the female God named Psyche)
is my idea of Right Brain,
the creative hemisphere in contrast to
the analytical/logical Left Brain hemisphere.

It is our place to balance the different functions
of the two hemispheres
by walking two paths at the same time,
living with a foot in each world simultaneously,
and making peace between them
in harmonizing their strengths
and strengthening their underdeveloped functions
in becoming a whole person,
an enlightened person,
a fully awake and alive person
in the process.

To do this,
we have to take up the work
of being aware of being aware
and reflecting to the point of new realizations
on our tendency to lean toward
creative imagination and playful experimentation,
or cut and dried, right or wrong,
only one way to do it thinking/living--
and making room in our life 
for our opposite and less preferred way of being,
in an "It takes two to Tango" kind of way.

–0–

I am glad to recommend Jeremy Taylor's book "The Wisdom of your Dreams" as a guide for exploring your dreams in their role as
the way our Right Brain communes with our Left Brain in its psychospiritual way: 

https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Your-Dreams-Unconscious-Transform/dp/1585427543/ref=sr_1_1?crid=N6BPEKO4CR5I&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6fYMGTMzbe5rRrHFDsHaVXF_xCyAo78sOu9do4CBmCZHC1YAchaVI11LqvLEPBQw1ZU_FA454HWr7W9fOIbXPcxJrysRDdK4FCqvRzfm7NGCGeAQFfLnnpC_7ds3WwTufcTQYq9mRomUBd-GADGXLYTPCy0rltymoxvFtqu1WklujcvBp82ALAWKtcSFZ9pzHYMgsczsT3IzI0jo9dtAOiO568Jg6rQpMG-BJBto84k.j4X6m_5nT5bz6avNpmHOkDIg-h5z4P-cKE0vrPwlOqs&dib_tag=se&keywords=jeremy+taylor+books&qid=1709921250&sprefix=jeremy+tay%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1

Live without expectations or opinions.
Don't be looking for "what's in it for me."
Don't keep score.
Or worry about your prospects.
Or live judgmentally.

Just see what's what
and what's called for in response,
and cover what you can of that
out of the gifts of your original nature
and your innate virtuosities
(The things you do best)
in each situation as it arises,
your entire life long.

Jesus and the Buddha combined
couldn't do better than that.

And they both would tell you
not to take anything with more seriousness
than it deserves,
winking at you
and laughing
as they go on their way together. 

–0–

If we aren't getting kinder with age,
we are wasting our time.
What's more important than kindness?
Or, these days, scarcer?

Kindness is welcoming,
attentive,
and it listens.

Where do you go to find listening?

Everybody is everywhere expressing an opinion.
The opinion wars, I call it,
finding something not to like
about everything.
And everybody.

Kindness left years ago it seems.
Probably looking for a safe place to be.
I wonder what kindness would need
for a home,
and why it would be so hard to come by that.
When we all should have what it takes
to develop it
right out of our own gentle spirit.

How often do you bump into one of those?
Gentle spirits should be everywhere,
just like kindness should be,
but softness is just asking for it,
it seems.

Softness is vulnerability
and there are plenty of people
who will take advantage of those things
just for the sport of it--
bullying with sarcasm and ridicule,
being hateful and hurtful
because why not?

So we have to be guarded and careful
and keep our soft side to ourselves,
shutting our gentle spirit somewhere 
deep inside to keep it safe
in case we come upon good company
some day and can risk exposing it
to the light of day.

In the meantime,
the world of art, music and nature
is one of the best places I know to be
just to hang out and be free to be who I am
without having to toe some invisible line
or risk bringing opinions flying from all sides.

Trees are still good company,
and birds sing for the joy of it,
it seems.
I relish time spent with them,
looking forward to return engagements.

–0–

We can orient ourselves
in the service of what needs to be done 
here/now
by attending our breathing,
and finding the place 
of emptiness between breaths
and continuing to breathe
while waiting in the emptiness
for a felt (in our body)sense
of what is being called for
and moving in that direction
trusting our original nature
and our innate virtuosities
to respond naturally/spontaneously
to the situation as it is developing
around us.

Practice doing this in the safety
of your own bedroom
(maybe when it comes to what to wear)
until you become comfortable 
with the process and how it feels
to be listening/feeling the leanings,
or impulses,
within toward something
and away from something else.

With this exercise,
you will be learning to be aware of
and to trust your Right Brain
and to listen to/feel its guidance
in your body.

And watch a new world opening up.

–0–

Letting come what's coming
and letting go what's going
is living with an appropriate degree
of "working distance"
between ourselves and our life,
enabling us "to do what needs to be done,"
as in shooting Old Yeller when the time comes.

As in "Holding them close and letting them go"
when our children reach the age
of being their own selves,
going their own way
in the service of what they need to do
the way they need to do it.

All that we "have" is held tenuously,
temporarily,
and if "they/it" doesn't leave us,
we will leave "them/it."

It is the way.

Recognizing what's what,
and letting it be
because it is
is the foundational duty/obligation
laid on each of us at our birth.

And recognizing this as being so
is the essence of growing up,
being who we are,
and doing what needs to be done,
when/where/how it needs to be done--
and that is all that can be asked of us
at any stage of our life.

How are you coming with that? 

–0–

When Jesus said,
"You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free,"
he was talking about knowing
the truth of ourselves.

The truth of who we are
and what we are about.

The truth of our original nature
and of our innate virtuosities.

The truth of what's what with us.

The truth that we are born of God
with no original sin (What a con!)
anywhere around.

The truth that we are called to be as God
in each situation as it arises,
just as Jesus was.
And all the people who have known 
the truth of who they are.

The truth that we are called to be as close to God
as some people ever get,
just as Jesus was.
And all the people who have known
the truth of who they are.

The truth that we are all called to be--
and are capable of being--
who we are
in all times and places.

That is what Jesus came to live out before us,
and to say,
"Come, follow me."

So.
There's that.

–0–

Finding what we need
to do what needs to be done
is always a matter 
of being quiet 
and waiting out the emotion of the moment
for clarity and peace.

We tend to default to the left hemisphere
with its rational structuring of life
to think our way through
whatever is threatening our balance and harmony,
but routine can be waylaid 
by the outlandish and unforeseen. 

Then the right hemisphere earns its keep
with its propensity for novel approaches
to practical matters.

Nighttime dreams and daytime reveries 
can right the boat
with reassuring reminders and suggestions
for responding to the situation at hand
that is completely out of hand.

It takes being quiet 
for clarity to find its way to us,
and quiet is the hardest thing to be
when its presence is most necessary.

So the old Taoists, Zen Masters
and Buddhist Monks relied on 
chanting and ceremony
to "calm troubled water"
and return to the perspective of peace.

YouTube is a great source 
for a variety of chants
to restore our connection to soul
(AKA The Right Hemisphere!)
if we have the wisdom to trust ourselves
to it with confidence and conviction.

–0–