01

What needs you to do it
with the gifts that are yours
to serve and share--
in each moment as it arises,
here and now?

You don't have to go big with it. 
Go small.

What needs you to do it
out of your original nature,
knowing what you know,
being who you are
without trying to profit in any way,
just doing what needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises
in the next hour, say,
or between now and the next mealtime.

Narrow your focus to what needs to be done
here and now.
What is it, 
not because someone else might
think so,
but because you think so?

What do you say needs to be done
here and now?

Do that.

Again and again.

And again.

All day.

Every day.

It's never more difficult than this.

–0–

02

Reduce complexity!
Diminish noise!
Wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear!

Stillness and silence reveal.
Commotion and busy-ness conceal.

How still can you be for how long?
How silent can you be for how long?

What comes up in the stillness,
in the silence,
that you have to escape
into action to avoid?

Introverts have an easier time 
than extroverts have,
but being quieter longer more often
isn't likely to lead to greater
realization/awareness
than being quiet as long and as often
as you can manage.

Just making the effort
to make room
for instinct/intuition/imagination
opens doors and windows
to the inner world,
and magic happens,
things begin to stir,
connections click into place,
life shifts,
and we are off on new adventures
that we can only experience,
but not understand,
or understand,
but not explain
(Sheldon Knopp). 

–0–

03

We are not much different 
from the characters and the drama
created by their interaction
impacted by their aims and opportunities,
in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

We think we are living a normal,
rational, logical, sensible life
but it is kept up in the air
by the frequency of its encounters
with complete nonsense
presented and honored as though
it is Absolute Truth.

Astronomy. 
The Bible As The Literal Word of God.
Horoscopes.
QAnon.
Fox News.
Politics.
Theology.
It is a long list
of things seriously claiming
a place in our sphere of concern
which have no legitimate place whatsoever
in anyone's life at all.

If all that is nonsense
disappeared overnight,
it would be a radically different world at dawn.

What keeps the nonsense in our lives
from disappearing?
What is the basis of its unwarranted importance?
Why does anyone give it any attention at all?
Why can't we recognize nonsense as nonsense?
Why are we carried away by what somebody says
that is obviously whack-o-bananas?

What are we doing participating 
in the propagation, promotion, encouragement
and transmission of nonsense?

Why give it any time and attention at all?

–0–

04

Health has been defined as "ease of functioning."

I enlarge that phrase to take into account
the five elements of health
and the five tools for implementing those elements
in our life.

This, in conjunction with whatever medical intervention
may be necessary over the course of our life,
will put us on the path to living happily ever after
in the glow of "ease of functioning."

The five elements are:
balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality.

The five tools are:
stillness and silence,
instinct, intuition and imagination.

Incorporating the five elements
and the five tools 
into our daily practice
enables us to 
face what comes our way
and rising to meet every occasion
in order to do what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
with the gifts/daemon/shtick/specialties
that come with us from the womb
and are ours to serve and share
without thought of personal benefit or gain
in responding spontaneously to 
the moment of our living
in each situation as it arises
with exactly what is called for, 
time after time.

If you can do better than that,
do it! 

01

My wife and I have an attentive,
respectful relationship
with everything in our house.

We treat it all with reverence,
awareness, appreciation and gratitude--
not for the thing in question,
but TO the thing.

We do not take anything for granted,
or mistreat anything.

We honor it for what it is
and for its place in our life.

Nothing we own
could be owned by anyone
who would take better care of it
than we do.

We are not this way because
we think we ought to be this way, 
but because this is the way we are.

It carries over into the way we treat
our family,
our nuclear family
and our extended family.

But we draw the line there,
and do not invite other people
into our life.

We are not gregarious, chummy,
and outgoing--
and do not trust ourselves easily
to others.
Which is as much a reflection
of where we have been
as it is of who we were before
we got there.

Our life is complete enough as it is,
and we do not need the company of others
to make it more-so.
Too much of their company
makes it less-so.

Getting older is refining our sense
of what is important,
and narrowing us down
to the things that matter most to us.
We are increasingly clear
about how we need to spend
what remains of our time,
devoting ourselves
to the things we cherish,
and allowing the rest 
to recede into the background
and periphery of our lives.

–0–

02

Being still,
being quiet,
listening for what is predominant
at various points in our day,
taking regular readings of our 
balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality,
keeps us alert to what's what
and what needs to be done about it
in each situation as it arises,
in a "Here we are, now what?"
kind of way.

We could do worse,
and it would be hard to do better,
day by day.

It is simple.
It is easy.
It is essential.

Here we are.
Now what?

–0–

03

How would you transform someone
who is rule-bound and approval-driven
into being flexible, spontaneous, fluid
and unflappable?

The best I can come up with is
"Slowly, over a long period of time."

Our tolerance for change is restricted to
"Now!"

Anything that happens that quickly 
is subject to snapping back into
its original configuration
just as quickly.

It takes time and attention/awareness
for things to become 
as they need to be--
and that may have no connection
with what we want them to be.

For things to change,
we have to be able to change as well,
and allow them to become
what they are capable of being,
which may be quite other than 
how we wish they would be.

Water's rush to the sea
is impeded by 10,000 things.
Evaporation,
cloud formation
and wind currents
may be a quicker way
to make the journey,
but look what happens to water
in the process!

Getting it like we want it,
when we want it,
the way we want it,
may not be "in the cards,"
and we will have to play
a different game
with different cards--
or no cards at all.

–0–

04

Awareness,
perspective,
perception
are a Trident, 
transforming the world,
reshaping reality,
and levering us
from one mode of being
into another
just by seeing what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
and doing it
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
because it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises,
day by day.

Seeing things as they are
includes seeing things as they affect us,
which provides a modicum of objectivity
for the time being,
and is the way attending physicians
and emergency room personnel 
see what comes through the door
and responds appropriately
to what is being called for
with the gifts/shtick/daemon/specialties
that are theirs to serve and share
from moment to moment
in doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done
in addressing the situation
and assisting it to the best available outcome.

Awareness/perspective/perception
transport us to a frame of mind
that enables right action
as a sincere, spontaneous, instantaneous
response to the here and now,
flowing from instinct/intuition/imagination
and being exactly what is needed
at exactly the right time
presented in exactly the right way
to stun and amaze witnesses 
and participants alike,
and then it is done,
and everything shifts back into place,
returns to normal,
and we wonder what happened,
and how it happened,
leaving us with the memory of its passing,
and the dream of its longed-for return.

Every moment of every day
carries the potential
of this kind of interaction with our life,
our world,
if only we are aware, perceptive and present
in each situation as it arises
all our life long. 

01

I love what I do,
and where I've been,
and where I am,
and I have deep sadness/melancholy
over how few people understand
that what we do,
where we have been
and where we are
are the most important things,
and that how we are with that
is how we are.

It doesn't matter where we are going.

Where we are going is just going to be
where we are.

And if we have never been glad
just to be here/now,
we cannot expect to be glad
to be  there/then.

It is all about perspective.
How we see what we look at.
The way we are with whatever
is with us.

What do we need to be content
with how it is with us?
What is standing between us
and joy/gladness/satisfaction?
Except for what things would be fine?
For how long?

What do we do about the things
we can't do anything about?

Where do we go to be at peace?
To enjoy the wonder of balance and harmony?

What is disrupting our balance and harmony?

Upon what does our stability depend?

In what ways do we need to 
transform our relationship
with ourselves,
our life,
and with other people?

What needs to be changed 
about our relationships
with those things?

What is keeping that from happening?

What do we think about
that prevents/interferes with
our thinking about this?

Reflection is the path 
to new realizations.

Nothing changes 
until our mind changes
about what is important
and what needs to happen
and what we can do about it.

–0–

02

The world needs a good listening to.

Too many people are talking too loudly
to listen.

All we need is to be heard
to the point
of hearing what we are saying.

We all need that.

Where do you go to be listened to?

To be heard?

When is the last time you said anything
beyond your usual banter?

When has anybody asked you
about your balance and harmony?

Your spirit, energy, vitality?

The ground of your joy and satisfaction?

Your specialty and how often you engage in it?

We all need people in our life
who can listen to us (hear is)
on a level at which we need to be 
listened to (heard).

That is pretty much all we need.

The trick here
is to become what we need
by offering to others 
what we need from them--
with no strings attached. 

Become the listener other people need.
Without using that as a ploy
to get them to listen to you.

Just listen.
To them.

You will hear from them
what you need to say,
what you have to say--
particularly if you listen
to enough of them.

It is the same story.
It is the same pain.

Listening deeply
is seeing clearly.

We are the solution
to our own problem.

It hinges on our being
what we need to find.  

–0–

03

The song goes,
"We get out kicks on Route 66..."

Where do you get your kicks?

This may be the most important question.

Knowing where we get our kicks,
and getting them regularly,
so that our life is lived around
the things we get a kick out of doing,
is the most important thing
(Without question to my way of thinking).

And, if that doesn't apply to you,
start living in ways 
so that it does apply to you.

You will probably discover
that the things you get a kick out of doing
won't pay the bills.
You will have to live on two paths,
or tracks,
at the same time.

So that there is what you do to pay the bills,
and what you pay the bills to do.

Live that way.
It will make all the difference in your life,
beginning almost immediately.

It will require you to change the way you live,
in order for your life 
to support your life--
your being alive to the time and place
of your living--
instead of being an automation,
an automaton,
going through the motions of life,
like canned laughter on some sitcom.

And your direction will come increasingly
from your heart
and not from your head, 
or from someone else's idea
of how your life ought to be.

Our life has its own meaning,
its own orientation,
its own flow,
and it is our place to 
live in accord with our life's idea
for itself.

We are built for a certain life,
directed toward certain modes of expression.
We get our kicks in different ways.
We have to be true to the things
we get a kick out of doing/being--
and to be careful to not allow
addictions to sidetrack us
into thinking that addiction is the kick
we are looking for.

Addiction is a substitute kick.
A false kick.
An artificial kick.
We are kidding ourselves,
and have to do the work,
and pay the price,
and bear the pain,
of being true to our heart's deep joy
and our soul's deep yearning,
while figuring out how to do that
and pay the bills.

It will help if we incur only the right bills.

–0–

04

• 

Why are we here?
What are we here for?
What do we mean--
and for whom/what do we mean it?
What do we intend with our life?
Does our life have intentions for itself
that we must intuit/realize/ascertain
and serve with liege loyalty and filial devotion?
How do we know?
How can we be sure?
What if we are just making it all up?

We will be worse off or better off
by the quality of the things we make up.

How we answer these questions
determines everything that follows.

It would behoove us to give ourselves
to these questions
with an appropriate degree of curiosity
and seriousness,
which is to say, playfulness,
and to make our best effort
at a life well-lived--
though this may have no correlation
with ease of life,
wealth and position in society,
and any of the supposed signs 
of a successful life.

So, at the start, we have to understand 
the difference between outward appearance
and inward pleasure and satisfaction,
and being satisfied with appearances
may result in being starkly empty
and disappointed with our inner reality,
and how the way we live can impact either,
or both, inner and outer.

Why are you here?
What are you here for?
What say you?
How do you know?

–0–

05

The Buddha and Jesus never had a chance.
Nothing has a chance. 
Drugs, sex and rock-n-roll carry the day,
every day
through countless ages of days
from the first day to the last.

It has always been about 
drugs, sex and rock-n-roll.

Buddhism and Christianity attest 
to the validity of the statement.

What is the Institution of the Dalai Lama worth?
Or the Vatican--
ignoring for the moment
the value of the holdings worldwide 
of the Church.
Of all the churches.

That wealth represents the victory 
of drugs, sex and rock-n-roll over time.

You can have your Four Noble Truths
and your Sermon on the Mount
but wealth and privilege
are drugs, sex and rock-n-roll
maxed-out in overdrive,
downhill through time what a ride,
with institutional Buddhism and Christianity
joining in the festivities
and dancing into the night 
every night. 

If you aren't saying what they want to hear,
they will spin it into what they want it to say,
and the beat goes on, and on, and on...

Poor ol' Buddha...
Poor ol' Jesus...
Queen, Elvis, the Beatles, et. al.,
have crashed your show,
stolen your thunder,
and led you to the door.

The only thing that sells,
ever has,
ever will, 
is the tried and true,
Drugs, Sex and Rock-n-Roll!

Your own people attest to that. 

–0–

06

The five hallmarks of life are
balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality.

Monitoring these markers
will guide us into doing the things
that support/maintain/sustain them,
and avoid the things 
that deplete/disturb/destroy them.

Our life is our responsibility.
It doesn't "just happen."
It happens consciously/mindfully,
with awareness,
attention,
intention
and aforethought.

Being alive requires our complete participation
in making the choices
which affirm, enable and allow life
to be more than being 98.6 and breathing.

Taking regular readings of our
balance, harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality--
and making the adjustments necessary
to stay in the black and avoid the red--
is the path to the path of a life well-lived. 

01

Honor the Mystery!
That is the essential orientation,
and we spend our entire life
learning what it requires--
and prohibits.

It means abandoning the idea of God,
for one thing.

Treating the Mystery 
as though it is God
is to fail to honor the Mystery.

God has those Ten Commandments,
and his (sic) Chosen People,
and his merit system
for earning his favor
and deserving the accolade,
"Well done, good and faithful servant!
Enter into the joy of your Master!"

The Mystery is not anyone's "Master,"
and does not hand out rewards
and punishments
like some Dandy slave owner would do it.

There is nothing to be gained
and nothing to be lost with the Mystery.
It is all to be enjoyed
and relished
with wonder
and delight.

Life is its own reward,
or its own punishment,
depending on how we live it,
but there is no merit involved.
It is all a matter of attitude,
of perspective,
and of how we do it.

Sincerely, spontaneously,
with no contrivance whatsoever
is how to do it.

Just being here, now,
seeing what's what,
knowing what is happening
and what is called for in response,
and doing what needs to be done
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done
because it needs to be done--
without keeping score
or even noticing what we are doing,
just seeing what's what
and doing what needs to be done,
moment-by-moment,
all our life long--
with joy in what we are doing
(Using our gifts/daemon/virtues/specialties/shtick
to share and serve moment to moment),
and with satisfaction for having done it.

Period.

To do that is to honor the Mystery.
To fail to do that is to miss the point of our life.
To be wrong about what is important.
And to wander lost in the wasteland of discontent forever.

Live to honor the Mystery!

–0–

02

To take away a woman's right to abort her pregnancy
is to force her to remain pregnant against her will.

Oppression hides in denial
behind the phrase "sanctity of life."

Sanctity of life serves and supports COVID vaccines.

Sanctity of life serves and supports gun control measures,
including restricting the types of weapons sold
and the places weapons can be carried.

Sanctity of life serves and supports democracy's promise
of Liberty, Truth, Justice, Equality
for all people--with no discrimination or bias between/among people of any kind, at all, ever.

Sanctity of life serves and supports a livable minimum wage,
affordable health care,
affordable housing,
affordable education through undergraduate school,
affordable child care,
and an atmosphere in which people are honored and respected
and welcomed with kindness and compassion,
and allowed to go about their life
without harm or threat of harm,
and with good faith and genuine care and concern.

Sanctity of life serves and supports an atmosphere/environment
in which people are free to live their life in ways commensurate
with self-awareness, self-development, self-discipline
and personal responsibility,
knowing where they stop and others start,
minding their own business and tending their own affairs,
without intrusion, harassment, intimidation or mistreatment
from other people--
with liberty and justice for all--
where all of our freedom ends where our responsibilities begin.

–0–

03

Things have to play themselves out.

No one is in control.
No one is in charge.
No one is in command. 

Everything depends upon everything else.
Nothing can happen until something else does.

It's a complete mystery
how anything gets done.

Pace and timing, Kid.
Pace and timing.

Time and chance, Kid.
Time and chance.

Nothing can happen before its time.
In the meantime,
it is always the right time for something.

Our place is to discern/perceive
what it is time for here and now,
and to live in the service
of what needs to happen here and now,
doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done
because it needs to be done,
moment-by-moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

Each situation represents
a birthing and a dying
in that we die to our will 
for the situation,
and bring to life 
what is needed in the situation,
at the expense of our own desires.

We submit to the situation
in a "thy will, not mine, be done"
kind of way,
with the "Thy" being the need 
of the situation as a whole.

We belong to the time and place 
of our living,
and live there to share and serve
the gifts/daemon/virtues/specialties/shtick 
that are ours to bring forth
for the good of the whole--
for the joy of what we are doing,
and the satisfaction of having done it.

In so doing,
we participate in the playing out
of what is being played out--
in the coming forth
of what is struggling to come forth,
in the making real
of what needs to be made real,
and in the wonder of miracle, magic
and mystery
that constitutes the heart of life and being,
that happens of itself,
the way all play happens.

The cosmos is the cosmos' way
of playing with itself.
And it is our place to be a 
willing, cooperative, part 
of the dance of life and being.

01

Sit quietly
and observe what happens 
in the silence.
Just watch, listen.
Without engagement--
without being hooked,
kidnapped,
shanghaied,
carried off,
with emotions aroused 
and looking for a fight,
or a pizza,
or anything in between,
or beyond.

If you find yourself responding
to something arising, 
reflect on that.

Ask the questions that beg to be asked,
see what occurs to you in response
to the questions.

Allow the questions to raise,
to lead to,
more questions,
and reflect on all that happens
to the point of new realizations.

You will be following hints and clues
to new discoveries,
and uncovering an infinite wonderland
of ideas and perceptions.

The silence is a doorway
to worlds waiting to be explored,
marvels waiting to be revealed,
and more truth than can be imagined,
and we are imagining it all.

Look around.
Everything not an original part
of the natural world 
came out of someone's imagination.
Out of someone's well of silence.

Everyone would do well to be quiet
more often.

–0–

02

We spend a lot of time
between times.

Like seeds lying fallow in the earth,
we wait for something to happen
to know what to do next.

If we wait long enough,
the roof will begin to leak,
the dog will need to take a leak,
or we will...

Something will happen
requiring us to do something
about what happened.

That's the way life works.

If we don't know what to do
we wait to see what we do
without doing anything more
than waiting it out.

Just wait it out.
Something will happen.

Everything waits for something to happen.

What we do in response
will move us a bit closer
to wherever we will be when we get there.

Until then,
we wait to see--
letting come what's coming
and letting go what's going.

How well we make the adjustments
tells the tale.

–0–

03

Step back from what you want to happen,
and focus on what needs to be done.

What is the situation calling for?
What response can you make 
to the situation
that is the most appropriate one
you can imagine?
Go with that!

There is nothing like wanting
something inappropriate to the occasion
for blocking the flow of life
and interfering with the balance and harmony,
spirit, energy and vitality
in each situation as it arises.

This swamp is an ecosystem
whose needs supersede the needs
of each individual species
composing the ecosystem.
What needs to happen
does not depend upon what any
individual member of the ecosystem
wants to happen.

Wants and needs may coincide
from time to time,
but, for the most part,
want acquiesces to need,
"and the beat goes on."

When want imposes itself on need,
and demands primary consideration,
the beat goes to hell. 

Put what you want in its place,
and serve what needs to be done
in each situation as it comes along,
and allow your life 
to take shape around that priority,
and things will be pretty well,
whether you like it or not.

01

Suffering and sex,
money and power
are the four most over-rated
things in culture and civilization.

All are good/necessary
in their time and place.
Not one warrants the emphasis 
it receives.

Living in the service 
of any of them
disrupts balance and harmony
and introduces chaos and discord
in the lives of their servant-victims.

Vows of poverty and chastity
go too far in the opposite direction,
and the optimal way 
is the middle path among them all.

Robert Ruark had his grandfather
(Perhaps Ned Atkins) say
(In The Old Man and the Boy),
"A fish is only a fish,
and if you make too much of it,
you lose the whole point of it."

The same perspective applies 
to suffering and sex,
money and power.

Making too much of anything 
is one of the things we do best.
And finding the tipping point
between just enough and too much
is a lost art worldwide.

Making our way 
back to the center
is the unrecognized necessity
of every life.

We do that in the silent
consideration of our own extremes
in light of the Good beyond all goods,
which is the recognition
of what needs to happen
in any situation,
and the wherewithal to serve it
above all else--
doing what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done
because it needs to be done,
moment by moment,
situation by situation,
all our life long.

What needs to happen here and now
is always cast aside
in our press to avoid suffering
by enjoying sex, money and power.

That, we say, is what always 
needs to happen.

Believing that prevents us 
from seeing what we look at
and suffering the pain of knowing
what's what,
and what needs to be done about it
with the gifts/daemon/virtues/specialties
that are ours to serve and share,
moment to moment,
situation by situation,
all our life long.

–0–

02

Knowing what needs to be done
and doing it
in each situation as it arises
is the most important thing.

Is the only thing.

Everything else falls out around this.

Until this happens,
everything that happens
is irrelevant,
inconsequential,
beside the point.

The point is knowing what needs to be done
and doing it.
No matter what.
In each situation as it arises.
Forever.

The second-most important thing
is knowing where to draw the line
and drawing it.
In each situation as it arises.
Forever.

The two things,
the first and second,
are two aspects of the same thing.

Knowing what needs to be done
is knowing where to draw the line.
Knowing where to draw the line
is knowing what needs to be done.

The two things require the union of opposites:
Yes and No.
On the one hand this,
and on the other hand, that.

In any situation,
there are contraries
that have to be held together,
joined together,
in the body of those
who bear the pain of polar opposites
in finding the middle way
which results in doing what must be done.

The doing is one thing.
What are we to do?
The question is answered
out of the tension created
by the pull of forces
of chaos and madness
tearing us apart
and presenting us with
The Unchooseable Choice.

When we are damned if we do
and damned if we don't,
our only option is to be damned
and be done with it.
But.
It isn't that easy.

We have to walk two paths 
at the same time
in (practically) each situation
as it arises.

There is what to do
and what to leave undone.
Life comes alive and is lived
at that point.

This is the axis mundi, 
"the still point of the turning world"
(T.S. Eliot).
The World Pole uniting the Cosmic Contradictions
of Yin and Yang,
Love and Hate,
Good and Evil,
Right and Wrong, 
etc.

The place of choice and decision
that determines all that follows
in each situation as it arises.

Our choice, of course,
is to avoid the agony of choosing
and to lose ourselves in the comforting fog
of 10,000 addictions.
Where we neither know nor care
what we are doing,
and live without living
from one high to the next,
oblivious to the reality
of that which needs to be done
(and needs us to do it)
because it hurts too much,
and "All we ever wanted was smooth and easy"
(Ogi Overman).

We walk two paths at the same time
by keeping one eye on the other path
and one eye on this path,
and not losing sight of either path,
bearing the pain
and choosing the choices
required by seeing/knowing/doing
what needs to be done,
here and now,
step by step,
all along the way.
 

01

We don't know what we need to hear
until we hear it.

We don't know what we need to see
until we see it.

We don't know what we need to do
until we do it.

Which puts us at the mercy 
of the Mystery quite beyond us
to lead us,
guide us,
call us
away from
what we think we need to hear,
what we think we need to see,
what we think we need to do
into what we need to hear, see, do.

We cannot separate what we need to hear
from what we want to hear
until we hear it.

We cannot separate what we need to see
from what we want to see
until we see it.

We cannot separate what we need to do
from what we want to do
until we do it.

What does wanting know?
How did wanting get to be 
the director of the show?

We live in bondage to our wants,
to our fear,
to our anger--
wanting to be free to do what we want,
free to give free rein to our fear,
free to express/exhibit our anger--
with no idea of what needs to be done
with any of these emotions.

Desire! Fear! Anger!
Run the show.

Take those away from us
and there is nothing to us.

Desire! Fear! Anger!
Direct our life
and are as close as we can come
to being alive.

They are substitutes for life,
for living,
for being alive.

They are a waste of life.
They close us off from life.
They enclose us,
encase us,
imprison us,
in a life that isn't worth living.

Creativity and imagination 
have no place with us.
Art and poetry have no chance with us.
We live at the mercy
of our Desire! Fear! Anger!
Hide out in our addictions.
Give the Mystery no room 
to work its magic on us.

We do not allow ourselves
to hear, see, do 
anything we haven't already 
heard, seen, done.

And we are careful to hang out
with people just like we are,
in the grip of,
in bondage to,
Desire! Fear! Anger!

For as long as life shall last.

–0–

02

I catch myself saying things
that need to be said/heard
in imaginary dialogues
with people I will never talk to.

These internal dialogues,
carried out in my imagination,
are the sources of new realizations,
insight,
enlightenment,
awakening,
illumination.

It is my way of talking to myself,
of telling myself what I need to hear,
by directing my words 
to someone else
within the confines
of my own mind.

Sit down and talk to your mother.
Tell her what she needed/needs to hear.
Responding to everything she says,
every question she asks,
with what she needed/needs to hear.

Or your father.
Or your brother.
Or your sister.
Or your boss.
Or ...

The conversations will expand your vision,
enlarge your world,
deepen your awareness,
transform your perspective
and change your world
and your life.

And your mother, etc.
will finally get to be
who they should have been
all those years ago.

–0–

03

Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation,
the word is from the Greek God Hermes
(Roman God Mercury).
The Messenger of the Gods (Among other things).

Hermeneutics is my shtick (Among other things).
Saying what's what and what it means.

Getting to the bottom of things.

Asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked.

Saying all of the things 
that cry out to be said.

Getting to the point,
and being fine with being beside the point
(Because points are everywhere
for those with an eye for that kind of thing).

Making sense of things,
insofar as things can make sense.

Finding the right word
for what cannot be said--
in light of Heinrich Zimmer's observation that
"The most important things cannot be said,
and the second-most important things are misunderstood,
so the third-most important things
are what we talk about
(News/weather/sports/opinion/inanity...)--
even though it can only be heard 
by those who have been waiting to hear
what is being said
all their life long,
and didn't know it
until they heard it.

Leaving everyone else to wonder,
"Why doesn't he talk to us
about things we can understand?"

Mine is the Umwelt of ambiguity and obscurity,
of understatement and overstatement,
the world of the Delphic Oracle,
opaque and enigmatic
where the same thing
can be read/understood in different ways.

Because the world is such
that the same thing can be 
read/understood in different ways.
And how we understand it
depends as much on who we are
and how we see things
as it does on what we are looking at,
trying to see.

Mine is a work that cannot be done.
Mercury is Hermes' other name.
Mercury is Quicksilver, 
slippery,
impossible to pick up
or pin down,
incapable of being hemmed-in 
or defined, understood, explained.

My thing is to get to the bottom of things,
without words to say what is there
beyond pointing to the truth
using art, music, nature and play--
including play-on-words--
as mediums of transmission and comprehension.

It is a hoot and a wonder,
and I don't know anyone better-suited for the job
than I am.
I'm delighted to be chosen for the task!

–0–

04

Helen Keller found her life to be exceptionally 
meaningful and interesting. 

Meaning is what we make it out to be. 

What our life means is what it means to us.

Helen Keller lived meaningfully.

What inhibits/stops us from doing the same thing?

We all deal with the same set-up.

There is what happens
and there is what we think about what happens,
and there is what we do about what happens.

There is what happens
and there is our attitude about what happens,
and there is what we do in response to what happens.

There is a lot in the category of what happens
that we cannot do anything about.

We have pretty much complete control
in the categories of our attitude about what happens
and what we do in response to what happens.

That is where we come in.
Get to work.
Transform the world.
By transforming the way we think about the world.

Batter up!
(See what you can do with
this guy's curve ball).

01

Being healthy is an end in itself.
Being healthy in the service
of ends worthy of us
is the best we can hope for
in terms of fulfillment and satisfaction,
although we may have nothing
"to show for it."

Having something "to show for it,"
in terms of wealth,
power,
prestige,
standing,
admiration of others, 
etc.,
is our idea of what life is about.

We want to be a Lord.
A King.
A Queen.
And flaunt "us" about the town,
or, better, the world.

The catch is that having something
"to show for it,"
imposes restrictions
and obligations
on us
which interfere with a healthy lifestyle.

The end interferes with the means,
and we shoot ourselves in the foot
trying to have what we want
and what we also want,
which are mutually exclusive,
but we do not recognize that,
understand it,
and give up the end of 
"having something to show for it,"
in favor of the means,
living a healthy lifestyle.

Being healthy in the service of health
is optimal, ideal, peak, perfection,
the purpose and the end of existence.

This is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

And we throw it away in striving to have people
think we are something.

We want to be wealthy
and have them know we are wealthy.

What is the point of wealth 
that is hidden away?
That nobody knows about?
That we can't use for esteem and glory?
Buying politicians
and serving ends that are worthless,
mean, stressful, evil and unhealthy
for all people, 
us included?

Being healthy
and living/serving
a health producing life
is the best there is.
And we (Adam and Eve) think
we can make it better.

And here we are.
Awash in better.

Living a healthy life
requires us to simply be here now,
in doing what needs to be done here now.
With no fringe benefits whatsoever.

We think it's about the fringe benefits.

It's about being healthy,
living healthfully. 
In the service of the true good of all.

Health in the service of health,
with nothing beyond health
to have or want or desire or attain.

Living to be alive.
Is all there is to it.

Why isn't that enough?

Milk your cow.
Sell your eggs.
Dance at your children's
and grandchildren's
weddings.
The life of Tevya and Golda
before the world of
want/desire/attain
closed in.

The life of Adam and Eve
before their Big Idea.

Why isn't that enough?

Particularly when we understand
that the fringe benefits
destroy health,
and something has to go?

–0–

02

How often in a day,
okay, in a week.
Okay, in a year.

Do you do something that is completely spontaneous,
straight from the heart,
that resonates with you 
and brings forth an automatic response from you
in the service of what needs to be done?

That kind of action is completely uncontrived.
Totally sincere.
Entirely honest.
It is "the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth."

Why isn't the majority of our life that way?
It is a serious question.
Why?

Why isn't our life directed by our heart?
Why do we live in the service of what 
we take to be our best interest
(As though we know what that is!)?

Why do we live to gain the advantage,
to reap the benefits,
to enjoy the privileges 
inherent in and flowing from
being smart,
and savvy,
and calculating,
and crafty,
and sly...?

Why do we think wanting knows what it is doing?
That if we want something
we must have it or all is empty, void, meaningless?
What does wanting know?
We can want what we have no business having!

How do we know what's worth having?
Listen to our heart!
Listen to our body
(our bones--what we know in our bones)
(our stomach--that gut feeling).
Listen to our nighttime dreams.
Live spontaneously.
It isn't difficult.

It is just unheard of.

–0–

03

"When the flower opens, 
the bees appear."

"When the student is ready,
the teacher appears."

Readiness cannot be hurried.
The teacher cannot teach someone
not ready for the lesson.

We cannot get nectar 
from a flower that isn't open.

Patience with the process of our life
is waiting until the time is right--
waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear--
waiting for the shift to happen
and the Way to open before us.
Waiting for clarity
and direction.

Watching, waiting.
Looking, listening.
For the time to be at hand.

In the meantime,
while we watch and wait,
we do what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done.

So that all is well
even as we wait, 
watching.

01

Our choices got us where we are.
Our choices will get us where we are going.
Who knows where they are going?
Who knew we were going where we are?
What are choices good for, really?

The primary choice is Yes or No.
How do we know?
Upon what does our choice 
between Yes and No depend?

If we choose some form of addiction
to be free of the pressure
of being right about 
choosing between un-choose-able choices,
we chose poorly.

Addiction clouds our choosing-ability.
Then, we choose to remain addicted.
Until we are forced to choose not to.

We have to bear the pain.
The pain is the agony of being alive,
not knowing what we are doing,
and/or being unable to do 
what needs to be done
because circumstances will not allow it.

And we can avoid un-choose-able choices
only so long.
Eventually, we land in the hot spot,
with no way of knowing what to do.
Are we better off here or there?
Doing this or that?
Who knows?
Only time will tell.
In the meantime, we bear the pain.

Do not resort to addiction.
Addiction can feel like 
it is all balance and harmony,
spirit, energy, vitality,
until it doesn't.

We can fool ourselves about
better and worse.
What seems to be better
can be way worse.
What seems to be worse
can be way better.
Who knows?
How can we tell,
when only time will tell?

Listen to your heart.
Listen to your body
(What do you know "in your bones"?
What does your stomach--
that old gut feeling--know?

Listen to your nighttime dreams.
Listen to your daytime hunches.

Be aware of everything.

Spend time with the silence,
looking, listening,
seeing, hearing,
all that is going on there.

Take your time.

Wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

Being aware of everything.

Looking, listening for a sign.
For multiple signs.
Checking everything out
with your heart,
your body,
your nighttime dreams
your daytime hunches.

Trusting your luck.

Again.

I know where to place the tripod,
where to stand to take a photograph.
But then,
I move the tripod around
and take the photo from different locations.
And choose the best picture--
the one I think is best at the time--
when I look at them on my computer,
and may go back to the scene
and take some more.

I really don't know anything
about where to place the tripod,
or where to stand to take a photograph.
Or which photo is going to be pleasing
in ten years.
Or twenty.

Only time will tell.

So don't have to be right.

Make a choice and see what choices
that choice will require.
And make them when it becomes clear
that they need to be made.

Here we go again.

It takes a lot of looking
to be able to see.

–0–

02

If you feel as though your life
isn't working out to suit you,
you can work on your life,
or you can work on your attitude.

Working on either or both might improve your life.
But nothing is going to change
until something does.
What are you going to do to change things?
What would be a worthy first step?

Take it.
Then take the next one.

You're off!

01

What are the forces of destabilization 
in your life?

In what way do they stir up
fear, desire, anger?

What is interfering with your balance and harmony?

In what way does that stir up
fear, desire, anger?

This photograph of a barn on Mormon Row,
restores my stability
and brings balance and harmony,
peace and calm
back into my life,
as does every photograph I take,
and process,
edit
and publish.

There is a sense of rightness for me
about each one,
they transport me 
to "a place of quiet rest,"
and serve as a counter-weight
to "the dust of the world,"
and "the noise of the 10,000 things,"
creating the possibility 
of "just being,"
"here and now."

Every photograph I take,
process,
edit 
and publish
is a portal,
a threshold,
a portkey
to balance and harmony,
spirit, energy, vitality,
light and life.

They restore my soul,
restore my contact with my soul,
and make for peace.

They all are momentary breaks
in my day,
reminding me of the ground
beneath my feet,
"the air beneath my wings."

And equipping me for the work 
that is to be done,
in aligning myself with the way,
taking stock of what's what,
and what needs to be done,
and how I might best assist
what needs to happen
with the gifts/shtick/virtues/specialties/etc.
that are mine to serve and to share,
here and now,
moment-by-moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all my life long.

In walking two paths at the same time,
and being in the world without being of it.

May you have such an anchoring device (or more than one)
in your life
which you return to on a regular/recurring basis,
reminding you of what's important
and helping you maintain your accord with the path,
and your connection with the Mystery at the Heart
of Life and Being.

–0–

02

There is dying and there is like dying.
There is death and there is like death.
There is being dead and there is like being dead.

Death is a fact and death is a metaphor
for refusing the requirements of life--
for saying no to life as it is 
and as it is asking us to be.

Growing up is like dying.
Again and again.

Growing up is going against the grain,
swimming against the current,
and it is going with the flow,
living in harmony with the times,
doing what we are being asked to do
in the here and now of our living.

To not do that is to die
to the rhythm of life,
to be as good as dead.

In every moment,
we have to do what is being asked of us
by the moment.

We are here to do what is needed
with the gifts/specialties/shtick/virtues/etc.
that are ours to serve and share
in each situation as it arises.

We are not here to exploit the situation
to our gain/advantage/benefit.

This is the Eden/Gethsemane Axis,
the pole connecting the polarities
that define our existence.

Eden is the metaphor for having our way
no matter what.

Gethsemane is the metaphor for 
submitting/acquiescing/surrendering
to that which needs our cooperation/affiliation/
support/service
no matter what.

Either way we are going to die.

One way is a death that leads to death.
One way is a death that leads to life.
What kind of death are we going to die
before we are dead and buried? 

–0–

03

We cannot change how things are
without changing our attitude/perspective
about how things ought to be.

How things are is a function
of how we think things ought to be--
and, more importantly,
how we think things ought NOT be.

To be concise:
We have to change our mind
about what we think is important.

We can change our mind
or our circumstances will do it for us.

Climate change, for example.

We see what is happening to Miami. 

People wanted to live in highrise condos
on the beach.
There is a story somewhere
about a man who built his house on sand.
Didn't work out so well.
But he could get to the beach
just by walking out his front door.

He had to change his mind
about what was important.

We need to change our mind about
a lot of things.

Some of us don't want to live together
with people who are not like they are.

We all have to cut some slack,
make some room,
create an environment in which
everyone is welcome and safe
and treated equal to everyone else.

Money is the great division maker.
Wealth likes walls.
But somebody has to haul off the garbage.
You can buy an island,
but what are you going
to do with the garbage?
And who is going to
take care of your plumbing?

Wealth likes walls,
but we all flush and throw stuff away.
People not like us take care of us
all the time.
Getting rid of them
leaves it up to us 
to haul away our own garbage
and do our own plumbing.
Not what we had in mind.

We have to change our minds
about what matters most
to have a chance in a changing world.

01

The worst people kill the best people.
And when the best people stand up
for what is truly best 
and kill the worst people,
as in World War II,
75 years or so later
it is like the worst people
won that war.

And the Civil war never ended.
It has to be re-fought daily
because the worst people don't 
really die
and never go away.

The best people have to steel themselves
for their task
of getting up each day
and going at it full bore
in the service of Truth, Justice, Equality, Freedom,
as though it were the very first day,
because the fight is never over.

It is always only just begun.

–0–

02

Do not look for anything "out there"
to pick you up
and keep you going.
We are only going to find that "in here."

We live organically,
from the inside out
and the bottom up.

It would help to know that from the start.

"What would like to be when you grow up,"
wouldn't be answered with "A doctor,"
or "A teacher,"
but with "Honest," or "Perceptive," or "Wise."

We were born to be a certain way,
to do certain things,
with tools specifically included
to do the things that are ours to do.
We are equipped for the adventure
that is ours to have,
for the work that is ours to do--
and we have no way of knowing 
what any of this is.

That is what parents are for,
but,
they don't know either,
what is theirs to do,
or how to help us find
what is ours to do.

We all have to knock around 
for a few years
experimenting,
exploring,
investigating,
learning to listen to ourselves,
to sit with the silence
and see what emerges,
to find out where we belong
and where we have no business being.

But.
We aren't handed a few years
and told to go on a vision quest
and not let anything keep us from 
seeking to see what we look at
and knowing what we know.

So.
We have to work in the search on the side.
Exploring on the sly.
Experimenting in ways
that make it look like we are going 
along with the crowd,
but always looking, watching, searching,
listening, feeling...

"Not this, not this," is the easiest thing to know.
Keep looking.
Keep listening.
Listening particularly to our heart,
to our body,
to our nighttime dreams
and our daytime flights of fantasy,
noticing what attracts us
and what repels us
and where our interest
and our aptitudes lie.

Our life is a hunt for what matters,
for what we love most,
for what we do best.
It's the Hot and Cold game
from daylight to dark.
Now we're getting warmer,
now we are freezing to death...

We live to find our life and live it.
To find the Way and live in accord with it.
To know and be who we are.

Everything that happens is an opportunity
to know more than we knew 
before it happened.

Over time, we narrow our search,
homing in on what calls our name.
Knowing what it is not
is a step on the way to knowing what it is.

Keep living.
Keep looking.
Keep seeking.
Keep searching.
Becoming more like we are to be each day
than we were the day before,
throughout the time left for living--
knowing that we are living the adventure
the entire time.

The adventure of being alive,
in search of the treasure
that is buried deep inside each of us,
waiting to be found,
whispering to us,
calling our name.