December 02-A, 2022

Cattails 10/25/2011 Oil Paint Rendered –Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Ordinary is the stone the builders reject,
the pearl of great price lost among the costume jewelry.
The you in you and the me in me.

To do ordinary really well
is to do you as only you can do you,
to do me as only I can do me.

And in that collection of small deeds done well
"sways the future,"
and everything depends upon good people
being who they are,
when they are,
where they are,
how they are,
the way only they can be themselves
in the hidden places of their lives,
where it makes all the difference.

If you are going to take something on faith,
let it be this,
and bust it being ordinary
the way only you can be ordinary,
trusting it to be enough.

It will be more than enough.

Just do your best Nobody Special everyday,
and discover what I'm talking about.

–0–

December 01-B, 2022

The Tree on the Hill Oil Paint Rendered
Finding people we can trust 
who know more than we do
about what's what
and what the rules are
governing what to do about it
is our life's task
through all of the stages of life,
and there be many.

Who, okay, whom, do you trust?
How many people belong to your
circle of trust?

These are your companion/guides
who will need to be replaced
as your circumstances in life change,
moving away,
health issues,
loss of mobility...

And they will not be easily replaced,
so we have to be alert
as circumstances bring other people
into our life,
wondering,
"Can you be one,
or shall I look for another?"

Zooming makes things easier,
but does not remove the need
to find replacements for 
our circle of trust.

Be awake,
alert,
aware.

Companions and guides are lifelines
to balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and life.
And we fare much better with them
than without them.

Be well-stocked with the right people
in your life,
and be well!

–0–

December 01-A, 2022

The Last of Fall 11/29/2002 Oil Paint Rendered –Flat Branch Greenway, Charlotte, North Carolina
The tides and the seasons,
going and coming.
My wife and I are reaching the end of our lives,
and we have a great-granddaughter due in April.
It doesn't end.

Our genes and our influence continue
to impact life
long after we are gone. 

Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 CE) said:
"Cold or warm. 
Tired or well-rested. 
Despised or honored. 
Dying...or busy with other assignments. 
Because dying, too, 
is one of our assignments in life. 
There as well: 'To do what needs doing.'"

He said that 2,200 years ago.
I'm saying it still after all these years.
Things are passed on.
And what is gone
comes back around.

And we may well discover
that "one of our assignments"
is to come back around,
like the tides
and the seasons.
Just to enjoy the ride.

December, 2022

Path to the Big House 02/22/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Moses H. Cone Manor, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Deep space probes receive speed boosts by passing
near-by planets/moons 
at just the right distance
in just the right way.

Human beings experience the same boost
sending us on our way
in relationships with certain people, but.
The "Just the right distance
in just the right way" principle applies
and is a tricky one to master.
There is no mastering it.
It comes down to being lucky,
just like everything else,
everywhere else.

A relationship can result in crashing and burning,
or in being captured by the planet/moon's gravity
and being stuck forever
far from the path.

Speed boosts don't come guaranteed.
Neither does anything else.
We give it our best,
and see what happens.

The ultimate goal,
whether for deep space probes
or individual human beings,
is to find our life and live it,
with ease of functioning
and all systems optimally working.

Anything that assist that is a boost.
Anything that prohibits/inhibits that is a scrapped journey.

Keeping that in mind,
we mind all sensors
and proceed with care
along the way.

–0–

November 30-B, 2022

Price Lake Rhododendron 07/02/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The difference between astrology and astronomy
is roughly the difference between
religion and spirituality. 

Religion asks us to take its postulates on faith,
spirituality requires us to know what we know.

Religion asks us to believe its theology and doctrines,
which are collections of opinions and convictions,
while spirituality tells us to see what we look at
and to trust ourselves to recognize what needs to be done
and do it
in each situation as it arises.

Religion is about believing.
Spirituality is about knowing.

Religion is theoretical.
Spirituality is practical.

Religion is abstract.
Spirituality is of the earth and rivers,
darkness and light.

Religion is made up.
Spirituality is recognized/realized.

Religion is from the top down,
and outside in.
Spirituality is from the bottom up,
and inside out.

Religion is artificial.
Spirituality is natural.

Religion is inorganic.
Spirituality is organic.

Religion is of the head.
Spirituality is of the heart and spirit.

We have to get religion.
We have to be spiritual.

Those who believe, believe different things.
Those who know, know the same things. 

And that's pretty much that.

–0–

November 30-A, 2022

Puckett Cabin 02 10/25/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Hillsville, Virginia
My drift through the aging process
appears to be away from activity
and involvement,
and toward observation,
reflection,
exploration,
and playing with my life
just to see what it can do,
and what I can do with it.

I don't have any goals
or intentions
beyond being present
and seeing what happens.

Staying home and looking out the windows
sounds like a good enough life plan
for my remaining years.

And seeing what happens.
I like that a lot.

And, when I go,
I expect I will be glad
I've been here,
and glad to be wherever 
what's next is.

I hope it's a do-over.
Endless rounds of life
has a positive impact on me.
It isn't all drudgery and sorrow,
toil and pain.

I've gotten better 
over the course of my life--
in a "I'm more like I am now
that I was when I got here!"
kind of way.

Endless courses of better
would be fine with me.
Mixing it up with time and chance
is a right interesting way of life,
with amazement and wonder everywhere.
And I'm looking forward
to another chance to see what I can do.

–0–

November 29-B, 2022

Rakes Mill Pond 11/02/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, Vrginia
The things that restore our soul
are the essential things.

The wasteland is everywhere.
Oases are hard to find.

When we stumble upon them,
we need to mark them well,
and return to them often--
spending as much time in their presence
as circumstances allow.

What form does your yoga take?
Where do you find the experience,
the regimen,
the practice,
the program
that connects you with the ground
of life and being?

What brings joy to life in you life?

Where do you go to be healed and whole,
revitalized and well?

When was the last time you were there?
When will the next time be?

–0–

November 29-A, 2022

Roaring Fork 04/17/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
If you understand timing
and can sense what is happening
and know what is called for,
the circumstances will reveal themselves
to you
in a way that will seem magical
and mysterious,
and you will find doors opening 
where there would not ordinarily be doors,
and opportunities revealing themselves
where otherwise there would be no opportunities,
and your life will have a sheen of luck about it
that will be impossible to explain,
or count on,
so that you will be able to trust your luck
without ever being able to push it,
or take it for granted.

You will be blessed
but you will be incapable 
of turning that to your profit or gain,
and if you begin to contrive ways
of using it to your advantage 
it will dissolve and disappear,
and you will have missed the point
of being at one with the Tao,
with the way of things,
with the movement of life and being.

That is the wonder!
And it cannot be used to lever greater wonders.
There are no greater wonders.
There is only living in sync with time and place,
aligned with Yin and Yang,
and at peace in your own soul,
in love with life and with the world.

How could you think of gain/profit/advantage?
What could be more valuable than what you 
are experiencing?

Simply relax into where you are,
and allow yourself to be carried along
to wherever you will be when you get there,
neither knowing nor caring where that is,
or when it will be.

–0–

November 28-C, 2022

Smoky Woods 10/27/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
Trials and ordeals, Kid.
Trials and ordeals.

Trials and ordeals are eternal
and everlasting--
because our wants and desires,
expectations and opinions
are eternal and everlasting.

A river never encounters 
a trial or an ordeal.
A river just does what it does
no matter what,
doing what needs to be done
to take its context and circumstances
into account
and flow on, flow on.

Be the river.
Do it like the river does it.
Flow on, flow on.

–0–

November 28-B, 2022

Swamp Scene Oil Paint Rendered
Just go do what needs to be done.
You will find all that you need to do it.
It is the way.
Time after time.

Spontaneously arising out of nowhere,
but, mostly out of your own sense
of what needs to be done
in order to do what needs to be done.

Trust your own knowing--
even when it seems contrary
to all reason.

Reason doesn't know any more
than wanting knows.

Trust only what needs to be done,
not what makes sense
or is desirable.

We do not choose the way.
The way chooses us.

Our place is to do the thing
that needs us to do it.
Time after time.

–0–

November 28-A, 2022

Two Ducks Flying 07 Oil Paint Rendered — The Bog Garden, Greensboro, North Carolina
Meaning is ours to know
when we see it.

No one can tell us what is meaningful,
or for how long.

We are the sole authority in the matter.

And if our life is low on meaning,
it is because we are not doing our job.
We are not living in the search for meaning.
We are not ascribing a high-enough priority to meaning.
We are letting meaning go untended,
un-nourished,
un-championed,
un-claimed.

We should know better.

What is life without meaning?

Toast without jelly--
or fig preserves. 

We have to give meaning
its much-deserved highest place
in our life.

Bestowing upon it our fealty,
our liege loyalty
and filial devotion,
and living unwavering in its service
through all our days upon the earth.

Failing to do so 
is the Unforgivable Sin.
Perhaps, worse.

November 27-B, 2022

Sunset Day 5 14 10/25/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina
There is no immunity,
and we spend a major portion
of our life
making our peace with our vulnerabilities.
Instability and uncertainty
are just how it is
upon the heaving waves
of the wine dark sea.

How are you coming with that?

It helps to whine, moan and complain.
Mope about
and wallow in depression and anxiety,
between bouts with fear and dread.

You can see why most of our life
is spent doing things 
that take our mind off our plight.

Thinking about all that can happen,
with no weapons 
and not enough resources 
to fend off the ghouls at the gate,
is exhausting and on-going.

Small wonder that we turn to
sex, drugs, alcohol and money
as relief from the monotony
of fretting and worrying
over being adrift without hope
with nowhere to hide.

Buying something else 
that won't help
is one of our favorite pastimes.

That and partying heartily,
finding some action
and passing a good time.

Give me a break from seeking a break!

Let me remind myself to trust myself
to deal with whatever comes up
the way I always have
and always will,
and to stop asking for trouble
by imagining all that could happen
before it does.

We've made it this far
against all odds.
I'm for seeing 
how much farther we can go
and how much more 
we can get by with
before we leap into the light!

–0–