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?
Linville River 10/15/2008 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Linville Falls, North Carolina
"Darkness within darkness--
the gateway to Mystery."
This is one of the insights
of the Tao Te Ching.
"The Classic Book of
the Way and its Virtues
(Or Powers)."
The Virtues (Te) of the Way (Tao)
are the powers of growing up.
The Way of growing up
is the Way of bearing the pain
of "darkness within darkness"
and stepping through
"the gateway of mystery."
Bearing the pain of growing up
is bearing the pain of life as it is.
I understand schizophrenia to be
the way of avoiding the Way
of growing up.
The pain is too much,
so we opt for denial,
and schizophrenia is the most
advanced form of denial there is.
Schizophrenia is the refusal
to live in the world as it is.
Schizophrenics "are drowning
in the world gurus live in."
And the difference between a guru
and a schizophrenic is not much.
We are always only a slight shift
in perspective away from "lost"
to "found,"
from "blind" to "seeing."
The key to the shift
is the decision to bear the pain
of being alive.
More specifically, it is bearing the pain
of the conflicts/contradictions
at the heart of being alive.
To grow up, we have to leave Mama and Daddy
and find our own way in the world--
our own way through the agonies and sorrows
of life in the world.
The agonies and sorrows of not being able
to have what we want
without giving up something else
that we also want.
We have to give up "this" to have "that."
The fundamental crucifix of life.
Life is death long before we die.
We die metaphorically again and again
until we stop breathing at last.
And that is too much to ask of some people.
A lot of people.
And so, we have this world of pleasure
as denial of that world of pain.
For, we will not pay the price of being fully alive.
It costs too much.
And schizophrenia is the ultimate refusal to be
fully alive.
Being a guru is easier.
And just as much escapist.
My favorite examples of people
who had what it takes to be fully alive
are, on the fictional level,
Tevya in "The Fiddler on the Roof,"
and, on the actual level, Helen Keller.
If we could spend the remainder of our life
being Tevya and Helen Keller,
what a life it would be.
What do you think?
Are we up for it?
Do we have what it takes?
To be alive?
Geese on the Pond 11/02/2005 Oil Paint Rendered –Down East North Carolina
I resonate with some people,
and never connect with others.
I see that as an indication/reflection
of "where we are in our life."
Of "where we have been,
and what happened to us,
and what we have done with that."
The things that happen to us
impact the way we see things,
interpret things,
understand things.
And the way we see things, etc.,
always fits the facts
as we see them.
Being born into some cultures/families
teaches us to be who we are,
and to see as we see, etc.
We may come out of the womb
as inquisitive, curious, little people,
into a culture/family that does not allow questions,
and become like the rest of the cows in the heard,
before we are out of diapers,
if they use diapers.
We resonate with people of similar dispositions
and backgrounds,
intelligence levels,
education levels,
social class levels,
and not so much with people of dissimilar orientations.
We "don't get along" with people
who come from different worlds.
And how many worlds do we walk through in a day?
It is amazing things aren't worse than they are!
This is to say that the people we "run with"
limit/restrict who we can be,
who and how we see, think, react/respond
to what is going on around us.
Think of who your friends are,
and of what they require and disallow.
And there you are.
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02
Tupper Lake 03 09/22/15 Oil Paint Rendered — Adirondack Park, New York
Every family has its way of doing things.
"This is the way we do things,"
easily becomes
"This is the way things ought to be done!"
The way we do things
is our idea
of the way things ought to be done.
In tribal settings and small towns,
the way we do things
is the way we all do things.
Enter enough people from another tribe,
or from another part of the country,
and there be trouble discerning
who the "we" is that do it the way we do it.
It helps if we all have different color skin.
"Us" and "them" separate out
by the way we do things.
Think about things.
Believe things...
And we are making it all up,
right out of the air.
There is no Way to Do Things.
There are lots of ways to do things.
"It is the way," is a very narrow way,
pertaining to "the way" a certain segment
of the population does things,
and, hence, thinks things ought to be done.
It becomes a problem when any segment
of the population imposes its way of doing things
on all populations everywhere.
Perhaps calling it "Democracy,"
or "Capitalism,"
or "Christianity"...
And the more narrowly they define
how it ought to be done,
as in "Fascism,"
or "Communism,"
the harder it is on everyone,
and the more people "go into hiding,"
pretending to be doing it the popular way,
while secretly continuing to do it their way.
We all need to be able to do it our way,
without being constrained by someone else's
idea of The Way.
And, barring that, we all need to be aware
of what our way is,
and how we are being violated
by being forced to do it someone else's way instead.
The individual has to shine through.
The corporate ideal is destructive
to individual souls and spirits.
The "artist" within us all demands/requires
freedom of expression.
We have to be who we are or die
to the life that is legitimately ours to live.
This is the problem we live to solve
all our life long:
How to be who we are, where we are, when we are.
How to do it our way
and get along with others
who are doing it their way.
That is the problem at the root of human existence.
How are you coming along with it?
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03
Boone Fork 08/26/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Near Shulls Mill Road, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
What grounds us, centers us, anchors us?
We live aligned with what?
In accord with what?
In harmony with what?
In service to what?
With liege loyalty and filial devotion to what?
To what do we owe fealty?
What guides and directs us through our life?
What is our general attitude, perspective, orientation?
How is that reflected in our deportment, demeanor, manner?
In what ways do we need to improve, alter, transform
our relationship with ourselves,
with our life,
and with one another?
What is keeping you from knowing the answers to these questions?
Maine Moonrise 09 09/27/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Penobscot Bay, Deer Isle, Maine
The difference between having a way
and having to have our way
is the difference between
being on the way
and being off it.
Having a way without having to have it
is having direction and purpose
without having to go that way
and do that thing.
Things come up.
Things happen.
We have to make adjustments
and accommodations.
We have to acquiesce
and acknowledge a will and a way
not of our own devising,
and do things differently
that we had intended.
What is the source of the contrary
force changing our choices out of the blue?
It is simply the nature of things
to be what they are.
Everything happens in conjunction with,
and in response to,
something else that happens.
Chains of events and circumstances
move, shift, transform, come and go
on a whim.
Whose whim?
Anybody's.
Everybody's.
Nobody's.
Weather patters are always shifting
to take a previous shift into account.
So it goes with the ebbs and flows
of life throughout space and time.
Cause and effect are not carefully orchestrated
and choreographed.
And effect can have causes that are delayed
over time.
No one can take everything into account,
or know what to expect when or where or for how long.
There are too many intangibles to take into account.
We have to make up our response to it as we go,
dancing with the music as the bands trade places
through time.
No source.
No reasons.
Just this.
Now.
And something else, then.
And we make the best of it
always and forever,
in a "Here we are, now what?"
kind of way.
It helps to have little in the way of
agendas and opinions.
If you know what I mean.
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02
Tupper Lake Twilight 02 09/22/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, New York
Carl Jung said, "A hermit
is a primitive person
who trusts their unconscious."
He might have said,
"An original person
who is at home with their psyche."
There is no greater boon
or graver threat
than an original person
at home with their psyche.
Enter the Buddha and Jesus.
And those like them through the ages,
including the shamans and the Taoists,
Chief Seattle and Black Elk,
and many of the witches drowned on a board
or burned at the stake.
The world doesn't know what to do
with original people
at home with their psyche.
The boon is a threat.
Lao Tzu climbed on his ox
and rode into the west,
a Chinese metaphor
for going off to die.
He tried to give people
what he had to offer,
and they wanted nothing to do with it.
They kept saying,
"Why don't you talk to us
about things we can understand?"
But they understood enough to know
he was a threat to their way of life.
And he shook the dust of his sandals
as he left town
as a sign against them
(Or was that Jesus?).
The boon is a threat.
The gift is a two-edged sword.
Life is death.
If we can be okay with that,
we will have it made.
As made as a hermit has it
with their psyche
as their best friend for life
in a world that has no clue,
and doesn't want to have one.
On Grandfather Mountain 04 10/12/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Grandfather Mountain State Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Linville, North Carolina
We need to be able to pay the right bills,
and that is all money is good for.
When we make money an end in itself,
it becomes good for nothing.
Its rightful place is buying
the tools we need,
and supplying us with what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
by sharing and serving the gifts/daemon
(Sounds like "di-MON")/shtick/interests/abilities/etc.
that come with us from the womb.
Living in right-relationship with our original nature,
and expressing/exhibiting it
within the circumstances of our life
is the essence of a life well-lived.
It is integrity and sincerity brought forth
to meet the day,
every day.
Money exists to serve our integrity and sincerity.
And helps us to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
day-by-day.
Our life asks nothing more than this of us,
and it asks this of us all the time.
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02
Hunting Island Woods 05/01/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina
Everything is day-to-day.
"We make our plans,
collect our pay.
Think we are gliding down the highway,
when, in fact, we are slip-sliding away"
(Paul Simon).
But, what are we going to do--
not knowing any more about what to do
than we know?
We can only play it out,
knowing that we don't know what to do
because we don't know about what,
and don't have enough information to know.
We wait to see,
and then react/respond to what happens
as best we can,
and let that be that.
Always at the mercy of the unknowable.
As ready for anything as we can be,
and taking our chances with what comes.
But it might be to our advantage
to take a "Two Minds Approach" to our problem.
To all of our problems.
There is the ego-conscious mind,
and there is the psyche-unconscious mind.
We live best (So the theory goes)
when we live as two minds, not one.
With the ego-conscious mind
taking the psyche-unconscious mind seriously
as a full partner in the work of being alive,
and collaborating with it
in anticipating what's coming
and in responding to it when it arrives.
There are two of us here,
not one.
Consult and collaborate, kid.
Consult and collaborate.
Listen to your heart.
Listen to your body
(To what you know "in your bones,"
to what your "gut feelings" are saying).
Listen to your instincts/intuition.
Listen to your nighttime dreams,
and your daytime hunches/realizations.
Look for symbols that speak to you,
asking "What's this saying to me?"
to every object/image/song/sound that attracts you,
that catches your eye/ear.
Developing an appreciation for,
and awareness of,
symbols/metaphors,
is the best way of establishing/maintaining
a relationship with the invisible world.
And working with a Jungian analyst
would be a great idea if you can arrange it.
However you mind how you go,
go knowing two minds are better than one,
and take up the work
of walking two paths at the same time!
Sunwapta River 01 09/21/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta
Maturity is doing what you don't want
in the service of what you do want.
Immaturity is not doing anything you don't want
no matter what it costs someone else
to make you happy.
Though the degree to which you have to stay high
makes it easy for everyone to doubt
that you have ever been happy,
or, are capable of being happy.
Ever.
Maturity is what the situation calls for.
Always.
There has never been an occasion,
and will never be one,
that couldn't have been, or be,
made better with a dose of maturity
at the right time,
in the right place,
delivered in the right way.
And all it takes to do what needs to be done
when it needs to be done
the way it needs to be done
is that small dose of maturity.
I don't know why you can't buy
a bottle of maturity
from Amazon.
Maybe in pill form,
to take one each day with breakfast.
Enabling us to bear the pain that must be borne
for the sake of the good of the whole,
or the good of someone else,
or just "the good" of something
other than "the me."
White privilege is another term
for terminal immaturity.
All it takes for things being the way
they ought to be
is growing up.
Some more.
Again.
Today.
Right now.
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02
Watkins Glen 02 09/20/2015 Oil Paint Rendered — Watkins Glen State Park, New York
Wait for the door to open,
then step through.
In the meantime, we do our thing
in the service of what needs to be done
within the time and place of our living.
This is not difficult,
It only takes squaring ourselves up
with the facts governing our existence,
in a "Here we are, now what?" kind of way.
There are our circumstances
and what we bring with us into
each situation as it arises.
Our circumstances are where we do our work.
What is your work?
Mine is seeing and saying what's what.
That's the line of work I have always been in.
In theological school,
it is called "Hermeneutics."
The word is from "Hermes," in Greek,
in Latin it is "Mercury."
The Messenger of the Gods.
Crafting the art of interpretation.
Saying what's what (And being right about it).
That's the slippery part,
the mercury part,
being right about it.
The truth is hard to nail down.
Can't do it.
Sometimes it's this way, "I'll love you forever,"
And sometimes it's this way, "I never want to see you again!"
That's the truth for you.
It changes on you.
Truth changes to keep up with the times.
The times are always changing.
"The spirit is like the wind that blows where it will."
That's truth for you.
So, I'm always dancing with the times,
saying what's up now,
no, now,
no, now...
What's your work?
Your circumstances are where you do it,
while you wait with me for the door to open,
then walk through.
What door would that be?
The door to the next thing, of course.
We won't know what that is
until the door opens.
Curtis Island Dawn 09/19/2005 Oil Paint Rendered — Camden, Maine
What have you always had to do well?
What have you always had to get right?
Not because someone told you to,
not because anyone was watching.
Because it mattered to you,
and you had to do it like it needed to be done
to please yourself?
What do you do like it needs to be done
for itself alone?
Start doing everything like it needs to be done
for itself alone!
Let that be your practice from this moment on.
Doing everything you do like it needs to be done
because it matters to you to get it right.
Live like it matters--
down to the smallest detail
in every situation as it arises.
It will change your life for the better,
one situation at a time.
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02
Water Lilly 01 06/04/2015 Oil Paint Rendered
Life unfolds according to its own volition.
Our will is not to be imposed on life,
or upon the situation as it arises before us,
but to be enlisted in the service
of what needs to happen,
because it needs to happen,
the way it needs to happen,
here and now.
Duty/Dharma is one of the things
that keeps us from doing
our duty/dharma lying inert within
each situation,
waiting for eyes that see it
and the will that does it
with liege loyalty
and filial devotion
and a noble heart
responding spontaneously,
innocently,
to the need of the moment,
and does what is called for,
no matter what,
or who is watching.
Owing,
and honoring,
fealty to the right form of duty,
is all it takes
to be an original human being
serving our original nature
in the time and place of our living.
And that is all that matters
through all of the times and places
of existence.
I know you have heard this before.
What matters is that you hear it at last.
Understanding that what needs to be said
cannot be said often enough
to those who still aren't doing
what needs to be done.
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03
Tipton Place 10/01/2017Oil Paint Rendered — Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee
It is hard enough with the cooperation we need--
And how often do we get that?--
in meeting the day as it needs to be met.
We bear the anguish of a conflict of interests
in each situation as it arises,
on multiple levels.
This is not easy!
Whose side are we on?
Again and again the choice must be made--
and even when we make it between ourselves
and others,
we have to make it again
between ourselves and ourselves!
We have our ideas for our life,
and our life has its ideas for us,
and whose idea will we serve in this moment,
here and now,
is the question that goes 'round and 'round,
moment after moment
all our life long.
And, deciding again, is like dying.
So, Jesus said, "If you are going to do it
like it needs to be done,
you have to pick up your cross
(Which was symbolic, equivalent to, death
in those days)
every day and die the death that needs to be died
that day,
then on to the next,
for as long as there are days."
If you can understand what is being asked of us,
and submit to it,
in a willfully compliant kind of way,
you will be doing it the way it must be done,
every day.
Ghost Trees of Graveyard Beach 01 Oil Paint Rendered
Helen Keller didn't have much
in the way of hope
the way a lot of people think of hope,
she made up for it with a willful determination
to deal successfully with her situation in life,
no matter what.
Speaking of "what,"
what's keeping us from making the same effort
in coming to terms with our life
that she made in coming to terms with hers?
What's harder about our life
than what was hard about her life?
What are the things that stop us?
That throw us for loops?
That rock our world?
How do they stack up against
Helen Keller's world?
If Helen Keller can do what she did
with her world,
why can't we do what she did
with our world?
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02
Half-dome 04/27/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Yosemite National Park, California
Hope is our way of assessing our chances
of getting our way,
and having what we want.
To have no hope
is to have no chance
of getting what we want.
Which is like the end of the world
for a lot of people,
perhaps most people,
but not all people.
Some people can go right on
with no chance of getting what they want,
having no hope at all.
They don't care about what they want
and don't want.
They are perfectly fine,
just as they are.
I think their secret to being able to live
within any circumstances
as those who are just fine
is a the right combination of trust in themselves,
courage, curiosity
and a sense of satisfaction
in how well they deal with
whatever comes their way.
They are artists of the art of life,
seeing and serving what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
to the best of their ability,
and seeing where it goes.
They do not live to impose their will
on their life/circumstances,
but to dance with life/circumstances
in a way that meets their needs
and serves their purposes,
which are aligned with their possibilities,
their interests,
and the possibilities and interests
of those about them.
What they want is limited to what they need,
and what they need is limited
to what gets them comfortably through the day,
without having too much or too little
to call their own.
Seems simple enough,
until you take it out of the box
and try to get it to work,
with no instructions regarding
how to do it,
and having to depend upon our own imagination
to get it going.
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03
Two Trees 01/11/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Guilford County, North Carolina
If we forgot how to see,
how would we know whom to hate?
How long would we have to be blind
for hatred to be the least of our problems?
That would be different, wouldn't it?
Nation-wide.
Around the world.
Old Shelton Church Ruins 02 11/12/2017 Oil Paint Rendered — Yemassee, South Carolina
My work is seeing and saying what's so.
Whether anyone sees and hears it or not.
My work is seeing and saying.
It has nothing to do with
finding someone who can see and hear.
What is seen and said
elicit their own seeing and hearing,
call it forth it its own time
among those who are capable of the task.
I'm planting the seed.
After that, the seed is on its own.
I'm casting bread upon the water,
beyond that,
the bread takes care of itself.
If the little fishes and ducks
make a meal of it,
that's up to them.
It is no concern of mine.
I have to be making more bread.
What is your work to do?
It better have nothing whatsoever to do
with wanting, getting and having!
Our work has to do with giving, giving, giving!
Our work has to do with knowing
what is ours to do,
and doing, doing, doing,
With doing what needs to be done!
With doing what needs us to do it!
To hell with wanting, getting and having!
What needs to be done?
What needs us to do it?
When? Where? How?
Those are our questions to answer.
How do we live our life
in and around those questions?
In service to those questions?
Alive to those questions
in each situation as it arises?
Those are our questions to answer.
To hell with wanting, getting and having!
Can you hear what I am saying?
That's on you!
I wish my mom had not married my father.
So I live to redeem her decision,
insofar as I am able.
We all need redemption.
Growing up takes its toll upon us all.
We grow up some more again everyday,
or every now and then.
We come with everything we need for the work
when we plop out of the womb.
Our original nature is replete with
gifts/daemon/shtick/proclivities/etc.
that are just what we need
to meet every situation as it arises
and do there what needs to be done,
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 delight/satisfaction
of having done it
all our life long.
But the gifts run aground upon the wants.
And that's where growing up comes in.
Wanting/getting/having/wanting...
becomes an alternate way of life.
Alternate to the way our life needs to be lived.
My mother said, "Anything but this!"
about her life as it was,
and married my father.
We are all always doing something similar.
That's where redemption comes in.
We redeem the past
be growing up some more again in the present,
and doing what needs to be done there
with the gifts/daemon (sounds like "di-MON")/etc.
of our original nature.
As we redeem our past,
we redeem the past of our ancestors,
and make the world a better place
for everyone.
Katheryne and Big James will need more
than one generation.
Why would we push the limits,
or the envelope,
without being pushed to
by the nature of our circumstances?
Under normal operating conditions,
it is the savvy thing,
the wise thing,
to wait for the door to open,
and then walk through.
No guideline applies across all conditions.
The rule across all circumstances, times and places is
"Be right about what needs to be done
and do it when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises."
If we can't be right,
and can't wait,
we make our best guess about what is right,
and proceed carefully,
guessing again as necessary,
and proceeding carefully again, etc.
The situation dictates the action.
Imposing our idea of the action
upon all situations
because bulldozing doors
is what we do best
and like to do most
is not going to meet the test
of being right about what needs to be done.
And it will create resistance,
and a backwash of circumstances
that will be a long time abating.
We sew the seeds of the future
by the way we respond to the present,
and "a word to the wise is unnecessary"
(Southern axiom).
–0–
Adrift, Too 10/15/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Pamlico Sound, Stonington, Deer Isle, Maine
Attuned to our circumstances,
aligned with the times,
in touch with what is called for,
at one with our original nature,
we are prepared to do
what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
in ways appropriate to the occasion.
All that remains then
is the courage to do it,
overriding cultural/social norms
and responding spontaneously
out of an innocent and noble heart
to the time and place of our living.
When it all comes together,
we dance with the music of the spheres,
and with the elves and leprechauns
who have been waiting for just such a moment,
and hoping it would be here, now.
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03
December Woods 07 12/02/2021 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Jesus lived without an eye on
what was in it for him.
Imagine that if you can.
Jesus lived to be who he was,
without anything to gain
for so doing.
Jesus lived to express/exhibit/reveal/
incarnate/serve the gifts/daemon/shtick/proclivities/virtues/etc.
of his original nature,
anyway, nevertheless, even so.
Jesus lived to do what needed to be done,
when it needed to be done,
where it needed to be done,
the way it needed to be done,
in each situation as it developed,
no matter what.
For the joy of doing so,
and the delight/satisfaction of having done it.
This is the only thing
that separates Jesus
from the rest of us.
The more like this we can live,
the more like Jesus we will be.
All it takes is living from the center,
like babies fresh from the womb,
all our life long.
Half-dome, Merced River04/27/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Yosemite National Park, California
We find the way
by trusting ourselves
to the emptiness
and walking.
The catch is that we cannot
use this method for our
own personal gain, profit and pleasure.
We belong to the way.
The way does not belong to us.
We cannot manipulate and control
any outcome.
No agendas, no opinions,
are the twin rules of the way.
The upside is that this is
the greatest adventure of our life,
with benefits and glories
far outshining anything
we could come up with on our own.
We have to hand over the keys
to our life
when we step onto the way,
and belong to the way all the way.
We trust ourselves to the way,
and start walking.
–0–
02
Cotton in the Field 01 10/25/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Back Roads, South Carolina
The way we see things
is just the way we see things,
and has no necessary connection with
the way things actually are.
Even the phrase "actually are"
depends on the way we see things.
Color-blind people have to
take someone's word for it
that what they see isn't what
"actually" is the case.
The people who had Jesus crucified
were getting rid of a trouble maker.
They weren't killing God,
or even the "Son Of God."
Why do we see things as we do,
and not some other way instead?
Rural people tend to vote Republican.
Urban people tend to vote Democrat.
Why?
What does were we live have to do
with the way we see?
E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!!!
So, what gives with thinking
the way we see things is the
right way to see things?
It is only the right way to see things
where we LIVE!!!
Where we live and who we hang out with there.
We see things the way the people we like see things.
It has nothing to do with the way things are.
But we act as though it is absolute fact.
It is only uneducated, unconsidered, unexamined OPINION!
We don't think about it.
We just take someone's word for it.
Taking something on faith
is a magical process
whereby everything we take on faith
amounts to taking someone else's word for
what we take on faith,
and it becomes an ABSOLUTE FACT
the moment we take it on faith.
And having doubts is the worse thing possible.
We cannot have doubts about the way we see things.
To have doubts is to be cast out.
To be expelled.
To be discarded.
To be ostracized and isolated.
To have no friends.
To have no community.
To have no place to belong.
Just because we thought about
changing our mind
about the way we see things.
The way we see things is sacrosanct.
Sacred.
Inviolable.
Unquestionable.
Our only connection
with the people
who see things like we do.
Pope Paul III held the power of death
(Being burned at the stake)
over Copernicus
because of the way Copernicus saw the solar system.
Copernicus recanted and "changed his mind."
The fear of death in one form or another
keeps people in their traces,
forbids "free thinking,"
and maintains the balance and harmony
of the group that sees things as they do.
The stuff we make up
holds power over us
our entire life long.
But the truth is
we can't be sure of what the truth is
unless we take it on faith
that the way we see things
is not the way things are,
and conduct experiments
to verify/validate the way we see things
other than by asking the people we like
how they see things.
Maine Pond Detail 10/15/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Deer Isle, near Brooklin, Maine
When the world is too much for me,
I go in my mind to the isolated shore
of some pond
and allow the stillness of the place
to calm and heal all that is raw and angry
about me,
comforting my sorrow,
soothing my pain,
reassuring me with the water of life
sustaining the wild things
of the neighborhood
through the ages,
inviting us all to stay for awhile
and take what we need for our journey
from the abundance of beauty and grace,
and be well,
all along the way.
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02
December Woods 08 12/02/2021 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
What determines what we do
seems to fall into one of three categories.
Habitual patterns of behavior,
preferences/interests
and comfort level.
Doing what other people or doing,
or what someone tells us to do,
falls under "comfort level."
I tie my shoes the way
I have always tied my shoes.
I drink coffee because I like it.
And I wear several layers of clothing
in cold weather
because I'm comfortable that way.
And I like it.
And I've always done it.
Which means no one is likely
to talk me out of dressing warmly.
All of which is to say
nothing is going to change about us
until we change the way we do things,
which includes not doing some things,
and doing other things instead.
Why do that?
No one does that until they have to.
Change is forced on us
by a change in circumstances.
We have to get to the end of our rope
before we can change our mind
about what is important.
We run out of money.
We have "an event,"
breaking a hip, say,
or developing a terminal illness.
The list is long.
Something happens,
and we have to adjust and adapt.
Adjusting and adapting
are among the things we do best,
but we don't like it,
and would never think of volunteering for it.
We resist it all the way,
and only acquiesce to it
when we run out of other options,
denial being high on that list
(Denial is really what we do best!).
We live like we always have lived
until something happens,
and then we live differently,
according to the requirements
of our circumstances.
Until then, it is normal and customary
all the way.
But, not for long.
Our circumstances are always changing.
What we do then
is going to depend on
what needs to be done.
Then, it will help to have
no agenda and no opinion.
Just seeing what needs to change,
and changing.
And waiting for the next thing
to come along.
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03
Big Rock Preserve 11 11/17/2021 Oil Paint Rendered — Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina
Tevya (in "Fiddler on the Roof") is my idea
of a superhero.
He loses everything,
his horse, his wagon,
his cow, his chickens,
his house, his barn,
his way of life,
his traditions...
And arrives in New York
with his wife Golda
to start a new life
with only a suitcase
and his original nature
to work with.
No matter what he loses,
he is still Tevya.
I take this to be a lesson
for us all.
We had better not put all our
importance on the things we "have."
We had better start stocking up
on who we are.
Being ourselves.
Bringing forth our original nature
and letting that guide us
in responding to the fluctuating patterns
of the day-to-day.
So that, no matter what happens,
I am still me,
and you are still you.
And, together, we find the way,
even through the loss of everything,
to continuing to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
all our lives long,
in an "Okay, now what?" kind of way.
–0–
o4
Beech Tree Fall 11/21/2021 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Jesus was a man of poverty,
born in a manger,
died on a cross,
hailing from Nazareth,
and nothing good ever came from Nazareth.
The Buddha was born into princely privilege,
and renounced his heritage,
taking an oath of poverty
and taking up the work of enlightening the world.
Jesus and the Buddha are sons of Brahman
and children of God,
as Ones Thus Come,
calling all people to assume their destiny
by doing the work only they can do
in honoring their original nature
and being one with the Mystery of Life and Being
in all the times and places of existence.
By telling us to pick up our cross
and come with him,
Jesus is asking us to die to ourselves
and our desires and fear and sense of dharma duty,
forsaking profit, gain and merit
to do whatever needs to be done
in each moment of every situation that arises
the way only we can do it.
That is all there is to it.
Who will do it?
In every moment of our life,
starting here and now?
Hebron Falls 03 08/08/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Boone Fork, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The right kind of emptiness
is the solution
to all of our problems today.
Everyday.
The right kind of emptiness
gets rid of all of the inappropriate responses
to the way things are,
and clears the way for us to rise to the occasion,
doing what needs to be done
about what can be done
about what is happening
in each situation as it arises
out of the gifts/genius/daemon/shtick/virtues/etc.
that come with us from the womb,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.
Learning to empty yourself
of the moods/emotions/thoughts/beliefs/opinions/etc.
that crowd in and crowd out
balance and harmony,
integrity, sincerity, and clarity,
preventing us from doing the right thing,
at the right time,
in the right way
in all times and places
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.
The right kind of emptiness
makes for a life well-lived.
–0–
02
Australian Black Swan 03 08/24/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
What are the questions that beg to be asked?
What are the things that cry out to be said?
What are you afraid to ask?
What are you afraid to say?
What are you afraid of?
What do you turn to when you have nowhere to turn?
What is your grounding foundation--
the adamantine rock that stabilizes you
through times of trouble,
which nothing can knock you off?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 