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?
Everything starts with
and flows from
autonomy.
You have to have the right
and the freedom
to be who you are,
living out of your own sense
of direction and purpose,
being true to your original nature
and the innate virtues
that are yours at birth.
You have to have the right
and the freedom
of your own "Yes" and "No."
That means you have to have access
to your own "Yes" and "No."
They do not come from your head.
They come from your heart--
from your body.
You have to have the autonomy,
the right and the freedom,
to live from your own body-mind.
Even your brain-mind (your thinking-mind)
has to take the back seat
to your body-mind (your feeling/sensing-mind).
How close is your relationship
with your body-mind?
How often to you consciously consult
your body-mind?
How often does your brain-mind
ask your body-mind,
"Is this 'Yes' or 'No'?"?
The first step to freedom
is to know what your body-mind knows
and to have the autonomy
to take your orders
for direction, purpose and action
from your body-mind.
Until we are free to live from our body-mind,
we are not free at all.
That's the first thing.
Everything else flows from
and falls into place around
that.
Goodale State Park 06 11/01/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Adams Mill Pond, Camden, South Carolina
Ah, put me back there
and let me paddle around,
looking for compositions,
relishing the moment,
dancing with my soul,
in love with the world...
Ah, but. Time moves on
to other moments,
some just like this one
only different,
few better,
some much worse,
and we move with time
through them all.
Letting come what's coming,
and letting go what's going.
The rhythm of life,
of the tides,
of day and night,
spring, summer, fall and winter,
moving,
changing,
coming,
going...
What are we making of it?
Doing with it?
Becoming through it?
Who are we becoming?
How are we changing with the times?
Who are we being asked to be?
We have an original nature
and a valuable collection of innate virtues
that we are responsible for shepherding,
nurturing, serving,
and bringing forth in our life.
This is our primary purpose--
to be who we are.
How is that going?
Our life falls into place around
our coming out!
Around our coming forth!
We have the time left for living
to do what we came to do.
Don't know how to go about it?
There is nothing to it,
just remember who you are,
what you love to do,
what your specialties are,
what people look for from you,
what object or animal
would you put in your place
to stand-in for you?
Start with these questions
and see where they lead.
You are here to be you,
doing your thing.
And you are burning daylight!
It's time to get with the program!
And allow you to lead the way to YOU!
Cattails 10/25/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
We have to trust ourselves
to know what needs to be done
until it becomes apparent
that we don't.
And then, we have to trust ourselves
to know what needs to be done
until it becomes apparent
that we don't.
And so on, like that.
We learn to know what needs to be done
over time.
We learn to keep ourselves out of the way,
and to know when we are getting in the way.
And we cannot hurry the time
of our wising up.
So, we trust ourselves to know what's what
until we know what's what.
In the meantime,
we know we are cultivating experience
which is the ground of wisdom
all along the way.
–0–
02
Dandelion 03/19/2018 Detail Oil Paint Rendered
What is your specialty?
Why are you here?
What is the state of your balance and harmony?
What would it take to bring them
into an acceptable range?
Carry these questions around with you.
Keep asking them,
and answering them.
This process will keep you conscious
of how you are living,
and of how you might be living instead.
As for me, my specialty is getting
to the bottom of things.
Is seeing what I look at.
Asking the questions that beg to be asked.
Saying the things that cry out to be said.
Objecting.
Complaining.
Resisting.
Calling things out.
Serving truth.
Bearing witness.
Naming the contradictions.
Making peace where peace can be made.
Working out the conflicts.
Smoothing out the wrinkles.
Adjusting to what cannot be helped,
or changed.
Letting things be what they must be.
Accommodating what must be accommodated...
I am here to do all of the above.
To bear witness.
And call for alternatives.
For awareness.
For doing better.
My balance and harmony are more stabilized
now than ever
because I am reducing the noise and complexity
in my life to a minimum,
and coming to terms with how things are
and what can be done about it,
and doing what I can think to do
and letting that be that.
I am doing what it takes to bring
my balance and sanity
into an acceptable range.
Writing things out regularly helps immensely.
–0–
03
Dunes 11 03/14/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park, Arizona
We live to die.
Dying focuses our living
and shapes our life.
Knowing that we die
creates an urgency about our life
which compels those who are
awake/aware/alive
to use the time available to them
to discover their specialties,
their interests,
their shtick,
their original nature
and the innate virtues
that are theirs from birth--
that they might live in ways
that are true to these things,
serving and sharing them
in each situation as it arises
throughout their life,
so that every day is a good day to die
in that they have lived all their past days
in ways that honor and express who they are,
holding nothing back
and doing what needed to be done
when, where and how it needed to be done
no matter what,
and can die knowing they have lived well.
May we all be able to do that very thing!
Amen! May it be so!
Fogged In 09/29/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Stonington Harbor, Deer Isle, Maine
If we had known then
what we know now
about the laws of physics
and the nature of the universe,
it would be a different world
on every level.
We are cursed by what we are bound to,
the vision of our ancestors
about how things are
and what needs to be done about it.
This is all we have to work with, ever.
How things are
and what needs to be done about it.
We have to have clarity
of vision and purpose,
to be grounded in an accurate
and reliable worldview,
and to have the resolve
and resiliency
to be who we are
and do what needs to be done
here/now
in each situation as it arises
no matter what
forever.
When we are burdened/blinded by false assumptions,
presumptions,
suppositions,
superstitions,
inferences,
conclusions,
etc.,
we don't have a chance
to meet the world as it is
and as it needs to be met,
and we make things incredibly worse
than they have any reason being
year-by-year
until the combined weight
of our collective inaccurate assessments
of what's what and what needs to be done about it
adds up to hopelessness and absurdity
in an ever-tightening cycle of insanity
begetting insanity
to the detriment of existence worldwide.
Our mistaken mythology/theology/ideology have killed us
as a species and a planet.
We have to exorcise ourselves of it all
and start over,
here/now,
just as we are.
There is no God to please
and keep happy.
We are all we have.
We are all we need--
grounded in our original nature
and our innate virtues,
living in ways that are true to ourselves
and our daemon/gifts/shtick
in seeing what's what
and being right about
what needs to be done about it
where, when and how
in each situation as it arises
and doing it
no matter what
all our life long.
The religion of here/now/now what?
is all we need to be original human beings
in right relationship with ourselves,
one another
and the planet/universe.
Instant salvation
for the low, low price
of being free from the need to be saved.
World without end.
Amen (May It Be So).
–0–
02
Grand Prismatic Spring 03 06/29/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Jacob Bronowski said,
"You cannot know the truth
unless you live in certain ways."
He meant, "Unless you live truthful lives."
He meant, "Unless you live truthfully."
The same goes for knowing
what has always been called "God."
We cannot know that unless we live Godly lives.
Unless we ARE the God we say we know.
Whom do you know who passes that test?
The Godliness test?
Yet they all hold hands and proclaim
that they know God and love God.
Then force women to be pregnant against their will
(God knew no one can be forced to be a mother
against her will,
so God got Mary's permission before impregnating her
with the Bebe Jesus).
Then hate gay people,
and trans people,
and people of color,
etc.
We are to live with everybody
in ways that make it easy for them
to think that we love them.
We are to live lovingly with everyone.
How many people in your life
have reason to think you do not love them?
Or can't tell whether you love them or not?
If they can't tell that you love them,
you may as well not love them
for all the good your loving them does.
Take up the practice of living lovingly
with everyone.
Including tone of voice
and demeanor.
Let them all die thinking
they were your favorite people.
Desert Landscape 16 05/13/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah
Bear the pain of life's disappointments,
betrayals and tragic turns
with sincerity and integrity,
living out of your original nature
and innate virtues,
doing your best
to make the best of it all,
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
no matter what.
And, when it is done,
go to meet your death
the same way you met your life,
with sincerity and integrity
and all the rest.
Because that is who we are,
and that is how we do things--
the way they need to be done,
in each situation as it arises.
And no one can do better than that.
–0–
02
Dunes 03/07/2002 Oil Paint Rendered — Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley, California
Be right about what needs to be done
and do it.
In each situation as it arises.
That is all there is to it.
Without thought of gain or reward.
With nothing in it for you
but the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.
Aligned with the gifts/shtick/daemon/etc.
of your original nature
and the innate virtues that are yours
from birth.
Being true to yourself in this way,
and your heart in what you are doing.
Bringing yourself forth into your life
within the here/now of your living.
How far are you from living this way
day by day?
Live to narrow the gap
day by day.
–0–
03
The Wasteland 11 Oil Paint Rendered — Ghost Trees of Boneyard Beach
We reconcile ourselves with our life
and with our lot in life
in a "Here it is,
this is it for now,
and I'll make the best of it
all day long today"
kind of way.
Every day.
We grow up by doing what needs to be done,
what needs us to do it,
where, when and how it needs to be done,
no matter what--
whether we feel like it or not,
whether we are in the mood for it or not,
whether we want to or not--
here/now,
true to our original nature
and the innate virtues that are ours
from birth,
every day.
With fealty,
liege loyalty
and filial devotion
every day.
This is the dharma/duty
of human beings.
We are not fully human beings
until we act like human beings
here/now,
every day.
First Snow Moraine Lake 09/24/2004 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta
I am glad I am not in charge of you.
It is a terrible thing anybody
has to be in charge of anybody.
That anybody has to be somebody's charge.
It should be collaboration all the way.
Nobody telling anybody what to do.
Everybody reaching consensus
about what needs to be done
and who is responsible for what
where, when and how.
As it is,
the best case scenario is each of us
working out for ourselves
what needs to be done,
where, when and how.
And, in last place is someone
telling someone else what,
where, when and how.
Like that is going to get it done
up to standard,
on time.
Whose heart can be in doing anything
that way?
How long has it been?
Since your heart was in what you are doing?
Since you did anything wholeheartedly?
Can you remember the last time?
Organized religion should be focused entirely
on getting us back together with our hearts.
But religion tells us our heart is evil,
and we have to have someone telling us
what the Bible says we should do,
because we cannot be trusted
to figure it out on our own.
Remember Adam and Eve!
That's the best we can hope for on our own!
Eden has been given a bad rap.
A slight shift in perspective
has Adam and Eve realizing
they need some help figuring out life
on their own,
and working their way back to Eden
by dying to their own idea
of what their life should be,
and waking up to what wholehearted living
is all about.
That isn't us doing whatever we want,
but us doing what needs to be done
the way only we can do it,
with the virtues and gifts that are ours at birth.
That is where religion needs to be going.
But, like Adam and Eve,
they have minds of their own,
and won't be living a life
with their heart in what they are doing
until the role is called up yonder,
and they get the bad news.
–0–
02
Deep River 11/11/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Randleman, North Carolina
When the door opens,
walk through.
When the bright light appears,
jump in.
Do not hesitate on your way to the way.
Do not hold back,
demur,
think about it.
See it/Do it!
Trust yourself to what you know.
Live out of what you know.
Not out of what you hope,
fear,
want,
think,
believe.
Know what you know.
It is called being transparent to yourself.
When we are transparent to ourselves,
we are transparent to transcendence,
and are as close to God as most people get.
Trust yourself to that
and GO!
–0–
03
Dawn Silhouettes 01 12/06/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Hunting Island State Park, Beaufort, South Carolina
A butterfly knows exactly
what its business is,
and isn't.
Knows precisely what it is doing.
And has no idea what it will do next.
A butter fly is like the wind
that blows where it will,
and knows not what it will will next.
This is called being open to the future.
Being capable of doing what is called for
moment to moment
in each situation as it arises.
Sitting loose in the saddle,
dancing light on your feet,
ready for any change in tempo
and beat,
direction and purpose.
Our purpose is never our own.
We are at the mercy of forces
quite beyond us,
flipping switches,
pulling strings,
reading the circumstances,
turning on a dime,
calling the shots,
one at a time.
Consistency,
dependability,
reliability,
constancy,
etc.,
are very much there.
We can steadily do
anything at any moment,
at any time,
in response
to what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
on the fly
in the wink of an eye,
with no hesitation,
like a jam session
moving to the beat
of its own music
with no idea of what's next,
and not worrying about it a bit,
just watching to see what happens,
and where we go
by going with it.
World without end.
Amen.
Are you coming along for the ride?
Cypress Trees 03 11/11/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Adam’s Mill Pond, Goodale State Parke, Camden, South Carolina
We have too much to think about.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is an extension of the first:
We have too much to think about
that we do not want to think about.
And that leads to the third thing:
We create pleasant distractions/diversions
and think about them
to give us something to think about
in order to not think about the things
we do not want to think about.
But.
This creates more things for us to think about,
and we already have too much to think about.
This is not going to end well.
Our lives are going to devolve
into chaos and exploding planets
all around us
because we are thinking about things
we have no business thinking about,
missing turns,
forgetting appointments,
leaving the kids at school
and losing our place in our life
on a regular basis.
We blame on aging and having lapses
when we just have too much going on.
Rent a horse
and devote your time and attention
to nothing but your horse.
Before you do that,
consider your thinking.
What does thinking what you think about
keep you from thinking about?
Begin there with transforming your relationship
with your life,
other people
and yourself.
First you,
then your family,
then your job,
then your friends
and your social world.
If volunteering/activism is important,
let that substitute for
friends and socializing.
Work to reduce noise and complexity
and to increase emptiness, stillness and silence.
The horse will help with this.
–0–
02
Haystack Rock 02 05-24-2009 Oil Paint Rendered — The Wasteland Collection
When in doubt
sit still, be quiet.
The old maxim is straight
from the Taoist playbook,
calling to mind
the three grounding principles
of Taoism:
Emptiness.
Stillness.
Silence.
When practiced in the right way
connect us with the way
that is our personal path
through the labyrinth of daily life
to the heart of the matter
in each situation as it arises.
We don't do anything but wait
for direction before choosing
from among the choices
available to us in each moment
of every day.
This is the pause that "cleanses
the doorways of perception"
(Walt Whitman)
and enables right seeing,
right knowing,
right doing,
right being--
evoking our original nature
and our innate virtues
in engaging the here/now
in ways that transform us
and the world around us
to our amazement and wonder
at how something like this
could happen in a wasteland
like the one we live in,
opening us to the realization
that perspective does indeed
change everything,
even here,
even now.
–0–
03
Dandelion 03/19/2018 Oil Paint Rendereed
"Let justice roll down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!'
Amos 5:24
"Do justice, love kindness
and walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8
The Benevolent Curse
of Justice, Righteousness
Compassion and Peace
Through the Ages:
May you know what is so,
and be right about it--
and do what needs to be done about it
in each situation as it arises
all your life long!
Amen!
May it be so!
May it be forever so!
–0–
04
Multnomah Falls 05/21/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah County, Oregon
Okay, here we are.
Let's see what we can do about it.
That is the plan
for the rest of our life.
What governs what we do about it?
What guides us in our actions
in response to it?
How good is the good we call good?
Whose good is the good we call good?
What is it good for?
How good is that?
Where do you get your idea of the good?
Who are the people in your life
who are responsible for your idea of the good?
How important is it to you
for you to make those people happy with you?
For you to please those people?
How free are you from those people
to decide for yourself what is good and what is not?
Where do you part ways with those people
in serving your idea of the good?
Do not answer these questions!
Sit with them!
Empty of all assumptions,
conclusions,
inferences,
conjectures,
opinions,
ideology,
etc.
Empty of everything.
Just you and the questions.
Mulling them over.
Meditating on them.
Contemplating them.
Considering them.
Wondering about them.
Holding them in your awareness.
And seeing where it goes.
Seeing what this exercise evokes
within you.
Calls forth from you.
Requires of you.
Demands of you.
Compels you to do.
Blue Ridge Sunset 09/07/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — West Jefferson, North Carolina
Adjustment, Accommodation, Acceptance, Compromise
are the marks of aging well.
They are emphasized with references
to flowing water,
snow-laden Spruce trees,
boats on the ocean
and leaves in the wind.
We do our best
to make the best
of what comes our way.
Getting up and doing what
needs to be done,
no matter what,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.
This is the path our species
walked from the jungles
and the caves,
the deserts
and the ice ages,
to right here,
right now.
Easy is not a part of that path.
One step at a time
is very much a matter of it.
Walk on!
Walk on!
It's what we do best!
If I get there first,
I'll wait for you--
if you get there first,
wait for me!
And we can laugh together
at the time we had
getting together,
and the times
we thought we wouldn't make it at all.
I’m looking for where knowing comes from
when you just know something,
like when it’s time to give away
your fly rods and equipment.
Like we just know what
the right thing to do is
and we are right about it.
People can be aligned with the Tao,
not by trying,
but by simply knowing what’s what
and what needs to be done in response.
We just know some things
but don’t know how we know.
I think the Prophets knew things in this way,
and called the people to do what was right.
If the Prophets had been
influenced by Lao Tzu,
they would have understood differently
what they called “God.”
The Tao Te Ching
spends a lot of time talking about
good and bad in a yin/yang kind of way.
Living aligned with the Tao
is like living aligned with God’s will
without having to imagine God
as a human being the way
we all ought to be human beings.
The Tao doesn’t pick sides
or play favorites,
yet those who live in accord with the Tao
have an easy time letting be what is
and doing what needs to be done about it,
anyway, nevertheless, even so.
Abraham Heschel and Reformed Theology,
with their, “God this,” and “God that”,
as though God is a concrete,
actual, spiritual being,
soon wear thin with me.
They are talking about their idea of God,
the way God would be if God were God t
he way God ought to be God.
“Just shut up,” I say to them,
“and sit quietly for a while.”
Emptiness, Stillness and Silence
are the way to the way,
which makes them the way.
I see “the pathos of God,”
(Heschel's phrase)
as being shared among all people
who know of the way
and of how it is not being followed
at any point in time.
But, I think the Tao is beyond pathos,
and just keeps doing its thing,
which is not doing anything at all but
being what it is,
waiting,
waiting,
waiting for those who know what it
is to seek it out
and live in accord with it,
joining it in letting be what is
and doing what needs to be done about it
as they are able, as best they can…
My task in the ministry
was a path that led me here/now,
but there is only so much a person
can do for another person,
in that the Tao is a very personal matter
that cannot be told,
or said,
or explained beyond
“Emptiness, stillness, silence.”
“Balance and harmony.”
“Spirit, energy, vitality.”
“Yin/Yang.”
“The One (The Source, the Tao)
produced the Two (Yin/Yang)
and the Two produced the Three
(Heaven and Earth and Human Beings)
and the Three produced all that is.”
“Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to mystery.”
…
This is not a mass movement of
awakening world-wide,
or even congregation-wide.
“Listen to me,” I said,
during my preaching years,
“when I say,
‘Do not listen to me! Listen to YOU!’”
That was my sermon,
heard only by those with ears to hear.
Which is the way it is.
Which is the way.
Which is all I’m still saying.
Heard only by those with ears to hear
that are evoked into hearing
by those saying what they know
needs to be said
whether anyone hears or not.
That is the Tao in action.
In life.
In real life.
Real time.
A mystery that makes no sense.
–0–
03
Sea Stacks 05/26/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — The Wasteland Collection
I take Yoda to be the polar opposite
of Dr. Spock.
And am certain that
we would be better off
with Yoda running the show.
The catch is that
Yoda would have nothing to do
with running the show.
Yoda knows.
"It is easier to conquer a country
than to run a country,"
(Genghis Kahn).
Because in running a country
you have too many people
to keep happy.
And you cannot teach the people
to make themselves happy--
to be responsible
for their own happiness.
It is the place of the people
to know that happiness
doesn't come from having or doing,
but from being.
Being happy stems
from the right way of being.
And no one can tell anyone
the right way to be happy.
They have to know it for themselves.
It is a inside job.
Where does knowing come from?
From emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
From observation and recognition.
From realization and comprehension.
From seeing, hearing, understanding.
From being at one with the Tao.
At one with the Source of life and being.
The people who make the journey
from here to there
are the people who know what's what
and what needs to be done in response,
and do it when, where and how
it needs to be done,
without being told to,
because it needs to be done,
and it needs them to do it
with the original nature that is theirs
and the innate virtues they have had
since birth,
waiting for this moment to evoke in them
the need to do what is needed,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it,
in each situation as it arises
all their life long.
The trouble with this process
is that we have minds of our own,
and our own fears and desires
come into play
to call us away
from doing what needs to be done
into the service of having their own way,
and that's all it takes
for the show to devolve
into turmoil and chaos for ever after.
I asked my physician once
why people don't listen to their doctors,
and he said,
"People have minds of their own."
The sole reason things are as they are.
Around the world,
across the universe.
To the end of time,
and perhaps beyond.
Before Dawn East Fork Overlook 05/30/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Brevard, North Carolina
The nature of the spiritual quest
is a shift in perspective
that allows us to see how things are
without being overwhelmed and undone.
We see into the heart of things,
grasp the nature of things,
know what is true
and what is also true,
and are essentially okay with that knowledge.
The camera can become a tool
and a metaphor
for the perspective shift
that transforms our being in the world.
It is not the photograph
that is the reason for our photography,
but the seeing,
the perceiving,
the "getting it."
We have the possibility of seeing
through the viewfinder
what the guy saw
when the Buddha held up the flower.
Every scene is a potential
"doorway of perception."
It's a matter of orientation and intention,
awareness and attention.
This is the parent page of blogs I will post over the third quarter of 2022. I trust that you will find something here that is helpful to you along your way.
Blue Ridge Dawn 09/03/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We reduce our vulnerability
by reducing our exposure,
on one hand,
and by making our peace
with the fact of our vulnerability,
no matter what we do,
on the other.
We all are going to die.
How's that for being vulnerable?
And before we die,
we are going to lose most,
if not all,
of what means the most to us.
The plan for the last few years
of our life is going to be
"Accommodation, acquiescence and compromise, Kid.
Accommodation, acquiescence and compromise."
Or, to say the same thing with a different spin:
"I will carry on and endure,
and when the heaving sea
has shaken my raft to pieces,
then I will swim!"
(Odysseus in the Odyssey)
We will live out our life in spite of our vulnerability!
We will not be cowed,
intimidated,
or afraid
to stand up and face what must be faced,
and to do with it what must be done!
We could have used better choices than we had
throughout our life,
and the choice aren't going to get any better
in what remains of the life
left to be lived.
So what?
We will do the best we can
with what we have to work with.
"And when the heaving sea
has shaken our raft to pieces,
then we will swim!"
Pioneer Christmas 02 Oil Paint Rendered — Through the Window Collection
Our view of God is not God.
Our idea of God is not God.
God is transcendent reality
beyond concepts or ideas,
words or images.
God is beyond theology and doctrine,
creeds and dogma.
Beyond explanation, description,
elucidation, illustration.
"Darkness within darkness--
the gateway to mystery."
The Tao Te Ching's description
of the Tao
applies to all gods there ever has been
or will be.
Heinrich Zimmer said,
"The best things cannot be said,
and the second best things create misunderstanding,
that leaves us with the third best things to talk about,
news, weather, sports, opinion and gossip."
If anybody wants to talk to you about God
ask them two questions:
"Who says so?"
"How do you know they are right?"
If say they "take it on faith,"
ask, "Why do you take that on faith
and not something else instead?"
And if they say,
"Because I know in my heart
it is so,"
tell them that is the same way horoscopes work,
and voo-doo,
and black magic,
and superstition,
and is the very thing con artists
make their living by."
"Who says so?"
and "How do you know they are right?"
Are the foundational questions.
Keep coming back to them
and you will keep the conversation honest
and grounded in the truth of "No one knows."
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02
Silhouettes 02 12/13/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Kings Mountain State Park — Blacksburg, South Carolina
We are here to help one another
find The Way through our life
by the way we live together
in the world.
There is not much of that going on.
What???
Why are we all out for what we can get
at the expense of whomever is in our way,
which has as much to do with The Way
as a chicken has to do with
the dark side of the moon.
The right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness,
the right kind of silence,
are harder to find
than the dark side of the moon!
It's like "There is nothing wrong
with my life
that having everyone else do what I want
wouldn't fix!"
Really?
We are stuck in The Terrible Two's
throwing our plates of ketchup and fries
against the wall
because they won't do it our way.
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03
Marsh Sunrise 02 10/29/2011 Oil Paint Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
We are born into a world-wide environment
that assumes God in some guise
is the source of all that is,
with a well-organized system
of propaganda for perpetuating the idea.
It is impossible to come at the idea of God
from the outside,
as though for the first time.
The idea of God is a part of the fabric of life,
and our role is to keep God happy with us
until we die
so that we can go be with God in heaven forever.
God is an idea that has been passed along
from the beginning,
to the point where hardly anyone
thinks of God as an idea,
but as an actual, tangible, concrete spirit being.
The idea that a spiritual being could be concrete
should be a give-away that God is an idea,
in that "spiritual" is the polar opposite of concrete,
and that the concretization of God is also an idea.
And the absurdity of the entire play
comes into full, blinding, light
when we take into account that the people
who make such a furious protest over
the idea of God being an idea
are the very ones who ignore God completely
in living exactly as they want to
with no concern at all about offending The Holy.
All of which comes down to
After God, What?
The Taoists of 2,000 years BCE
suggest that we live aligned with the Tao
in serving our original nature
and the innate virtues that are ours from birth,
with spirit, energy and vitality
by doing the right thing
at the right time
in the right place
and the right way.
No theology.
No doctrine.
Just experience lived in light
of what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
enjoying each moment
and celebrating life.
We could do worse,
as contemporary events proclaim.
Blowing Sand 10/29/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Life is hard enough with plenty of cooperation.
How long has that been?
Since we had plenty of cooperation?
The Familiarity of stabilizing routines
help nudge us along
from one recovery to the next,
and they are getting more frequent
as time goes by.
The Supreme Court rocking people's world
is far removed from what its role ought to be,
guarding the systems of government
and the rule of law,
and enabling people to sustain themselves
within an environment that is grounded
upon the values of liberty and justice
and not whims and why nots.
But, here we are.
Waiting for stability to form
somewhere, somehow,
and help us find our way
through each day.
Hoping they don't think
of some more ways to say,
"You know that life you were living?
Well, you can't do it that way any more!"
The one thing I know for sure is next
is all people large and small
recognizing the importance
of voting for the Democrat
on all levels of government,
local, regional and national,
from this time forth and forever more
(Or until Republicans come to care about people,
whichever comes first).
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02
Wasteland Hwy. 163 From Mexican Hat to Monument Valley 09/26/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — The Forrest Gump Highway
Live out of who you are.
This is one of the fundamental
Laws of Nature.
The Natural Laws are inviolable,
and we ignore them to our peril.
What goes around, comes around.
Another one.
Extremes begat extremes.
Ditto.
One good turn deserves another.
Time will tell.
All in good time.
Everything in its own time.
What goes up must come down.
A stitch in time saves nine.
The shortest way through is the long way around.
The tide goes out and the tide comes in.
You can pay now, or you can pay later.
If you are going to dance the dance you have to pay the piper.
There are no free rides.
Growing up is bearing the pain of doing what needs to be done.
The list is long and gets longer the longer we live.
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Window 05 Oil Paint Rendered — Through the Window Collection
I like to have my affairs in order.
To leave nothing hanging.
Nothing up in the air.
To take care of business.
To do what needs to be done.
With everything in its place.
Daily.
It cannot be "a good day to die"
until things are as they should be
in all of the days
leading up to this one.
That is harder than it seems.
We cannot order our lives
unless everyone in in life
is doing their part
in helping us tie things up
and file them away.
They don't return our calls.
They don't reply to our emails.
They don't see the importance
of what we see as essential.
We live at the discretion
of someone else
more often than we would like.
And we have to let that be,
because it is.
I do better with that on some days
than on others.
Adjustment and compromise, Kid.
Adjustment and compromise.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 