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?
The Grove 01 Panorama O1/29/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — ACE National Wildlife Refuge, Hollywood, South Carolina
I don't know what your ambitions are,
but you can't do better
than being an original human being.
A woman or a man who is "one just come,"
right out of the womb, so to speak,
to be just who they are
in each situation as it arises,
with no agendas,
no expectations,
no opinions,
just seeing what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
in conjunction with it,
for the true good of all concerned.
Wisdom, integrity, grace and compassion
coming to life in each situation as it arises
embodies in those who are being themselves
in response to the moment,
like children in a sandbox,
like dancers on a dance floor,
like a dog wagging its tail.
For no reason other than
that's what needs to be done.
–0–
02
Vertical Cedar 01 02/18/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
One of the best things you can do for yourself
is to be aware of your contradictions.
Mississippi Delta farmers--and farmers everywhere else--
killed the land they loved,
and the ponds they fished in,
and the people who worked for them,
and themselves,
using the pesticides and herbicides
they used to make a living,
and were--are--a contradiction in terms
of who they are and what they do.
So is everyone else.
We say this and do that.
Republicans who made such a deal
about standing for the flag
do not stand for what the flag stands for
and do not notice the blatant contradiction.
NOTICE YOUR CONTRADICTIONS!
And do everything you can
to be who you say you are.
You won't be able to do enough.
"Life Eats Life."
Not even Vegans can avoid that contradiction.
Whatever we eat requires the death
of what we eat.
We eat what was once alive
and probably would be alive
if we weren't eating it.
Life is a dance with contradictions.
The least we can do is notice it,
know it,
be aware of it,
acknowledge it,
and allow it to inform
our actions
and fuel our humility and compassion
for all sentient beings
laboring as we do together
under the harsh requirements of being alive.
Nags Head 10/03/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Outer Banks, North Carolina
Our hope is in our own ability
to stand up and face the day,
and that means eventually
standing up and facing
our inability to face the day on our own.
My agility, stability, flexibility and mobility
are becoming distant memories,
and I'm squaring up to
life on a different basis
than the one I've been accustomed to.
And my hope is in my ability to do that.
My adaptability is every bit
as dependable as it ever has been.
That is one thing that improves with age,
because of all the practice we get as we age!
The work is the same as ever.
We find what needs to be done
and do it to the best of our ability
with what we have to work with
and let that be that.
That does not change over time.
Once we get that down,
we have it made.
Stand up.
Meet the day.
Adjustment and accommodation, Kid.
Adjustment and accommodation.
–0–
02
February Woods 03 02/11/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Our work is growing up.
Growing up changes us
in all of the important ways.
We unfold before our eyes,
doing things we didn't know
we were capable of doing.
Surprising ourselves at every turn.
and there be many turns
on the way to being who we are.
Each turn challenges us
in a different way,
forcing us to rise to meet
another occasion.
No wonder Adam and Eve
said to hell with it
and took the easier path
to escape and denial,
fantasy and illusion,
and profit at any price.
The road not taken
is the way of seeing what needs to be done
and doing it the way it needs to be done
with the gifts we bring to the table
and letting that be that
and on to the next thing that needs to be done.
It doesn't sound like much,
but it will flat grow you up.
Pull you forth.
Show you a thing or two
about who you are
and who you are capable of being
even yet
all the way
to the realization
that we have what it takes
to do whatever is required
to meet the day
every day
with a smile,
and a "I was hoping
I would get to do this today!"
Fire in the Sky 09/27/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Abbot Lake, Peaks of Otter, Blue Ridge Parkway, Bedford, VA
It matters what we do and how we do it.
That may be the only thing that matters.
Get that down, and what remains to be done?
Too many people are wrong
about what they think is right.
As long as people can be wrong
about what they think is right,
we will have problems determining what to do.
At least, most people are still
stopping on red and going on green,
and four-way stop intersections
are flowing smoothly
with everyone keeping up
with who's turn it is.
They are continuing to observe
the most democratic self-governing
endeavor known to humankind,
queuing up and standing in line.
Round-a-bouts work.
No one is leading protests
over having to use postage stamps.
I don't see anyone driving off
without paying for their gasoline.
What's with all the vitriol?
The rancor?
The hatred?
It matters what we do and how we do it.
It is the only thing that matters.
When we refuse to make a good-faith effort
to be right about what we say is right,
we contribute to the collapse of culture and society.
But we continue to stop at stop signs.
Why not carry that over into all of life?
What is so hard about that?
It matters how we live wherever we are,
whatever we are doing!
Treat everything as though it were a line at the theater!
And be right about what you say is right!
–0–
02
Horizontal Cedar 02/18/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
It is enough,
just being who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are,
why we are,
what we are.
We don't need more
than a perspective
that takes it all
into account,
and lets it be
because it is.
Just by being who we are--
true to our original nature--
glad to be alive
as an original, natural,
human being--
we redeem it all
by knowing it all
and how it is
and what it is
and what, and how, it could have been,
might have been,
if it had been as content
to be itself
as lions and whales,
and cedar trees, etc.,
are content to be themselves,
without aspirations
and agendas
which include killing
all who get in our way.
We redeem the insanity
by bearing it consciously
and shamefully, sorrowfully,
with us through the days,
saying, "This, too. This, too.
Must be seen, acknowledged, borne."
We cannot escape who we are,
and who we also are.
And we who can live to redeem
we who cannot,
by seeing and saying,
doing and being,
what is good and what is not.
What is right and what is wrong.
And living as witnesses
to the difference between
the way things are
and the way things might have been,
could have been
without aspirations and agendas
getting in the way.
–0–
03
February Woods 17 11/16/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
The wrong kind of emptiness
is what people have in mind
when they say, "I feel so empty!"
Which generally means they are not in love
and wish they were.
No one in love feels empty in this sense.
when it is all dark and dismal,
hopeless, meaningless, sad, dreary,
gloomy, depressing, fear and anxiety ridden,
and a generally terrible place to be.
That is the wrong kind of emptiness.
It is not empty at all.
It is full of all the things we dread and hate,
and want to be rid of and far away from forever.
Enter the right kind of emptiness.
The right kind of emptiness is filled also,
with nothing.
The right kind of emptiness is empty of everything,
even the desire to be empty.
No emotions, no duty, no desire.
Nothing.
You can experience this kind of emptiness
by breathing normally for three rounds
of inhale and exhale.
Then, with the fourth inhale,
draw it in deeply to the bottom of your lungs,
extending your stomach
and fully expanding your diaphragm,
then release it slowly,
drawing your stomach in toward your spine
to expel all the air,
pause for a count of seven
before inhaling.
Repeat this process for two more breaths,
making a total of three.
On the third breath,
when you pause for a seven count,
your mind will be empty in the right kind of way.
None of the normal noise that clogs your thinking
will be in your way.
You are in the silence between breaths.
Your work is to expand that quality of emptiness
beyond a count of seven.
When you get to the point in your practice
of being able to drop into emptiness
just by dropping into emptiness
at any point throughout your day,
you will have achieved the distinction
of being able to be empty in the right kind of way,
which is the position of power
in that it opens you to stillness and silence
which form a holy trinity
of emptiness, stillness and silence
which is the waiting posture
for apprehending insight, realization, awareness,
stirring to life and springing to mind
from the unconscious regions,
offering you content for reflection and meditation,
and creating possibilities for adventure
unlike anything available on infomercials
and travel brochures.
Dead Horse Point 10-11-2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Dead Horse Canyon State Park, Moab, Utah
The tasks of life must be attended.
The stages of life must be completed.
Our Great Idea is to opt out of both.
It started with Adam and Eve,
which are totally imaginary and symbolic,
expressing as they do
the essence, the heart, of being human,
the legacy of humanity through the ages:
"Avoid the drudgery and the boredom--
look for the action and go for the gusto!
every time!"
Democracy is one scam,
one con,
one racket after another.
It was designed to be an atmosphere,
an environment,
conducive to attending the tasks of life,
of completing the stages of life,
but it quickly turned into
one scam/con/racket after another,
until here we are
with democracy having nothing to offer
beyond the dream/fantasy
of being laid,
being high
and being rich.
Who wants more than that from democracy?
What else is democracy good for
beyond the hope of being laid,
being high
and being rich?
That's Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,
saying, "There has to be more to it than this!"
And all we have come up with through the ages
is being laid,
being high
and being rich.
Chunk 'em all, I say,
and go back to attending the tasks of life
and completing the stages of life,
which are the two things anybody can do
and nobody wants anything to do with.
The tasks of life come down to the task at hand.
What is being asked of us here and now?
What is called for in this moment
in this situation
right here, right now?
Do it!
The way it needs to be done!
Moment by moment.
All your life long.
Can you imagine anything worse than that?
Well, look around.
The world as it is is worse than that
by any standard of measure.
And getting worse,
moment by moment--
because no one is minding the store
and taking care of the business at hand.
The teachers can't teach.
The cops can't keep the peace.
The politicians can't honor their oaths of office.
We can't depend on anybody for anything,
and they can't depend on us,
because all everybody wants
is getting laid,
getting high
and getting rich.
The cure is to be-here-now,
see what needs to be done
and do it the way it needs to be done.
Moment-by-moment.
All our life long.
That's the message Jesus came to deliver.
We showed him.
–0–
02
The Bench 10/11/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
We live in the service of diversion,
distraction, denial.
No one wants anything to do
with the truth of existence,
the reality of being alive.
SameoldSameold.
HumdrumHumdrum.
Booorrrrriiinnnggg!!!
We don't know what we want,
but we know this isn't it.
No one wants to be who they are,
where they are,
when they are.
What does wanting know?
Only, "Not this! Not this! Not this!..."
What's the most courageous thing in the world?
Being here, now,
and doing what needs to be done here, now,
the way it needs to be done,
one moment after another.
It's called "Taking care of business."
And we don't want to have
anything to do with it.
It just isn't our thing.
See how long you can do it,
just doing what is called for
moment by moment,
starting right now.
What needs to be done?
Do it the way it needs to be done.
And then do the next thing that needs to be done.
And the next.
See how many things you get done
before you say, "Enough of this!"
And get back to diversion, distraction, denial.
Barbed Wire 01 02/17/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
How does Tevya (Fiddler on the Roof) make it in New York
without his horse and wagon,
cow and chickens,
his children and his community?
Tevya and Golda step off the boat
and into a land that is foreign on all levels.
The language, the money, the noise, the concrete and steel...
If only they had the right kind of friends,
but it would take friends like they are
to help them find the way amid the madness
of life in their new (Can it ever be?) home.
But wait!
They DO have themselves!
If they work out a new relationship
with themselves,
they can find exactly what they need
to be fulfilled and triumphant and joyful
right where they are!
They have what it takes!
They only need to realize that and find it
within themselves.
By forging a new relationship with the Other within!
Relying on the strengths they have,
the gifts/genius/daemon/talents/abilities/etc.
that have always been a part of who they are,
they can create the kind of atmosphere
they need to find
in the center of New York Center.
And as it is with them,
so it is with you and me!
We have what we need--
we only need to transform
our relationship with ourselves
to know it is so,
and find what we need
by being what we need
in the way we live our life
and rely on ourselves
to dance with our circumstances
as we step into
each situation as it arises
and calls us to rise to the occasion
and do what needs to be done
with the gifts/etc. of our original nature
coming to life,
and to light,
as the context of each moment
elicits and calls forth who we are
in that moment,
and miracles happen one moment after another,
so that where we are becomes better
for our being there,
and everyone benefits from the compassion
and grace of our presence.
It only takes living it to know that it is so!
To know that we are Tevya and Golda
moving to America,
and we have been here all our life--
which gives us an advantage they didn't have!
–0–
02
February Woods 20 11/16/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
We look for what needs to be done
and do it
with the gifts/daemon/genius/talents/abilities/virtues/etc.
we have to serve and share,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long--
without thinking about what's in it for us,
or when it is going to be our turn,
or "What about ME?".
We do it because it needs to be done
and we have gifts/etc. to serve and to share,
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it.
Our gifts/etc. are dying to come to life in us
through the way we respond to each situation.
Our situations elicit,
call forth,
our innate capacities and capabilities.
There is more to us all than meets the eye,
any eye,
waiting for its chance to shine.
And the conditions and circumstances of our life
need what we have to offer.
Everything waits for us to be who we are,
offering what we have to give
to the time and place of our living.
What are we waiting for?
February Woods 04 11/16/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
What grounds you,
centers you,
stabilizes you,
orients you,
focuses you,
and enables you to go on?
What are the destabilizing forces
at work in your life?
What do you do--
where do you go--
to return to the source,
regain your equilibrium,
get your feet back under you
relocate the path,
recover your sense of direction
and purpose
and return to the work
that is legitimately your work to do?
Where do you turn
when you have nowhere to turn?
What do you turn to
when you have lost your bearings
and your lodestar,
are in freefall
with nothing to serve as sanctuary
and oasis?
What is your plan
when planning is meaningless?
If you have been with me
for as long as fifteen minutes,
you know what I am going to suggest.
Repeat the mantra with me:
Return to the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence,
and wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,
emptying yourself of all that stirs up
fear and anxiety,
hopelessness and despair,
anger and hatred...
letting it all go
into the silence
and wait for the centering realization,
the grounding vision,
the call to action
in the service of what needs to be done,
even here,
even now,
even yet...
compelling you to rise
and get to work,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so.
Mind how you go,
and may it be well with you
along the way.
–0–
02
Sunup 10/10/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — From Boulder Beach, Otter Point, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine
We all need a sounding board.
A sounding board who can listen/hear you
to the truth of what you are saying.
Since very few of us have one of those,
I recommend talking to yourself,
or writing notes to yourself,
and listening intently to what you have to say.
The worst thing to do
is to talk only with/to people
who just repeat the standard formulas--
and only allow the right things to be said.
Evangelical Christianity is great
at being terrible in this way.
Any Doctrine is a terrible doctrine--
a doctrine being a way of seeing
that disallows all other ways of seeing.
The scientific orientation at its best
is the best approach to hearing
what we are saying.
Question everything.
Explore everything.
Examine everything.
Get to the bottom of everything.
Find the limits of everything.
Uncover the contradictions, the conflicts,
the dichotomies, the polarities.
Find what is sacrosanct
and call it into question.
Ransack the holy of hollies.
Plunder the sacred assumptions.
Call everything out into the light
of inquiry and investigation.
Ask the questions that beg to be asked.
Say what cries out to be said.
Leave no stone unturned.
No statement unchallenged.
No belief unexamined.
See what's what about it all.
Explore where to go from there.
Particularly with everything you say,
assume,
infer,
and take for granted.
Get to the bottom of you!
All the time!
Everyday!
And if that leaves you sitting empty,
in the stillness and silence,
that's the idea!
Sit there and see what occurs to you!
Allow your reflections
to lead you to new realizations--
and reflect on them!
Allow your questions to lead you
to better questions!
Treat every answer as a step
on the way to a better question!
Don't leave any answer unquestioned!
Always ask the followup question!
Always!
Ponder YOU!
Forever!
–0–
03
Woods Crocus 02/07/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Greensboro, North Carolina
What keeps you going?
You live in the service of what?
Who are you?
What are you about?
What is yours to do
in the time left for living?
If you couldn't do it,
what would you do?
What keeps you going?
These are essential questions
that only you can answer.
No one can tell you the answer.
It is yours to know on your own.
What is your grounding/centering symbol?
What stands for you as you?
The quintessential you?
What captures/reflects/expresses
the core/heart of you to you?
A question mark would do it for me.
I am the answer to the question of me.
I live to know who I am.
To be who I am.
We do not know this intellectually,
by thinking about it.
We know it existentially.
We live our way to the answer
to the question of who we are.
We show ourselves who we are
through the process of being alive.
Joseph Campbell said,
"It took the Cyclops
to bring out the hero in Ulysses."
Our life brings out the essence
of who we are.
Our life is perfectly designed
to bring us to life in our life.
We always have exactly what we need
to bring out who we are
in response to what is happening,
by doing what is called for.
Doing what is called for
brings us forth to meet
what needs to be done.
We meet ourselves meeting
what the occasion calls for.
WE are called for in every occasion.
We meet ourselves in how we answer the call.
Occasion after occasion,
situation by situation,
moment by moment.
By rising to the occasion,
and doing what is called for,
when it is called for,
the way it is called for,
occasion by occasion.
We are the answer to the question
of who we are.
We live our way to the answer,
moment by moment,
situation by situation,
occasion by occasion.
Who have you shown yourself to be
through all the occasions
that have come your way
up to here, now?
What symbol captures who you have been
up to here, now?
What symbol do you think it will be
going forward?
Who have you been called to be
that you have yet to be?
What needs to be done
that you have yet to do?
We live our way to the answers to those questions.
Live on!
Live on!
Round-lobed Hepatica 02 02/10/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — Indian Land, South Carolina
We find our rhythm,
our balance
and our stride,
and step into each situation
as it arises,
see what's what
and what needs to be done about it
and do what can be done
with the gifts we bring to the moment,
and let that be that.
Reading the moment and responding to it
in ways appropriate to the occasion
is all that is asked of us ever.
One moment at a time.
This is not too hard.
Babies do it.
Small children do it.
Jesus did it.
We can do it.
Begin with the next moment that comes along.
–0–
02
February Woods 01 02/11/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Greed is the source of all our problems.
Wanting what we have no business having.
Having more than we know what to do with.
Capitalism is greed gone amok.
Here we are.
Now what?
We could do worse than seeking out
the right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness,
the right kind of silence,
and waiting for something to stir to life within
to offer the right kind of realization
and the right kind of direction
to lead us to the right kind of life.
Nothing changes until we do.
We have always wanted
things to be better
with nothing being different.
How different are we willing to be?
How different can we be?
We live to find out.
By taking up the practice of
the right kind of emptiness,
the right kind of stillness,
the right kind of silence.
Our guides along the way
are balance and harmony,
sincerity, integrity, spontaneity,
energy, spirit and vitality.
Keeping an eye in these eight guides
and living consciously between
the contradictions/polarities of our life
puts us at "the still point of the turning world"
(T.S. Eliot)
between the Yin and Yang of existence,
where we do the work of bringing life to life
in each situation as it arises
in service to the true good of the whole--
with no idea of merit, gain, advantage, reward.
Which makes no sense
until we begin to do it,
in a "thinking follows action" kind of way.
Nobody can tell us what to do,
or even how to know
what the right kind of emptiness,
stillness and silence is.
Everything waits for us
to open ourselves
to what is waiting.
Which makes no sense
until we do it
as though it matters what we do
and how we do it.
–0–
03
Urban Landscape 02/12/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — Charlotte, North Carolina
My last name has nothing to do with currency.
It is the Americanization of the Scottish word "Dolor,"
which sounds a lot like "Dolla,"
and came about (As I imagine it)
when my ancestors as immigrants to the New World
grew tired of being shamed for
not knowing how to spell their name,
said something on the order of "What the hell?"
and adopted "dollaR" as their own.
"Dolor" means pain, suffering, grief, loss and sorrow,
and goes back to the suicide of a princess
of Campbell Castle over a lost love.
In commemoration of her death,
the glen around the castle became known as Dolor/Dollar Glen,
and my male ancestors became known as "A man of Dolor."
As "a man of Dolor," I have an intimate
connection with the Suffering Servant of Isiah,
who was "a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief,"
and, as such, I can tell you
that the key to dealing with grief, loss and sorrow
is to not carry it around with you.
Grieve what is to be grieved and be done with it.
Get up and get back in the game.
Let come what's coming,
and let go what's going,
in order to be ready to do
what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
no matter what has gone on before.
Rise and get back in the game,
back in the moment that is to be lived,
even now, even yet, even so,
doing what needs to be done
the way it needs to be done,
no matter what.
We take our cue for living
from the circumstances in which we live,
here and now,
in each situation as it flows,
moves, develops, transforms
into the next situation
throughout each day.
We dance with the moment,
with its contradictions and conflicts,
moment to moment.
in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way,
not letting our losses stop us,
or even slow us down.
Lenten Rose 02 02/13/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — Indian Land, South Carolina
We grow up against our will.
The people who refuse to have anything to do
with the things that make them uncomfortable
are not candidates for maturation.
Everything works together for the good
of those who open themselves to the reality
of their experience
and do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
and make mistake after mistake,
and learn from each one of them,
and are better for having done what they did
and learned from it,
than they would have been
if they had just waited
for someone to tell them what to do.
It is amazing how a life fully lived
takes care of the one living it,
and we learn how to live
through the process of living
and no one could tell us what we know
from doing what we have done,
and from living to redeem ourselves
for not knowing what we were doing,
and finding out the hard way
what we should have done.
But that is how it works!
There is no living safe a little prophylactic life
that doesn't need redemption!
We have to walk into the kitchen
and start making breakfast
in order to figure out how to make breakfast.
Burning the toast and knowing when/how to flip the eggs
comes with time and experience.
As does everything else about being alive.
So get in there and do your thing,
and let your outcomes direct your acting
in the field of action
for as long as you are alive!
–0–
02
Spider Web 08 09/05/2005 Oil Paint Rendered
People who are capable of compassion
are powerful people.
They don't have to carry guns
or hang out with people who do.
Guns were everywhere in my growing up
in the Mississippi delta.
Compassion was in short supply.
In my childhood,
all of the women I knew
stopped with sentimentality.
None of them allowed themselves
to be compassionate.
Compassion would have made it
impossible to bear what had to be borne.
They had to suck it up
and do what their life required,
walking past injustices and wrongs
without a second thought.
The present crop of Republican mavens
remind me of those women
without the kindness.
But kindness walks a thin line
between sentimentality and compassion.
Kindness is a momentary expression
of caring and concern,
compassion keeps you awake at night
and demands a reckoning
with all that is not right
about your life.
You cannot live the way you live
and be compassionate.
Kindness is a way of excusing
the way you live,
salve on the conscience,
recompense for looking away.
A way of making your peace
with your life.
A votive offering to appease the gods.
All we can do
with a life that will not allow compassion.
But the reckoning
will not be denied,
and extracts its due
with empty eyes
and shriveled souls,
and the eternal agony
of the unlived life
that demanded truth
and was spurned by necessity,
and aborted shortly after birth.
–0–
03
Sugar Maple 10/26/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Making our peace with our life
is an ongoing undertaking.
We have to keep coming to terms
with how things are,
and also are.
The contradictions will not go away,
and exist for us
as the clashing rocks and the crashing waves
at every step along life's way.
If it weren't for what, everything would be fine?
There is always something,
and things would not be fine
even without it.
"Fine" is a happy fantasy.
Things are fine exactly as they are!
It is fine that we have to make our peace
with our life again and again.
It may as well be fine,
because it is not going anywhere.
And conditions will change in a blink,
and we will have to make our peace
with something else, and something else after that.
Always the same:
"This is how things are,
and this is what we can do about it,
and that's that."
So we do what we can do about it
and let that be that.
In each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
And as long as that is the case,
we may as well do what we can
about what needs to be done
with the gifts/daemon/genius/talents
of our original nature
in conjunction with the restrictions
and limitations of time and place,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
for as long as it needs to be done,
no matter what--
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it--
and stop interfering with this process
by wishing it could be different,
and better,
and more fun.
Stop the whining and do the work!
Enjoy what can be enjoyed,
relish what can be relished,
let come what's coming
and let go what's going.
Every step of the way.
Smoky Mountain Dawn 07/14/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
There is body and there is mind.
Physical and spiritual.
The actual and the numinous, ineffable.
There is what we want
and there is what wants us.
We have an affinity for the spiritual.
We resonate with the spiritual.
We are Adam and Eve at one with the
truth of our existence.
Babies from the womb knowing where they belong,
crying because they have been separated
from the Great Oneness
and thrust into the Here And Now,
and long for Forever
until forgetting sets in
and this becomes all
we have ever known.
Remembering is the work of a lifetime.
The work of remembering
is the art of walking two paths
at the same time.
Realizing the Unseen
on the other side of the Seen.
Seeing the inner light
as radiance emanating
from the secret core of all things--
in an, "Oh, Peter! There you are!"
kind of way.
The people who know
that they don't know
are the hope of the world,
helping the world reclaim
its original nature
by remembering their own
"face that was theirs
before they were born,"
and living here in ways that exhibit then now
in each situation as it arises,
for the sheer wonder of being
at one with themselves again at last.
–0–
02
Backyard Sculpture: Staked and Tied 02/11/2022 Oil Paint Rendered — Indian Land, South Carolina
Teaching children how to play
instead of getting out of their way
is telling the river how to be a river,
and telling the lion
to leave the lambs alone.
Joseph Campbell said,
"When the lion lies down with the lamb,
only one of them gets up."
It is the way.
Get out of the way!
Out of your own way!
And live spontaneously,
sincerely,
from the heart
in responding to the moment
as the moment needs responding to.
The deepest knowing
is knowing when we are
forcing something on the moment
that does not belong to the moment.
Giving the moment
what we want the moment to have,
and not what the moment is calling for.
That is not of the moment.
That is foreign to the moment
and not organically at one
with the time and place of our living.
How fittingly do we live?
How responsively/responsibly do we live?
Our life is a judgment call all the way.
Judgment not imposed,
but carefully, sensitively, compassionately,
weighed in light of what is best
for the situation at hand,
all things considered,
with nothing at stake in the outcome--
not thinking it out,
but realizing what's what
and dancing with the music of the moment
as a blessing and grace everlasting.
–0–
03
Smoky Water 10/14/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Price Lake, Julian Price Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Some people call it boredom
and run from it like from a rogue elephant
on a rampage.
Some people call it waiting,
and wait.
For what,
they do not know.
They call that trusting.
Trusting what they are not sure.
It goes by many names.
The Silence.
The Stillness.
The Great Emptiness.
The One Who Knows.
The Unmoved Mover.
Psyche.
Soul.
The Great Spirit.
Sam.
Myrtle.
Sophie.
Grace.
The Other Side.
The Light.
The Guide.
The Wind That Blows Where It Will.
My Boat.
"I'm waiting for my boat
to give me a ride,"
catches the sense of adventure
and vulnerability
at work in what we are doing.
"Waiting to know what's next."
"Waiting to know what to do now."
This is the best kind of knowing
without understanding.
"We can experience things we cannot understand,
and we can know things we cannot explain,"
said Sheldon Knopp,
who trusted himself to things
that just spring to mind,
and carry us along the way.
Things are the way they are because
things are the way they are.
There is no Cause and Effect in place.
Effects are the cause of unlimited effects.
Effects spill over,
pouring out over generations
and centuries.
Be careful--and savvy--about
what you do in response to everything.
The way we live has immense impact
on all that follows.
Particularly on what happens next.
–0–
02
Skeleton Trees of Graveyard Beach 02 12/05/2017 Oil Paint Rendered
We are here to serve and share
the boon of our original nature.
Not to do whatever we want
until we die.
Turning the light around
shifts the question from
"What do you want to do?"
to "What is yours to bring forth?"
And, "To whom or what do you owe fealty?"
And, "Whom or what do you serve?"
How long has it been since
you sat with those,
waiting to see what stirs to life within?
Don't tell me you have better things to do.
Castle Mountain 02 09/21/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta
We make it through the dark times
in the strength of our original nature
and the consolation of the right kind of
emptiness,
stillness
and silence.
All the help we need is found there
to ground us in the adamantine knowledge of
the qualities and characteristics,
the gifts, daemon, shtick, abilities, talents, knacks, etc.
that are naturally ours,
and the instincts and intuition
that lead the way in conjunction with
sincerity and spontaneity
to know and do what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
moment by moment,
day by day.
Worry and anxiety are replaced by trust and confidence
in the help that is found within
by being still and quiet,
emptying ourselves of all that prevents
us from being empty,
and waiting to see what stirs to life
and calls us to action
in doing what needs to be done,
here and now.
We start walking in that direction,
and the path opens before us
into worlds we never knew were there,
opening into the adventure of a lifetime,
and wonder upon wonder,
world without end--
who would guess it,
or deny that it is so?
–0–
02
Cotton in the Field 03 10/25/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Rural South Carolina
There is very little difference
between a sage and a fool,
and even less difference
between a sage and a child.
The difference being that
the sage sees the truth the fool is saying,
and knows the truth--is the truth--of the child.
Jesus got into trouble with Those Who Know Best
by saying things they did not know were the truth.
By saying things everyone knows to not say.
By doing things everyone knows are not to be done.
Truth is that way.
Those who say the truth and do it,
are on the Bad List of those In The Know.
It is the way.
Which gets in the way of The Way.
The way of The Way
is the way of silence and compassion
observing what's what,
knowing what to do in response to it,
doing it
and letting the fallout be the fallout--
without emotional attachment to the outcome,
but simply observing what's what,
knowing what to do in response to it,
doing it
and letting the fall out be the fallout--
without emotional attachment to the outcome...
No agenda.
No opinion.
Just seeing.
Just knowing.
Just doing.
Just being.
Like a fool.
Like a child.
Who neither know nor care
what should be said and done.
And letting the outcome be the outcome.
With silence and compassion.
–0–
03
Hebron Falls 02 08/08/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Boone Fork, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Coleman Barks told the story of his granddaughter's softball team
being soundly beaten by the team from a neighboring town
in the 10-And-Under League.
He said, "When the game mercifully ended,
the opposing team rushed out of their dugout,
celebrating and chanting, 'We Won! We Won! We Won!'
Spontaneously and instantly,
his granddaughter's team rushed out of their dugout,
celebrating with equal gusto
and chanting, 'We Lost! We Lost! We Lost!'"
"It was," he said, "One of the most memorable experiences of my life."
We have said "Liberty and justice for all,"
but wealthy people,
powerful people,
think that doesn't apply to them,
particularly the "justice" part,
or to those they don't like,
and live to have life their way,
doing what the want, when they want,
any way they want,
without consequences or repercussions.
And they don't pay taxes.
Wealthy, powerful people
live at the expense of everyone else.
I don't know of any way to bring them to justice,
to have them pay their fair share,
to force them to live within the constraints
that apply to the rest of us.
An Elder Wand would do it,
but that is a happy fantasy.
The truth is "Money Wins."
What does money live off of?
We can cut back on how much of our money
we give to those who are making money off of us.
We can live to diminish our own reliance on money.
We can live to remove money from its center place
in our life.
We can become as free from the power of money
as we can be and still pay the bills necessary
to do what needs to be done.
But the fundamental problem
of the inequities created and sustained by money
will be with us always
to the end of time.
Everybody does not have
the same rights in prisons
or POW camps.
If we let that burden us
and restrict our life,
we are paying an unnecessary price
in addition to the inequity
that is also to be recognized
and shouldered on our way through the world.
–o–
02
Barn on Mormon Row 06/23/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming
Growing up is the solution
to all of our problems today.
We think having our way
and getting what we want
is the ultimate goal of life.
The culture and the economy
(And where is the line separating the two?)
are geared to creating and maintaining
an infantile approach to living
on the part of every citizen, young and old,
to keep us buying everything we want
and therefore think we ought to have.
If people lived out of their need to be who we are
and serve/express/exhibit our original nature
in all that we do,
it would crash the economy in a day,
maybe two.
Advertising and movies are geared to thirteen year olds,
and too few of us ever advance beyond that level,
no matter how old we actually are.
"When is it MY turn?" and "What about ME?"
are the mantras of daily life.
The entire refusal to wear a mask
and be vaccinated furor is a flash-back
to the Terrible Two's,
which is as far as Donald Trump and his entourage
have advanced.
The world is dying for people to open themselves
to the tasks commiserate with their stage of life,
undertaking and completing them
at the time appropriate to their age.
Who is willingly and heartfully doing
what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all their life long
no matter what
for the joy of doing it
and the satisfaction of having done it?
Yet, it is easy to find those
who are artfully dodging the tasks of life
and compensating themselves for the burdens
they can't avoid
with double helpings of whatever
is a delight to their eyes
and promises to make them euphorically happy forever,
or until the next Wonderful Nothing comes along.
Yachts and islands and private jets
seem to be doing it for those who can afford it.
The rest of us have to settle for bigger TV's
and a place in some crowd.
–0–
03
Jasper Wetlands 01 09/26/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
It is the task of life
to make conscious what can be made conscious
of the unconscious aspects of ourselves.
Things happened to us
that should not have happened to us,
and other things did not happen
that should have happened,
and we responded to both sets of things
in ways that were not as helpful
as it might have been--
and are still responding to those things
in those ways.
We have become who we are
because of our ways of responding
to the things that happened to us
and to the things that did not happen to us.
And then there are the things
that came with us from the womb--
our original nature,
who we are equipped to be,
primed to be,
ready to be,
but something happens,
and what the world we are born into allows
restricts what we can be,
and we have to work out a compromise
in becoming who we are--
and that has to be made conscious as well,
in order to bring our original nature
to life as fully as possible
within the life we are living.
In all of this,
we need more help than we get,
which leaves us with helping ourselves
by finding what we need
to do what needs to be done,
on all levels
in the time left for living,
in redeeming what can be redeemed,
and serving what needs to be served,
in squaring ourselves up with who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are,
and living as fully as we can
under the circumstances.
In making conscious what needs to be conscious,
we come to terms with what must be come to terms with,
make our peace with what must be acknowledged
and allowed to be because it is,
with much in the way of compassion,
and little in the way of opinion.
We do this in the company
of the right kind of emptiness
(Emptying ourselves of all that
stands between us and emptiness),
the right kind of stillness
and the right kind of silence.
Waiting, watching, for something
to stir to life,
and spring to mind,
of its own accord,
"out of the blue,"
surprising us with the appearance
of something new,
calling our name
and asking us to follow
where it leads,
and see where it goes--
doing what needs to be done
in response all along the way.
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 