How we see what we look at,
how we look at what we see,
determines,
or strongly influences,
what we do about what we see/look at.

What are we serving/seeking,
trying to do,
hoping to achieve,
avoid,
get to,
go?

What makes us think it is worth doing/having?

What is worth our time/attention?
How do we know?
What are we about?
What are we doing
with the time left for living?

Reflection and realization 
are big for me.

Looking/listening/seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/
sitting/thinking/being/
communing/wondering/imagining/...
the passions of silence/solitude.

Going where we are led,
doing what needs to be done,
making connections and transitions,
flowing along with delight/joy/awe/wonder
as long as we can
is enough for me
to get out of bed
and step into another day.

I'm here for the experience
of being alive,
and what I do with it,
and what it does with me.

And, if that is all there is to it,
that's fine with me.

–0–

We cannot fix/change/improve/etc. anyone
without their permission.

Psychotherapy comes to grief upon this.

And yet, 
we all grow up against our will.
If we grow up at all.

And yet,
we do change our mind about what's important.

So we keep saying what is so
and letting nature take its course.

I wish I had had me for a father.
And, of course I did--I do.

Where would I be without me?
Where would you be without you?
The part of you that has gotten you here/now?

We are not alone.
The best of us takes care of
the worst of us,
and we all benefit from
our association with all of us,
with who we are,
and also are,
and letting nature take its course.

–0–

We are made for wonder.

Wonder is the reason we are here.

Wonder is all there is.

We are here to look around and admire the beauty and the wonder.

The ground/foundation of existence is wonder.

We go to the moon–for what?
For the wonder of it.
The joy of it.
The WOW!

Period.

There is nothing to get, to have, to own, possess, do…
beyond looking around, going “Wow!”

I’m glad to be a part of that,
and to know that’s all there is to it.

Wow!

Where have you gone “Wow!” today?

–0–

There is only changing our mind
about what is important
until things click into place
and we know we are right about it
finally at last
and accord it its due place in our life
with fealty,
filial devotion,
allegiance,
and loyalty
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

We can speed things up a bit
by observing the mantra of the ages:
Sit Down!
Shut Up!
Be Quiet!

With enough of the right kind of silence
we can hear what's what
and do what needs to be done about it
when/where/how it needs to be done,
moment-to-moment
for the rest of our life.

And that is all there is to it.

"It" is primarily vibrations
and harmony,
balance,
being at one with,
aligned with,
in accord with,
in tune with
what is here/now
and what we need to do
in response to it--
the dance of life.

"There is only the dance"
(TS Eliot).

It has nothing to do with getting,
acquiring,
amassing,
having,
owning,
etc.

It has everything to do with
sitting down,
shutting up,
being quiet.

We can't do that
because we know what it will mean for us:
Not getting,
acquiring,
amassing,
having,
owning,
etc.

And we want all of that 
with everything within us.
Well.
Almost everything.
There is that "still, quiet voice,"
saying,
"Sit down,
shut up,
be quiet!"

–0–

There are two terms--
dissonance and resonance--
that can be experienced
but not taught,
known but not learned.

They have to do with vibrations
between a body and a force
with dissimilar (with dissonance)
or similar (with resonance)
vibrating frequencies.

Discordant or resonating frequencies
can be experienced with musical notes
and waves of sound or liquid.
And we can experience them personally
as a pull toward something
or as a push away from something.

We can walk into a place
that we can't get walked out of 
fast enough,
and into a different place
where we could sit and stay forever.

We know what's what in our body.
We dismiss/discount/ignore
what our body is saying
with "the uh-oh feeling,"
and end up saying ourselves,
"I knew this was wrong from the start."

Yes-but, here we are.

We have lived our way here
by being more-or-less sensitive
to what we are feeling on a borderline
conscious level.
We get where we are going
by being increasingly sensitive
to what we are feeling on that level.

What are the YES's in our life?
And what are the NO's?

What are the vibrations telling us?
Being attuned to
what is "in tune" with us
and what is "out of tune" with us
is a reliable guide through
a life strewn with possibilities
and options,
choices and decisions.

–0–

We feel our way into our life.
Practice doing that
by feeling your way into what you wear tomorrow,
and feeling your way into what you eat for lunch,
and into all of the decisions/choices you make
that are not forced on you by circumstances.

Learn to read your body,
to know your body's signals,
to allow your body to lead the way
through the day each day.

Check everything out with your body--
not with your head.

Our head is good for how to do things,
what things to do are the body's prerogative.

Letting our body take the lead
is essential in living in sync with,
aligned with,
in accord with,
the flow of vitality, life and being,
doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right way
in the right place,
laughing at how we can know 
what needs to be done
without thinking about it.

It is a wonderful mystery,
and links us with the heart
of transcendent being/reality,
which is more than words can say,
but not more than can be known.

And our body is the path to knowing.

–0–

We live our way to enlightenment/
realization/
understanding/
knowing/
being/
doing...

We don't think or way there.
No one can tell us how to do it
beyond,
"Practice, practice, practice!"

Practice what?

Listening to/looking into
emptiness,
stillness,
silence.

Listening/looking for
hints/expressions/exhibitions/revelations of
our original nature
and the innate virtues/traits/specalties
that reside in our DNA,
seeking the light of day.

When we get it,
what we get
is being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
when/where/how it is called for
in response to what is happening
and what needs to be done about it.

We live our way to US!
To being ourselves in ways
that serve a good beyond ourselves!

No wonder no one can tell us how to do that!
No one knows us the way we know us,
if only we will get out of the way
and look/listen for 
hints/expressions/exhibitions/revelations...
And start doing what only we can do
in meeting the circumstances of our life
as only we can
in the time left for living.

–0–

Stepping into each day 
with little in the way of plans and agendas,
conquest and triumph,
hoping to see how we are seeing
what we look at,
and help out where we can
in responding to what is happening
and what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

Trusting ourselves to have what we need
to find and do what needs to be done,
just listening,
just looking,
just seeing,
just hearing,
and responding spontaneously
out of our original nature
and innate virtues/traits/specialties,
puts us in position 
to enjoy our life as never before,
and to look forward to what happens next
and what we do in response,
moment by moment
all day long.

The adventure of being alive.

–0–

Dharma and Tao mean the same thing:
"The way things ought to be."

Hinduism attempts to adhere to the Dharma
through custom and law,
imposing the ought-to-be-ness of things
inorganically, 
corporately, 
from the top down
and the outside in.

Taoism achieves the same outcome
through a "felt-sense" of balance and harmony,
sincerity/integrity/grace/
spirit/energy/vitality
organically,
personally-individually,
from the bottom up
and the inside out.

Hinduism would say,
"Do what we tell you--
when/where/how!"

Taoism would say, 
"Live in accord with the Tao,
align yourself with the flow
of life and being!
And do not do what anyone tells you to do,
because "the path that can be discerned
as the path
is not a reliable path!"

When we "follow our bliss,"
in Joseph Campbell's words--
our sense of vitality/enthusiasm/urgency
in aligning ourselves with and doing
what we know to be called for here/now,
we are in sync with the Tao,
"on the beam"
(Campbell also said, "We know 
when we are on the beam
and when we are off it")
and in the center of our life's will for us.

There is no better place to be.

Listen to your body,
to your heart,
and do what you know/feel to be right for you
here/now,
and let the outcome be the outcome.

–0–

We can only do what needs to be done
with the tools we have available to us,
within us,
as best we can
in each situation as it arises
and let that be that,
because there is not much time
between situations.

It helps to take all things 
with no more seriousness
than they deserve,
have no opinions,
judgments,
expectations,
plans or agendas,
meet the moment as it comes
and do what is called for
to the extent that is possible,
with no more anxiety than is 
appropriate to the occasion.

Every day, 
I'm glad I don't have a cow
I have to take care of
along with everything that
comes with a cow.

Everything is worse with a cow.
Sisyphus with his stone
would be out of his mind
with a cow to take care of 
in addition to the rock.

Think about that
the next time you're 
singing the blues. 

–0–

How we see what we look at
makes all the difference.

How would we go about changing
how we see what we look at?

Asking, "What makes it easy for me
to look at things the way I do?"
might be a start.

Pausing to look at how we are looking
at things, might help.

Being intently curious about everything--
particularly at how we look at things--
could make a difference.

Taking a walk-a-bout around how we see
what we look at,
and how we think about what we think about,
would provide some separation 
between our looking and thinking
and the things we look at and think about.

Anything we can do to slow down 
the rush to judgment,
which hinders both our seeing and our thinking,
will be an aid in seeing and thinking.

And anything that helps us see and think
with greater clarity and understanding
will help us on our way though the sea
with its heaving waves and clashing rocks.

And that would be a good thing.

–0–

Death is the final solution, of course,
there when we need it,
having run out of options,
and no possibility of life on our terms
ever again.

What kind of life 
would life on someone else's terms be?

Patrick Henry nailed it with his,
"Give me liberty, or give me death!"

The liberty to chose  
the life that has chosen us,
and live it as it needs to be lived
all the way to the point
of no choices left to choose
is the proper prelude
to death as the final solution.

Which leaves us with,
"How does our life need us to live it?"

We don't give that much thought.
It is all about what we want
and how we can get it--
which only works
if our wanting is aligned
with our life's idea of itself,
so that it is a bona fide life we are living,
and not a counterfeit life
in which we do what we feel like doing
without ever being possessed 
by anything that needs us to do it--
by the life that needs us to live it--
all our life long.

"Whatever" is not what Patrick Henry
had in mind.

The liberty to do what needs to be done
and needs us to do it
with the gifts of our original nature
and the innate virtues/characteristics/
specialties
that are ours from birth
is what we need to discover
what we need to do
as zeal for the task
that we know to be our task
in a "It's the pirate's life for me, Gibbs.
I have no say in the matter,"
kind of way.

And death, at last,
when we have run out
of better things to do,
is a proper ending
to a life well-lived.

–0–