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?
Enlightenment is knowing what's what
and what is called for,
and when and where and how to respond to that call
with the gifts, genius, daemon, shtick, creativity,
imagination, virtues, etc.
that came with us from the womb.
Our original nature comes complete
with all we need to do what is needed
but.
We have to live attuned to
and in accord with our original nature--
serving it with liege loyality
and filial devotion,
in all matters great and small
throughout our life.
Our fealty is to our original nature.
There we find the treasure
that is more valuable than gold and silver,
diamonds and jade.
It takes trusting this to be so,
and living as though it is
to know that it is.
If you are going to take anything on faith,
let it be this!
–0–
02
Round-lobed Hepatica 06 03/02/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Acting out of fear,
anxiety,
anger,
desire,
grief,
laziness,
habit,
loneliness,
boredom...
will lead to outcomes
quite different from
acting out of
the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
Take up the practice,
and develop the art,
of living with the right kind of
emptiness, stillness and silence.
And your life
will take a turn for the better
like that
(snaps fingers).
Beulah Land is a fictional land
flowing with milk and honey
where everything is perfect,
finally,
at last,
forever--
commensurate with Nirvana,
Heaven,
The Farther Shore,
The Happy Hunting Ground,
Elysian Fields,
and every religion's idea
of where we are going when we die.
Where we are going when we die
is fading back into the Tao,
the Infinite, Eternal and Everlasting, Mind
where we came from.
Which we could begin to participate in here and now
if we were to be so inclined.
Buddha talked about Buddha-Mind
being available to every enlightened one,
and Jesus said, "The kingdom is spread
throughout the earth,
and no one sees it."
Enlightenment simply means seeing what's what
and what needs to be done in response,
and doing it with the gifts of our original nature,
moment-by-moment
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it
all our life long.
Sounds boring to us,
and we hate being bored.
So we comfort ourselves with
hymns about Sweet Beulah Land,
and wrap ourselves in our delusions
until we die.
We want, we want, we want...
We live to get and to have what we want.
All we want is to have our way
And what else we want.
All the time.
Especially RIGHT NOW!!!
When did wanting take over the earth?
Has it always been the modus operandi of the species?
We cannot imagine life without it.
Trees seem to get by on what they have.
And clouds.
But human beings have been making weapons from the start.
A weapon is just a way of getting what we want.
Or keeping someone else from taking what we want.
Wanting is the heart of the matter.
Wanting what we need
needs to be as far as wanting goes,
but needing what we want
is where wanting takes us.
If we want it,
we need it.
And have to have it.
So give it to me NOW!
Being able to separate wants from needs
and live in the service of legitimate needs only
is the untended task of life.
And the foundation of being alive
to what has need of us
in the moment
every moment.
No matter what we might want.
Living with fealty to
what needs to be done here and now--
to what needs us to do it--
regardless of what we want
is the goal of life
in each situation as it arises.
This is what Jesus was saying when he said,
"If you are coming with me,
you have to pick up your cross daily
and do what needs to be done!"
There is no reason for things being as they are
other than the things that happened
that led to things being as they are.
Or, to put this another way:
What is the greater miracle--
that everything has been carefully arranged
to be exactly as it is here and now
by some Master Planner
who designed the entire universe
down to the number of birds in the world
at any one time and the number of feathers on the birds,
and the number of mites on the feathers,
or than nothing at all is planned,
and it just works out that things are as they are?
This isn't to say that everything is accidental.
It is to say that something happens,
and something else happens in response to the first thing happening,
and like ping-pong balls flying off of mousetraps
in response to one ping-pong ball being dropped onto
the mouse traps,
we are all here, now, because of a string of events
and circumstances that lead to our all being here and now,
but the fact that our parents met on a blind date
and marrieds is strictly a matter of chance,
but caused by effects that were caused by other effects,
all the way back to the first effect,
let's say the attraction of one carbon atom to another,
and, Boom!, here we are.
Now what?
Let's wait and see.
–0–
02
A Log in the Woods 11/11/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek Campground, Waterville, North Carolina
We live to discover who we are,
to find out what we are capable of,
to serve our original--our innate--nature,
to become the person we are built to be,
to exhibit/express/reflect/incarnate
the gifts, genius, daemon, shtick, abilities,
interests, creativity, imagination, etc.
that came with us from the womb.
But.
We get distracted.
And think it is about not being who we are,
but being whoever it takes
to gain somebody's favor,
or avoid somebody's wrath,
or win somebody's love,
or become wealthy and have it made...
The world is filled with replacement reasons
for being alive--
and attractive alternatives to being who we are.
We all are the story of Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden,
eternally distracted from what is ours to do,
from who is ours to be,
and always abandoning Eden for happiness ever after.
Our hope is to find our way back to Eden,
and take up the task that is ours from the start,
finding and being who we are.
There is a catch, however.
The way back to Eden is blocked by the Angel of Death.
We have to die to become who we are--
not actually, literally, physically,
but metaphorically, abstractly, figuratively.
We have to give up our dreams of glory
and take up the work of doing what is ours to do,
in season and out of season,
in each situation as it arises,
as long as we shall live.
Joseph Campbell said, "That which you seek
lies far back in the darkest corner,
of the cave you most don't want to enter."
It is like dying entering that cave.
And like dying some more to leave that cave
in the service of our own best interest,
living to do what needs us to do it
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
no matter what,
for the rest of our life.
On the one hand we want to, we must,
and on the other hand we don't want to
have anything to do with the price
that must be paid to be who we are.
This is the Yin/Yang of our true nature
coming forth to bless and grace our life
if we will hand over all the glories and promises
of our other life
and do what needs us to do it--
and what we truly need to do--
anyway, nevertheless, even so.
Oh, the agony and wonder of being alive!
Do we have what it takes to do it?
To be alive--fully, wholly, completely alive--
in the times and places of our living?
We live to find out!
Mind how you go!
–0–
03
Leaves 01 02/20/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
The circumstances of our life bring us forth.
We stand up to meet the day
and find exactly what we need
to grow up some more again,
in balancing the contradictions,
contraries, opposites, polarities
and dichotomies
that demand our death
and offer us life
in the field of action that day.
And do it again the next day.
And again the one after that.
Our life elicits our life.
We are born again and again and again,
rising to meet the occasion
in each situation that opens before us,
and finding within ourselves
exactly what we need
to be who we are
then and there,
simply by giving ourselves to our life
and doing what needs to be done there
with the gifts that are ours to serve
and to share.
With no expectation,
no agenda,
and no opinion,
and only the sense
of what is called for here and now
to get--and keep--us going,
like Tevya milking his cow,
like Golda gathering her eggs,
allowing each day to be
exactly what it needs to be,
and doing our part
to complete it and make it so.
Amen! May it be so!
Making our peace with the way things are
seems to be the perennial task of our existence.
It comes down to comforting ourselves
about the circumstances of our life
by telling ourselves whatever works
to keep us going.
We can't make sense of it.
Contradiction and paradox--
yin and yang--
and the mystery at the heart
of life and being
defy our best efforts to explain
things to ourselves
without having to explain our explanation,
and still having the inexplicable to deal with.
But our life calls us to get back in the game
and do what we can with what we have to work with
to make things as good as they can be
in coming up with the wherewithal
to do it again tomorrow.
Why is there hatred and fear and anger and greed...?
I don't know.
Why aren't we more balanced and sane?
I don't know.
Why do people kill people?
I don't know.
The list of questions I don't know how to answer
unfolds endlessly before me,
and I have to get up each day
just as you do
and make the best of what I'm given
to work with
because that's the way things are.
And it makes no sense.
And it is ours to work with as best we can
in doing what needs us to do it
every day,
anyway, nevertheless, even so.
Because that's the way things are.
And if it makes no sense,
it also makes no sense
to give up and quit
because it makes no sense
to get in there and do our thing
anyway, nevertheless, even so.
Besides, we get to enjoy each others' company
this way--
and wouldn't have it if we all just quit.
–0–
02
Canadian Aspen 02 09/28/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
We have what we need to find our way
through this place
with panache and pizzazz.
That's the first thing we have to find.
It takes the right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness,
and the right kind of silence.
The right kind of emptiness
is being empty of everything,
even the desire to be empty.
The right kind of stillness
is trusting ourselves to stillness.
The right kind of silence
is opening ourselves to the silence
with expectant waiting
like a woman waiting to deliver her first child.
Wait like a woman looking for labor pains!
Take up the practice of emptiness, stillness and silence
waiting for the magic to happen,
when it all clicks into place,
and you know the wonder
of having found the doorway
to the storehouse
of all you will ever need along the way.
It's been right there the entire time.
Spend the rest of your life exploring
the world beyond this world,
growing in wonder and amazement,
trust and confidence,
and relishing your growing relationship
with The Other Whom We Do Not Know,
to borrow Carl Jung's name
for the face that was ours before we were born.
The Other is us and we are The Other
and life together is a joy divine.
The reason it takes so long to discover this
is that no one tells us about it
and we have to stumble upon it on our own,
thanks to The Other who never gives up on us,
and always keep trying to wake us up
and get us to turn the light around.
A gyroscope lives from its center.
A thermostat regulates the temperature.
A human balances the contradictions
at work in their life,
maintaining harmony,
sustaining the flow.
Equanimity.
Homeostasis.
Equilibrium.
Stabilize the forces
at work in the moment,
and provide an environment
that is conducive to life
and the true good of all concerned.
We are balancing agents,
making wherever we are a better place to be
by the way we see what's what
and do what needs to be done about it,
one situation at a time.
–0–
02
7:00 AM Ferry to Swan Quarter 10/31/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
We have to find our way
through the wasteland
through the wilderness
to the Grail Castle
and the chance to ask the right question
to break the curse
and restore the kingdom,
putting everything back in place,
and making all things well.
What is the right question?
What is the problem?
What ails thee?
What needs fixing here, now?
What needs to be done?
What needs me to do it?
Here?
Now?
Knowing what the problem is
and being right about it
enables us to know what needs to be done
and do it,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
whether we want to or not,
whether we are in the mood
for it or not,
whether we feel like it or not,
for no other reason
than it needs to be done,
and we need to do it properly,
correctly,
whether we know it or not,
whether we care about it or not,
for the simple joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.
no matter what.
If we get that down,
we will transform the world.
And become the Grail we seek.
The source of blessings and grace
upon all sentient beings.
Everything waits for that.
What are we waiting for?
–0–
03
February Woods 28 11/18/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
The blocks to living aligned with our original nature
are fear
(And its spinoffs, anger and hatred),
desire
(And its spinoffs, greed, jealously, possessiveness, etc.),
duty
(And its obsession with Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not,
should-ought-must, etc.),
and laziness/lethargy/negligence.
We just have get up and do what needs to be done
with the gifts of our original nature
that came with us from the womb--
in each situation as it arises--
whether we feel like it or not.
It is every person's obligation
to themselves,
to every other person
and to all living things.
This is a page holder for the pages that will be published during the month of March, 2022.
Fall Curve, Blue Ridge Park3ay 10/17/2011 — Near Linville Viaduct, North Carolina
We have rituals throughout each day
that establish a particular sequential arrangement
of acts and mechanisms
to order and structure our time.
There are rituals and instruments
that we use to transition from sleeping
to dressing
to eating
to stepping out of the house/apartment/etc.
into the world that awaits us that day.
As there are throughout the day
as we move from the various grouping
of rituals that break the day
into its component parts.
Our rituals order the day,
organize our life,
keep us on track,
so that we don't spend much time
wondering, "Here we are, now what?"
from rising to retiring.
Our orders of the day are sacred unto us,
and we would be quite lost without them,
and when vacations or illness
interrupt our orders of the day,
we notice their absense
and look forward to returning
to the comfort and consolation we draw from them.
We are ritually oriented.
Our life is composed of rituals.
We each have our magic little rites
for dressing and undressing
and moving from one moment to another
and from day to day.
As we take up the practice of
transforming our relationship
with ourselves
and getting to know The Other Within,
we would do well to create a set of rituals
for assisting us in an orderly and regular way
of creating an opening for The Other
to access us,
commune with us
and participate with us
in the work of living intentionally together
in doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises during the day.
The foundational elements of that work
are the right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness
and the right kind of silence.
What rituals and instruments facilitate
the invocation and exhibition of those elements?
What practices might assist us in creating
a proper atmosphere for accessing The Other Within?
What setting would be conducive to the work?
Where might we create a sacred space for the work?
The rituals we formulate around The Meeting Of The Other
will set the time for that apart from the rest of our day,
and establish it as central to what happens in the rest of the day.
And will be ways we honor The Other
and present ourselves to Her/Him in a regular
and dependable way.
And create a foundation for the rest of our life.
There is the authentic
and the inauthentic,
the genuine
and the sham, the fraudulent, the lie.
There is our original nature,
the face that was ours before we were born,
and there is the shoe that does not fit,
the life we are told to live,
the person the culture requires us to be.
What we do to make a living
takes the life right out of us.
And it is our role,
our adventure,
to get the life back into us
by living the life that is our life to live,
and being the authentic,
genuine,
natural,
original human being
that we are born to be.
"We are the sculptor
and we are the stone"
(Alexis Carrel).
And it is time we get to work.
The life that remains to be lived
is what we have to work with,
and there is not a moment to spare.
Our work is to bring ourselves forth
into our life,
and there is no greater contradiction,
contrast,
polarity,
dichotomy
than this one.
We are born into a culture of expections
and restrictions,
limits and possibilities
and ways things have to be done--
never mind what needs to be done.
We step out of the womb into a room filled
with ideas of the right way to be.
We are handed a life from the start
that is somebody else's idea
of the life we are to live.
This is the "primary mask"
that will make the important people
in our life very happy with us.
But (And this is where it gets interesting),
we already have a mask,
that isn't a mask at all,
but a "face that was ours before we were born"
just dying for a chance to show its stuff
to the world.
This is the "antithetical mask"
that is against all the ideas the culture
will try to sell us throughout our life
(The terms "primary" and "antithetical"
originate with Y.B. Yeats),
And we have to decide from the start--
and again and again throughout our life--
whose side we are on.
And make the adjustments that are
constantly required to accommodate ourselves
to what is expected of us by our external environment
and by our internal makeup.
This is Yin/Yang to the core,
and our place is to balance the opposites,
to harmonize the contraries,
and make peace with the polarities,
in light of William Blake's observation,
"Without contraries is no progression!"
Our original nature clashes with the circumstances
of time and place.
We are born for this and we have to do that
to pay the bills.
What are we going to do?
We have to work it out.
This is hell and it is heaven.
It will kill us and it will restore us to life.
It is the thing that is ours to do,
that we must do while the light lasts.
Throw everything into finding the life that is
authentically, genuinely, your life to live,
and find ways to live it
in and around the things you do to pay the bills.
Negotiation and compromise, Kid.
Negotiation and compromise.
How you do it is up to you,
but do it, you must.
And the time to start is now.
What is yours to do?
What is your life to live?
How are you going to do it?
Those are your questions to answer
in the way you live your life.
I suggest taking all of your questions
with you into the right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness
and the right kind of silence,
and trusting yourself
to what you find waiting for you there.
And let the adventure unfold before you
as you endeavor to live it day by day
through all the days of your life.
–0–
02
Canyonlands 06/20/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah
"The adventure we get
is the adventure we are ready for"
(Joseph Campbell).
If we are not on an adventure
it is because we aren't ready for it,
and didn't have what it takes
every time the train left the station.
That doesn't mean we will never have an adventure--
our life is our adventure,
and it is waiting for us to live it
the way it needs to be lived.
Are you up for it is the question.
All of our adventures require us to
have the courage to say yes
to what is being asked of us.
Looking back over my life,
I can spot the places
where I had the courage to do
what was being asked of me,
and where I did not have the courage.
And that alone is the sole determinant
bringing me to this place in this time.
The same thing can be said for you.
What we have the courage for
at any point in our life
is the fulcrum levering our future
into place.
Do not get down on yourself
for not having the courage to do
what comes along!
If you had thrown yourself into it
that would have been the tragedy,
or the comedy,
that knocked you out of being here, now.
We have to say yes to the life we are living
even if that means saying no
to the opportunity that is before us
in any moment.
Saying yes to our lack of courage
shuts out one future and opens up another.
And here we are.
Now what?
Now we do what we have the courage for
in this time and place,
and see where it goes.
Letting our courage be our guide
through all the days left for living.
Chaplin’s Lake Sunset 07/18/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, Louisiana
There are so many ways of missing the point.
Of missing the way.
Of not getting it.
And then, there is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
and the people of Ukraine.
If they can get it right,
why can't everybody?
–0–
02
Fall Woods 16 02/16/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
It is raining and 34 degrees outside.
I am inside with a fire and a cup of coffee.
My idea of a perfect day,
of perfection generally.
It is 6:10 AM.
I've been up since 4:35.
Because I can't wait to see
what the day has to offer.
It is always something.
I am never disappointed.
It has taken all these years--
today is my 78th next-to-last-day-of-February--
to be where I am.
I am amazed that it has taken this long.
And wish I had been more aware
of things as they are
all the way from then to now.
Just looking,
just watching,
just seeing,
just knowing,
just making connections,
looking deeper,
seeing more,
seeing beyond assumptions
and inferences,
wants and desires
to know what's happening
and what needs to happen in response,
and being right about it,
and doing it
with the gifts that are mine
to serve and share,
moment by moment,
day by day,
cooperating with my life
and allowing it to carry me
to where I need to be
all along the way.
I started participating in my life
in that way in the mid-1970's,
and have been growing in my ability to do it,
consciously, reliably, dependably,
since then.
I'm getting better at it,
at letting my life have its way with me,
and enjoying the process
of seeing what is happening
and seeing what I do about it,
how I respond to it,
and where things go from there.
I do better in an atmosphere
of low noise, drama and complexity,
and am working on my ability to drop into
that kind of environment
no matter where I am
simply by observing things as they are
without judgment, agenda or opinion--
just letting things be
like that tree on the hill,
and that cow in the pasture,
and this line of traffic
that is not moving at all.
Having no will in the matter
beyond willing myself to have no will in the matter
has gotten me here, now.
I wish I had started earlier
having this attitude about things.
I wouldn't likely be in a much different place,
here and now,
but the trip here would have been smoother,
with fewer dead ends,
and fewer regrets about missing what I missed,
and doing what I've done,
forcing things that had no business being.
The rain is gentle and steady,
the fire is a comfort,
the coffee is a great companion,
and I am glad to be here, now,
ready for what is coming,
which will be making bread pudding
in its time.
–0–
03
Vertical Cedar 01 11/18/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Live like you care how you live!
How would you live if you did care how you lived?
How differently would you live
if you cared how you lived?
Where is it most apparent that you don't care?
That you are just going through the motions?
Just waiting for something to care about?
For something to mean something to you?
Wishing something would?
Fake it!
Live as though your life matters to you!
What would you do if your life mattered to you?
Do it!
Do it like it matters to you!
Live in ways that exhibit/express/reveal/incarnate
your original nature.
Who are you naturally?
What is your shtick?
Your drift?
Your inclination?
Your bent?
Your way?
Give way to that!
Let your natural leaning
direct your actions.
How differently would you live?
If you lived from the inside out?
Instead of from the outside in?
Gauging how you should act
in order to position yourself
for the greatest advantage/gain?
Hoping to please the right people
and have it made?
Who do you live to please?
If you lived to please you,
how differently would you live?
Live to find your natural self
and to be comfortable in the life you are living.
How would you go about doing that?
Go about doing that.
Full Frame at the Beach 11/01/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
"There is nothing to it
but to do it" (Maya Angelou).
And that's the hardest thing to do.
Nothing.
Try to do nothing.
Try being empty in the right kind of way.
How long can you sit
in the stillness and the silence?
How long can you wait?
How long before
"This isn't getting it done!"
and on to something else?
How long can you wait out
having to do something, anything,
but nothing?
DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING!
SIT THERE!
You and Nothing.
Here and Now.
You and the awareness of nothing,
here and now.
"There's nothing to it
but to do it."
For as long as it takes
to be good at it.
The Jon Kabat-Zinn YouTube videos
(The shortest ones first)
will take your mind off
needing to do something.
–0–
Dead Horse Point 01 09/23/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Dead Horse Canyon State Park, Moab, Utah
If you can buy it with money,
it isn’t worth having,
and it won’t last long.
Invest in the things money can’t buy.
That is the way!
Live your life in the service
of things worth having!
A life grounded in,
and centered on,
the things money can't buy
is a life worth living.
How many of those things
do you have in your life?
Live to have more,
and to give them away!
We can't have too much, too many,
of the things money can't buy!
Invest in them!
Give them away!
Relish and rejoice in them all every day!
–0–
03
February Woods 09 11/16/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Dreams are projective devices
useful for "reading" what's what
with us and our life,
and what we need to do about it.
Carl Jung said, "There is within each of us
another whom we do not know."
Dreams are a way of communing with The Other Within.
Think of The Other as our Original Nature,
who we are naturally,
as we would be before the world of
normal, concrete, apparent reality
inserts itself into our private personal world
of the womb and the other side of the womb,
shortly after birth.
We are separated at birth
from the world of inner truth
and forced to find our way
in the world of external truth.
A tree doesn't have to be educated
to live in the environment
the tree is born into.
It lives its entire life true to itself.
A tree is always "thus come,"
"just as it is," in the world of external reality.
It is much the same with lions
and lambs,
whales and gophers.
They are individuals apart from their kind,
but do not not experience (so far as we know)
shame for being who they are,
barring extrinsic physical deformities.
Their intrinsic differences do not set them apart.
We can't be left-handed in some cultures.
We can't be female in some cultures.
We have to learn to fit in in all cultures,
denying who we are in favor of who
we are supposed to be.
Makes us crazy.
All the while we are learning to wear
the social mask,
we are also carrying within
"the face that was ours before we were born."
When do we get to "wear" that face in public?
It's a problem.
Always we struggle with two identities,
with not fitting in the world of normal, apparent reality.
We have parents and culture to teach us
how to live in the external world.
No one says anything to us about being
aligned with, in sync with, the internal world.
We have to figure that out on our own.
We have to meet and develop a proper relationship with
The Other who lives within.
Projective devices assist us in listening to The Other.
The Other Within doesn't have language
the way we have language.
Symbols, intuition, instinct, hunches, nudges and realization are the operative forms of communication there.
We have to learn the language of The Other Within.
Dreams and symbols are projective devices
that elicit/evoke chains/trains of association.
This reminds us of that,
connects us with that,
leads us from here to there,
bringing insight, connection and realization
to life in transforming our world
through the influence of The Other World,
the natural world, the spiritual world
that is our home,
where we come from
and to which we return
as mind being welcomed by mind,
as the moved being received by the mover.
And the more of that world
we can access in this world,
the more resources we have to work with
in maintaining our balance and harmony,
our integrity and sincerity,
our spirit, energy and vitality,
and enjoying the wonder and radiance
of that world within this world.
And the better things are for all of us.
World without end (That's The Other World
I'm talking about).
Amen.
The Trawler Capt. Garland 10/27/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Where is the incentive to live
with all our heart in what we are doing?
To live like a dog wags its tail?
Like a child with an ice cream cone gets to work?
What is keeping us from living that way?
Giving our best moment-to-moment?
Not holding anything back
because what we are doing is that important?
Why isn't it that important?
What are we waiting for?
When do we start living a though it matters
how we live?
What are we waiting for?
When are we going to stop waiting
and get to work?
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02
Mossy Boulders 05/04/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Greenbrier District, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cosby, Tennessee
Carl Jung said,
"A hermit is a primitive person
who trusts their unconscious."
A primitive person is an original person,
a natural person,
a genuine human being.
One who lives from the heart
sees what they look at,
are what they are,
coming forth as one thus come
in each situation as it arises
to do what needs to be done there,
say what needs to be said there,
ask what needs to be asked there,
to startle and amaze,
balance and harmonize,
stabilize and orient,
the moment,
moment by moment,
as an innocent fool,
or a crusty old curmudgeon,
as the occasion requires,
in the service of radiance and wonder,
with nothing at stake in their actions
beyond the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it
the way they do it,
all their life long.
If you are going to live at all,
why not live like that,
as a blessing and a grace
upon all who come your way
forever?
Why hold anything back?
What is to be gained
by not being yourself
instead of being yourself
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
by rising to meet the occasion,
in every occasion that comes along?
Simple.
Reliable.
Timely.
Essential.
The missing element
in life as we experience it.
Exactly what is needed.
Here and now.
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03
Fall Woods 10 11/16/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
"The world is too much with us, late and soon"
(William Wordsworth).
From beginning to end.
Because we make it so.
Captured as we are between gain and pain,
with nothing left but drama,
chase scenes
shoot-outs
sex, drugs and alcohol
to choose from.
It is too much for us.
We long to lay down our burden,
but then what?
Our burden is all we know,
and there is a long way to go yet.
Our life is the Sisyphean Task,
up the hill with the rock,
and down the hill following the rock,
back up the hill with the rock
that is our life.
For what?
The next time the rock is at the bottom,
find the shady side
and sit for a while,
practicing the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and creating the right kind of distance
between yourself and every other thing.
Reflecting distance.
Sit in the silence and wait
"for the mud to settle and the water to clear"
(An old Taoist prescription).
And for something to stir to life,
calling something to spring to mind
out of nowhere.
Take it as sign,
and turn it over,
walk around it,
take it with you as a talisman,
as you walk through your days,
pondering its meaning,
exploring its relationship with you,
seeking the gift it offers,
the message it bears,
following where it leads
for the stark lack of anything better to do.
And see where it goes.
The Ghost Trees of Boneyard Beach 01/28/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve, Edisto Island, South Carolina
We go without weapons into
the deed that must be done
in each situation as it arises.
As vulnerable as a baby in a manger,
or a man on a cross.
Looking only for what we need
to do what needs us to do it.
That's all Aristotle had,
and Jesus,
and Gandhi,
and Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and Medgar Evers,
and Malcolm X...
The list is long of people
who gave themselves to the work
that was theirs to do
without thought of merit or gain,
without caring what their chances were,
saying yes to what needed them to do it,
never minding the outcome,
just doing the work,
and being glad to do it.
The work always needs doing.
Those who make it necessary are many.
Those who do it are few.
All it takes is everything.
All the time.
Of course, there is a catch.
You can't do it without having to.
You can't be talked into it.
You can't be talked out of it.
It's just there and you know it,
or know it not.
Just as the wand chooses the wizard,
so the work chooses the worker.
Each worker to their own work.
We are born for what we do.
And live to know what we know
and do what is ours to do,
with all our heart, and mind
and soul and strength.
Just like it ought to be,
without caring what our chances are.
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02
February Woods 26 11/18/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Do what needs to be done
without agenda or opinion.
Without waiting to want to
or feel like it.
Live to let it be automatic,
spontaneous,
in response to the situation
as it arises.
See it. Do it.
What needs to be done.
Time will tell whether
you were right or wrong.
Learning to accurately access
what needs to be done
develops with time.
Experience anticipates action.
Reads the situation and knows
what's what and what's coming.
And acts accordingly
in light of what is needed
and is likely to be needed.
What we want is irelevent
to the situation as it arises
and has arisen,
to the task at hand.
Read the moment
and respond to it as it is,
regardless of what you want,
or what you hope to get
from doing something other
than what needs to be done.
Doing whatever it takes to get something
hinges on whether the something
is what we want or what is needed/necessary.
Learning the difference between
want and need
is a significant step
on the way to responsible living.
May we all live knowing what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
moment-to-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day!
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03
Round-lobed Hepatica 04 11/17/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-axer Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Do it like Chauncey Gardner (Being There)
would do it!
Do it like Tevya (Fiddler on the Roof)
would do it!
Do it like Jesus would do it!
Do it like YOU would do it!
Live from your heart!
Be true to yourself in each situation as it arises!
Live in ways that harmonize Yin and Yang,
making the peace,
finding the balance,
equalizing opposites,
squaring contradictions,
integrating polarities,
easing the tension,
and smoothing the path
through all circumstances,
conditions,
and contexts
all along the way!
Bearing the pain,
doing the work,
anyway, nevertheless, even so,
as though it matters--
as though there is nothing better to do.
Because it does matter.
Because there is nothing better to do.
Moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day,
all our life long!
Swan Quarter Mooring 10/27/2012 B&W Oil Paint Rendered — Swan Quarter, Hyde County, North Carolina
Our life elicits our original nature
if we let it.
We interfere with the natural process
at work in the unfolding of ourselves
within the life we are living
by having desires that are at cross purposes
with the flow of life and being
in accord with the Tao,
the Way of Life and Being.
We can live in the service of our wants,
of what we perceive to be our advantage,
our merit,
our gain,
our benefit,
when our actual benefit, etc.,
is realized through the process of maturation
resulting in the alignment of ourselves
with our original nature,
producing wisdom, integrity, compassion, grace,
kindness, gentleness, generosity, etc.
which are the marks of original, authentic,
genuine, natural human beings--
which was the mark of the Buddha,
and the Christ,
and many others who have preceded us along the way.
Our life calls for our original nature to be displayed
through the gifts, shtick, daemon, genius, etc.
that came with us from the womb
for us to serve and to share
in doing what needs to be done in each situation
as it arises.
But we see each situation as a place for us to exploit
for what we take to be our own good--
and don't we see that going on everywhere we look, though?
We have to turn the light around,
and realize that we are here for the good
of our situations.
Our situations are not here for the good of us.
Once we get things in the right order,
they fall into place
and life becomes what it is capable of being,
the place of the realization of ourselves
in the work that is ours to do
for the good of one another
and every living thing.
But, like Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden,
we have our own ideas of how things ought to be,
and spend our time chasing fame and fortune
while the time for our becoming and being
ticks away.
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02
Round-lobed Hepatica 05 02-18-2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Wait, what?
That's all it takes to turn things around.
Turning around turns things around.
Wait, what? Turns things around.
Just stopping.
Just looking.
Just seeing.
Just hearing.
Just comprehending.
Just understanding.
Just knowing.
Turns things around.
Wait, what?
Brings us face-to-face
with the situation as it arises,
as it is.
Here and now.
And that includes ourselves
as witness
and as participant.
Seeing ourselves as witness
and as participant
in this here, this now,
removes us ever so slightly
from the situation
and invites us to examine
what's what
with ourselves
and with our situation.
It is called getting to the bottom of things.
At the bottom is the grounding foundation
of ourselves
and of the situation.
What's up with that?
What has become of our foundation?
Of the foundational assumptions
undergirding the situation?
Holding things up?
Keeping things in place?
What is our ground?
Our foundation?
The adamantine source
of our life and being?
Our original nature?
The things that make us us?
Who are we?
What are we about?
What do we know to be so about us?
Who do we live to be in the world,
in ever situation as it arises?
What do we turn to
when we have nowhere to turn?
What can we count on from us?
From ourselves?
The truest truth about us is what?
At the rock-solid ground of you is what?
Wait, what?
Grounds you in you.
And enables you to be what the situation
needs and is calling for,
the foundation of the sutation
depends on our being grounded upon
our own foundation,
the dependable, trustworthy, reliable
aspects of ourselves
that have been with us--
that have been us--
from the start.
Return to your gifts,
your shtick,
your knacks,
your genius,
your daemon,
your "you."
Live from there.
Drop into the right kind of emptiness--
emptying yourself of all the complexity and noise
that interferes with you being you
here and now.
Be with you here and now.
Live from there.
Trusting yourself to be who you are.
Listening, looking, seeing, hearing,
knowing, doing, being.
Here and now.
Moment to moment.
In each situation as it arises.
Turning the light around,
and living from your own center,
ground, foundation.
Exhibiting your original nature.
Calming the world.
By your response to the moment,
here and now.
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03
Walnut Tree in the Fog 10/13/2003 Oil Paint Rendered — Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
The United States Government
is not who it pretends to be.
It is not for liberty and justice for all.
It is not for democracy
if that be a government
of the people,
by the people,
for the people.
It is a government
of the wealthy people
by the wealthy people
for the wealthy people.
Of the white people,
by the white people,
for the white people.
Of the conservative people,
by the conservative people,
for the conservative people.
The rest of the people
can get by however they can.
The government is not here
to empower them.
They are on their own there.
And the deck is stacked against them.
We are left with finding ways
to make our life work
with the government making that difficult
at every turn.
Our work is to find ways
to make our life work.
It won't be easy,
but it must be done.
We have to know what our work is,
what the work is that we are here to do,
and find ways of being true to our work,
of doing our work,
throughout the time left for living.
We empower ourselves
by believing in our work,
and doing it
"with every fiber of our being,"
including heart and soul,
every day,
all the way.
Create your support community
and as "Red Redding" would say,
"Get busy living or get busy dying."
We are all we have,
and it is up to us.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 