Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

What chain of associations
can you create from this photograph?
Spend some time
seeing what comes to mind
as you consider the image.
Try for 3 to 5 links.

Then bring your present state of being
into your consciousness.

Ask yourself what the links
that came to mind regarding the photo
might bring to bear 
on your present state of being.

What do they have together
that might be usefully applied
to how things are with you at the moment?

How can they be of help?

As you work with this exercise,
you are strengthening your creative imagination,
your intuitive capabilities,
and your ability to access/engage
your Right Brain--
as well as giving yourself
an opportunity to help you
in a round-about, indirect,
kind of way.

All of which may prove to be useful
in the work to navigate your path
that lies ahead.

You will be inviting reflection to 
lead you into new realizations--
and who knows where that might take you?

–0–

There is the intuition 
to sense/realize/know
what needs to be done,
where,
when
and how--
and there is the will to do it.

And that is all there is to it.

To know,
will,
and do
what,
where,
when,
how,
through all of the circumstances
of our life.

Makes living attentively
from the heart,
in service to our heart
situation by situation
the greatest work of humankind.

Requiring us to empty ourselves
of all desire,
fear,
ambition,
duty,
obligation--
of anything and everything
that would interfere
with our tending the matters
of what,
where,
when,
how,
so that we might
see,
hear,
know
and do
what is called for
here and now
through all that remains
of our life on earth.

Which makes our relationship
with here and now
the most important thing
forever.

–0–

What do we spend our time thinking about?
What preoccupies us?
Absorbs us?
Consumes us?

What do we dwell on?
What can we not stop thinking about?

Think about that.
Meditate on that.
Explore that.
Turn that over and over.
Reflect on that.
Ask all of the questions
you can imagine about that.

Then interview that.
Ask questions of that.
How did that become the most important
thing in your life?

Pursue that without pause.
See how many new realizations
you can come up with about that.

–0–

Going through life in a semi-trance state
is the way to stay in touch
with our Right Brain
while remaining tuned in to our Left Brain.

Doing so requires us to be somewhat distant
from the distracting noise
of life in the ordinary world
of normal, apparent reality.

And we may look out the window a lot,
and write ourselves notes
when reflection sparks realization
and we don't want to forget it.

There is a lot going on between 
Right and Left Brain,
and the work to be aware of that
while responding to traffic signals
and highway construction
requires us to attain a high degree
of acumen and aptness 
in navigating daily life
while maintaining our balance and harmony
on all levels.

If we pause to think about it,
we lose our place in all we are doing
to keep pace with everything that is going on,
and develop the art of laughing a lot
at our close calls and near misses.

Musing becomes amusing after a while,
and we wouldn't revert to our old way
of living for fame or fortune.

Being at one with the flow of life and being
beats anything the old world has to offer,
and the new world keeps getting increasingly
wonder-filled by the day.

–0–

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–