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?
Dogwood 06 2021 Oil Paint Rendered — Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina
Everything waits for the right thing
to be said,
done,
in the right place,
at the right time,
in the right way.
Every situation is dying
for a dose of the right thing.
How long has it been
since the right thing
came your way?
Since you brought it forth
with word and deed?
Each day dawns
hoping for the right thing
somewhere
today.
How many days die
without the right thing
coming forth as blessing and grace
anywhere.
So many people everywhere
living in the service
of the wrong thing.
Living as stewards
of the wrong thing.
Living as devoted disiples
of the wrong thing.
Saying and doing wrong
everywhere they go.
Not caring.
Happy to be being wrong
for every situation they meet.
Who is there to offset their influence?
To introduce the right thing
into the circumstances of their living?
To be right for the time
that is at hand?
To care about the things
that need to be cared about?
About the people languishing
for a kind word,
a gentle presence,
offered at the right time,
in the right way?
Who is there to nudge the world
back to the right way
of being present for the good
of the whole
and all of its parts,
with the right word
and the right deed
in the right place
at the right time
in the right way?
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02
Path Through Spring Oil Paint Rendered –Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Greenbriar District, Cosby, Tennessee
Sit with it.
With everything.
With each thing.
Sit with it.
Rushing past this to that
keeps us from squaring up
to any of it.
From being aware of it.
From seeing it.
From seeing what is called for.
From orienting ourselves to it
in the right way
and coming forth
with the right response.
Riding our default reaction
from this to that
throughout the landscape
litters the land
with missed opportunities
for the good to fall
like welcome rain
on a parched and dying world.
Sitting with it
opens the wellspring of living waters
pouring out,
spilling over
as grace and hope
for what might yet be.
Sit with it
and see what emerges
to redeem the moment
and light the path
to the next sitting place
and the next miracle
hoping to be birthed
with the right response,
at the right time,
in the right way.
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03
The Bridge Oil Paint Rendered — Bass Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Do what needs to be done
because it needs to be done
as best you can
whether it does any good or not.
Be good for nothing.
As best you can.
In each situation as it arises.
All your life long.
No one can do better than that.
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04
Roadside Cascade 03 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, North Carolina
We say "God" as though we have said something
when we say "God."
We can get into fits and rages arguing about "God,"
and no one knows what they are talking about.
We are talking about "ideas" about "God."
Whose ideas? It depends, but all we know of "God"
is something somebody else said.
We also talk about "life" as though we know
what we are talking about,
but no one knows what "life" is,
or where it comes from,
or where it goes,
except that some of us are certain that
"life" comes from "God"
and goes back to "God."
"Electricity," "microwaves," "radio waves," "death,"
The list is long of things we do not comprehend.
"Conscious," "unconscious," "self," "soul," "love,"...
We are awash in mystery
and we haven't been astonished or astounded all day.
Which is something else I can make no sense of.
Goodale Mirror Mirror Oil Paint Rendered — Adams Mill Pond, Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Living from the center
of our Original Nature,
seeking the Source of Life and Being,
embracing the Mystery at the heart of it all,
we become the Messiah,
The Anointed One,
come to set others free
to live from the center
of their own Original Nature,
seeking the Source of Life and Being,
embracing the Mystery at the heart of it all...
And so it is passed
from one to another,
the secret of doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
in each moment
of every situation as it arises,
all our life long.
Living well is responding well
to the circumstances of life
day in and day out,
with nothing in it for us
beyond living our life
as it needs to be lived
one moment at a time.
See what you look at,
listen to what you are hearing,
know what's what
and what needs to be done about it,
and do it.
Time after time.
"Without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat, "Doctor Who").
Smiling.
Laughing.
Because it needs to be done.
Because it needs us to do it.
And here we are.
Why not?
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02
Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 03 Oil Paint Rendered — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Fort Mill, South Carolina
We have four problems:
Knowing what is happening,
Knowing what needs to be done about it,
Knowing what we can do about that,
Doing it.
That's it.
Everything falls into place around
these four things.
In order for these four things to happen,
we need a perspective
that takes itself into account,
and enough distance between ourselves
and what is happening
to allow observation and reflection
to the point of realization,
and from there,
it comes down to courage.
My own, personal, path to being courageous
is to tell myself,
"I owe it to myself to find out
if I have anything to be afraid of."
Which means doing what I am afraid of.
The only way to know if our ghosts and goblins
are real
is to walk up to them
and spit in their eye--
prepared to deal with any outcome,
and trusting ourselves
to know what to do,
and do it,
no matter what happens.
Knowing what to do comes from
living from the center of our Original Nature,
and letting whatever happens happen,
continuing to live from the center
of our Original Nature
through it all.
We build up a very strong bond
with our Original Nature this way,
and with that as our anchor
to the rock of who we are,
we take the position of Ulysses
in being able to declare,
"I will persevere and endure.
And when the heaving sea
has shaken my raft to pieces,
then I will swim!"
The ghost and goblins will have
met their match.
And we will be reliably who we are
in each situation as it arises.
That is the optimal position
from which to live our life
through what remains of the time left for living.
Be there.
Do that.
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03
Overlooks October 2019 Panorama Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
There are at least two things
about the Dalai Lama that are instructive
and helpful at this point in our collective life.
The first reflects the Zen saying,
"If you meet an elephant coming toward you
along the path--
GET OFF THE PATH!!!"
When China invaded and destroyed Tibet,
the Dalai Lama got out of town,
out of the country,
and took refuge in Pakistan.
The Dalai Lama saw what was happening
and knew what to do in response.
That is the first thing.
The second thing is like unto it.
The Dalai Lama is the shinning light
of compassion wherever he goes.
He has never said a disparaging word about China,
or the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
His demeanor is one of loving-kindness and humility.
He espouses love for one another and all others
all of the time.
And yet, and yet...
The Dalai Lama's bodyguards carry automatic weapons.
The Dalai Lama is no fool.
The Dalai Lama is the living example
of the importance of embodying Yin and Yang
in our daily life.
Integrating the opposites.
Harmonizing the contradictions.
Balancing the dichotomies.
Living out of the tension of the polarities.
Dancing with the contraries.
Bearing the pain of incompatible truths.
Maintaining the peace and serenity of the center
"between the hands"
(On the one hand, this, and on the other hand, that).
These two things are how it is to be with us.
We harmonize, balance, keep the peace
between opposing forces.
And bear in our body the marks of the cross--
the cross of irreconcilable poles,
treating the important things
as though they are important
without taking anything seriously.
Find that balance point
and you become the source of harmony
the world is dying for.
And you find that you are able
to do what needs to be done
when and where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
With equanimity, balance and harmony,
homeostasis and equilibrium--
like a gyroscope turning out of its own center,
stabilizing all the world.
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04
Parkway Overlooks Panorama 10/29/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia
Which would you prefer:
to be loved,
or to be treated lovingly?
Think of Jesus' command
to "Love your neighbor
as you love yourself"
in this light.
Jesus doesn't care how we feel
about your neighbor.
Jesus cares about how we treat your neighbor.
When white supremacists say,
"I don't hate black people,"
but black people can't tell the difference
between being hated and not being hated,
they may a well hate black people
for all the good not hating them does them.
The idea is to treat all people of color lovingly,
along with all other people.
So they cannot tell whether we love them or not--
and don't care.
Believe whatever it takes
to treat all people lovingly.
That is as much theology as anyone needs.
Little Pigeon River, April, 2008, Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Think of Karma as the other side of Tao.
Living in accord with the Tao
creates good Karma.
Living out of accord with the Tao
creates bad Karma.
Living in accord with the Tao
creates balance and harmony.
Living out of accord with the Tao
creates complexity and chaos.
We add complexity and chaos to our life
by living out of accord with the Tao.
When we diss the Tao,
dismiss the Tao,
disregard the Tao,
deny the Tao,
fail/refuse to respect and honor the Tao,
we build bad Karma
that spills over into generations yet unborn.
The world has been building bad Karma
for as long as there have been people in the world.
The story of Adam and Eve symbolizes
all people through the ages.
They live in Paradise
and think they can improve it.
People have their ideas for making things better.
Wealth was our worst idea.
The world will never get over that one.
That one is destroying the planet.
And is capable of destroying the cosmos.
Wealth frees us from the constraints
built into the system,
and expands our power for creating
complexity and chaos exponentially.
Before wealth,
the world slogged around
in opinions and preferences.
Things were bad,
but they were not capable
of the total destruction
of the self-correcting system
of Karma and Tao.
With wealth,
things quickly got out of hand.
Wealth is a tsunami of destruction
whipping around the world,
building speed and power
over generations.
It is the bad Karma it creates.
Bad Karma creating bad karma by the moment
leaves no room for recovery.
The Tao is trashed.
Good Karma is a distant memory.
Bad goes to worse and the worst is at the door.
Which gets us to us,
here and now.
It is incumbent upon us,
here and now,
to put ourselves in accord with the Tao
and live in ways which honor Karma,
by seeing what needs to be done
and doing it the way it needs to be done
in each moment of each situation
as it arises--
with sincerity and spontaneity,
without contrivance and exploitation--
to be good for the moment
for the good of the moment,
with nothing else in mind.
To live like this is to live truthfully
and prayerfully--
it is to be the prayer we would say,
doing the things we would ask to be done for us.
We now ask them to be done through us,
and engage the power of prayer
by initiating the work of prayer
in lives aligned with the Tao
for the true good of all concerned,
with humility and compassion for every living thing.
Will you do that to the best of your ability,
day by day--
"without hope,
without witness,
without reward"
(Steven Moffat, Doctor Who)?
That is the hope of the world.
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02
Jenny Adams OP — Harbor River, Beaufort County, South Carolina
We are primarily motivated by fear, anger and desire.
We live to get, acquire, possess, have, own, amass
and to keep from losing anything.
Ours is a foraging, aggressive, ambitious, driven stock.
We are from the steppes and the deserts,
invading, ransacking, pillaging, destroying, laying waste--
never satisfied, never quiet, never at peace.
Always looking for triumph and victory,
to vanquish and conquer,
plunder and loot.
Outer Space is just another booty source
awaiting our corporate takeover.
It isn't just about the money or the fame.
It is about taking their women and their horses
and leaving them hanging by their necks,
twisting in the wind.
Take that bent and try to civilize it,
and you get pretty much what you see everyday.
The dregs of Viking raiders
with no seas safe to sail.
It's all gone to Mafia Bosses
and their organizations running the world
behind a facade of life as it ought to be.
"Promise them anything and do what you want!"
reads: "Take their women and their horses
and leave them to the wind!"
Where is the Sherif that isn't on their payroll?
The Judges that aren't on the take?
The presidents and the princes/kings
not in their little black books?
Leaving the people with what?
Protest and Truth!
We all are Alexei Navalny!
It is all that is left to be!
We shepherd the Tao
and live as stewards of Dharma--
seeing and doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
here and now,
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises.
Simple acts of kindness and compassion,
grace and mercy,
peace and love
as servants of Protest and Truth.
Our Sisyphean Task for the rest of time!
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03
Price Lake Mirror Oil Paint Rendered — Julian Price Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Theology robs us of our role as truth-bearers
by telling us what to believe
and what to do.
That is our place to determine
and to effect.
"Why don't you judge for yourselves
what is right?"
Jesus puts it to us exactly as it ought to be.
We are to see what is right and do it.
Moment-by-moment
in each situation as it arises.
We cannot even be thinking,
"What would Jesus do?"
What will WE do is the question?
"Who do YOU say that I am?"
What do WE say is right?
We are the authority governing
how we live and what we live for.
No one can do that for us.
Not the theologians.
Not the preachers.
Not the popes, cardinals, bishops...
We are on our own.
How shall we proceed?
Prayerfully!
Only prayer as it ought to be,
not as it is.
Living prayerfully is living truthfully!
Prayer is openness to truth.
Truth is realization born of experience.
Prayer is openness to the truth of experience
with everything on the line.
What is happening here, now?
What is being called for?
We step into each moment
out of our experience
with each preceding moment,
alert to what those moments
can show us about this moment
and how we might best respond to it.
Prayerful, mindful, reflection and awareness
guides our acting on the field of action.
Prayer is more than Thanksgiving, Intercession,
Petition, Confession and Praise.
Prayer is Looking/Listening/Seeing/Hearing/
Knowing/Understanding/Being/Doing.
Living from the place of this kind of prayer
is living from the center of what matters most,
from the source of Life and Being,
from the Mystery at the heart of who we are.
We live to be who we are
within the context and circumstances of our life.
Jesus couldn't do more.
We are born to do as much.
We do it prayerfully, truthfully,
with self-transparency,
sincerity
and spontaneity,
balance and harmony,
and the virtues, gifts and daemon
(sounds like "diamond")
that came with us from the womb.
Deciding for ourselves what is right,
here and now,
and what to do about it,
all our life long.
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04
Yellow Maples Oil Paint Rendered — Greensboro, North Carolina
How do you know what to do?
Seriously.
How do you decide what to do?
We are doing constantly
throughout the day
every day.
What leads us to do one thing
and not another?
What is the process by which you decide
when to do what and how?
We are here, now,
by virtue of the decisions/choices we made
from birth to here, now.
What guided us in making those decisions/choices?
How did we know what to do?
Why that and not something else instead?
What leads you to do what you do?
When to do it?
Sit down with these question
and all of the questions they raise,
until you stir realization into being.
What guides your boat on its path through the sea?
What alternatives can you imagine?
How might you go about changing
the way you make decisions about what to do?
Are you willing to experiment?
To try new ways of deciding?
If not, why not?
What are you afraid of?
What keeps things as they are in your life?
Search out the answers.
See what you find!
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05
Gifts From The Sea Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Harlan Howard's line that
"country music is three cords and the truth,"
begs the question,
"How truthful is truth that conceals truth?"
"That denies truth?"
"That pretends what is 'Also Truth'
doesn't deserve a spot on the charts?"
Flip through those country music charts
for the truth about racism,
homosexuality,
trans-gender men and women, girls and boys,
misogyny,
sex-trafficking...
the list is long.
The themes propounding "The Truth"
are few,
and worn,
and recurring--
because that is all
anyone cares to hear.
Truth is the least popular item
in any genre on any day.
"You can take your truth and shove it"
sounds like the title
to a hot country song.
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06
First of Fall 09/28/2020 02 Oil Paint Rendered — Sumac, 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
See what needs to be done
and do it.
Nothing to it.
Then do it again.
And again.
To The End.
That’s all there is to it.
Loneliness gets to be a problem,
particularly with the realization
that it is all up to us.
But it is always all up to us.
Marianne Moore said,
"The cure for loneliness is solitude."
The work is transforming our relationship
with ourselves.
With our Original, Innate, Nature.
We are more than capable
of seeing what needs to be done
and doing it.
We all have what it takes to do that.
We have made it this far,
we can make it all the way,
just by seeing what needs to be done
and doing it.
And by relying on our Original Nature
to be with us
as Guardian, Guide and Friend
all the way.
Work on making the Other You
a real and present force/friend in your life.
Pay attention to her/his presence,
her/his reality,
her/his dependability,
her/his caring, devoted, help--
your "very present help in time of trouble,"
and all other times as well.
The Other You is always there,
and will always be there.
Find ways of connecting with
this side of yourself,
become real to you.
Trust yourself to be what you need
in all times and places.
And you will never be alone again.
Carver’s Gap North Carolina Tennessee Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain Highlands/Appalachian Trail
Our orientation has to flow out of,
and be in sync with,
the wholeness of our being
in space and time.
What is wholly us about us?
Hold that thought.
The phrase "raised from the dead"
has to be understood
metaphorically,
symbolically,
spiritually,
psychologically--
not actually,
physically,
literally.
We can be "raised from the dead"
and "restored to life"
in a number of ways
that have nothing to do
with being 98.6 and breathing.
The complete and utter failure
of Biblical theology
to take this into account
and build a framework around it
in structuring "the story of salvation"
as it relates to Jesus of Nazareth
is the greatest failure
of hermeneutics and creative imagination
in the entire history of religion.
Not that it wasn't attempted.
There have been a number of movements
in this direction through the ages,
all of which were violently opposed
by the forces favoring a united voice
speaking as one church to all people.
And we are more fractured,
hostile
and antagonistic religiously
than we could have ever been
taking a "wholistic but not universally united"
approach to "salvation."
With that, we are back where we came in:
What is wholly us about us?
Being "raised from the dead"
and "restored to life"
is being reunited
with what is wholly us about us.
It is "turning the light around"
and being integrated,
consolidated,
joined together
with ourselves--
with our Original, Innate, Nature--
with who we are and always have been!
This is the journey from The Primary Mask
back to The Antithetical Mask
that Joseph Campbell offered as
the task of maturation,
the work of growing up.
It is an experience with death and resurrection,
with repentance, confession,
redemption and atonement--
only it is not "coming to Jesus"
but coming to ourselves!
“We shall not cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started.
And know the place for the first time"
(T.S. Eliot).
What is wholly us about us?
Go there!
Be that!
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02
Grand Canyon 01 Oil Paint Rendered –South Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Everything comes right out
of our imagination.
We make it all up.
We are the reason
things are what they are.
Revelation is realization.
We realize what we realize
by making connections
in our imagination.
Waking up is becoming aware
of unconscious arcs of association
between/among previously unlinked
ideas/experiences.
And fire leaps into being,
and the wheel rolls into view,
and the iron age is born
and here we are,
sitting in the cat bird's seat,
smiling like a pig in a corn patch,
enjoying the benefits
of a 1,400 CC brain.
And cursed by all of the deficits.
Superstition.
Racism.
All of the isms.
All of the gods.
All of the false dichotomies,
and the false equivalencies,
and the false assumptions
inferences,
conclusions,
prejudices,
biases...
The list is long.
Right out of our imagination.
And so the need to think about
our thinking,
to see our seeing,
to know what we know
and what we do not know.
So that we might avoid
falling into holes we've dug
for ourselves,
and living in corners
we've painted ourselves into,
and making messes
that cannot be cleaned up
while we can.
Swanquarter Mooring 01 OP — Hyde County, North Carolina
Genghis Khan lamented
that conquering and governing
were two different ways of life,
and mutually exclusive.
Conquers cannot govern.
It is the difference between
ruthlessness and kindness.
The Genesis command
to "fill the earth and subdue it"
is not a call to be
stewards of the earth
but a directive to conquer the earth
as though it were booty
and not home.
Laying waste to life
is no way to honor and revere life.
The desert nomads
had no experience with
tenderness and mercy.
They could win the victory,
but then what?
The Tao te Ching speaks to
the futility of war,
saying, in essence,
"To win the war is to lose the point."
The point is living together
in ways that benefit everyone
by taking everything into account.
"Do your work and step back,
letting nature take its course."
Our work has to be done in the right way,
at the right time,
and serve the true good of all concerned.
No contrivance.
No exploitation.
No seeking personal advantage,
profit,
benefit,
gain.
Subduing and conquering miss the point.
And subduing and conquering
are all we know.
Police subdue and conquer.
And everybody suffers
from their refusal
to govern with compassion and grace.
We need stewards of life and property.
Not bullies with guns and choke holds.
Too many in law enforcement
have agendas at odds with
their mission of peacekeepers.
Being peaceful themselves
is the first step.
Force is to be the last resort,
not the first impulse.
Help me pass the word.
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02
Big Bay Creek Panorama 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Edisto Island, South Carolina
We have to be ready for anything.
We can have our plans and agendas,
but life is always
coming along to carry us away
to a place quite different
from anything we had in mind--
or would ever imagine--
Our place is to be carried along.
That's how we got here.
It is how we will get
to wherever we are going.
We may think we are achieving,
accomplishing,
succeeding,
triumphing,
conquering...
but all the while,
we are being carried along
by forces we cannot comprehend
through times and places
we cannot make sense of
to where we do not know.
There is no destination.
"There is only the dance"
(T. S. Eliot).
Which makes this moment
the only moment,
the most precious moment.
Now matters most.
How do we do now?
That is the question
from here on out.
How do we do this,
right now?
How we do this, now,
leads to all that follows.
Doing this well--
the way it needs to be done--
has implications
for the rest of our life.
We hold eternity in the palm of our hand.
There is no destination.
There is only here, now.
What's next is only an extension,
no matter how different it is,
it is just another here, now.
We practice doing that well
by doing this well.
Here, now.
–0–
03
New River Gorge National Park Oil Paint Rendered — Glen Jean, West Virginia
Look around.
We would prefer for a lot of things
to be something other than they are,
but we have no reason to expect anything
to be different than it is.
Flip a coin.
It's going to come up heads or tails.
Why go off on it being one and not the other?
If things were different than they are
how much of that do you think
we would want to be different still?
It doesn't matter how things are,
we have to work with them however they are.
Our work is the same no matter what.
We look around, see what needs to be done,
and do it as best we can
with the gifts, genius, daemon (sounds like "diamond")
knacks, virtues, interests and qualities
that came with us from the womb.
We bring our Original Nature to bear upon
our circumstances in each situation as it arises.
And that's that.
It doesn't matter what our circumstances are
Our Original Nature remains the same,
and our work in integrating our Nature
with our circumstances remains the same.
Our place is to see how things are and get to work.
Heads or tails.
It's all the same to us.
Why get bent out of shape by it?
Just get to work!
Doing what needs to be done,
how it needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
in each situation as it arises,
all day,
every day.
This is our Sisyphean Task
throughout our life.
How we approach it makes all the difference!
Hanging Rock 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina, Overlooking the Piedmont
Nothing is more important than
being right about what is important,
and serving it with your life
through each situation
as it arises
from beginning to end.
The same thing goes for what matters most.
Human beings throughout time,
have been famous
for missing the point of their life,
striving for the wrong ends,
using means inappropriate to the occasion
and barking up the wrong tree.
For not having a clue about what's important.
We have done what everybody else was doing
in the service of what everybody else
said was important.
Or done what somebody else
told us was important.
Lived to please the wrong people,
and spent our life doing the wrong things.
Jesus said it best:
"Why don't you judge for yourselves
what is right?"
What is right?
Who says so?
What do you say?
How do you know if you are right
about what is right?
Take up the quest
to discover who guides your boat
on its path through the sea.
Who tells you what is right
and what is wrong,
what is good,
what is bad,
what is important,
what matters most.
And what makes you think
they know what they are talking about?
Or, do you just not want
the responsibility yourself,
and don't care if they know
what they are saying or not?
If you were all alone in the world,
how would you decide/know what to do?
–0–
02
AT Through A Hemlock Forest 06/25/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain Highlands, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina, Tennessee
The Bible is a collection of writings
from people about what they thought
was important,
collected by people who thought
what they had to say was important.
It belongs to,
and needs to be read
in conjunction with,
all similar writings by other people
throughout time,
as a source of reflection
for our own ruminations
regarding what is important,
and a pathway to realization
as we make connections,
find similarities,
uncover themes and trends,
ask all the questions that beg to be asked
(And all the questions their answers
beg to be asked)
in forming our own idea
about what matters most,
finding our own center,
anchoring ourselves onto our own foundation,
and living in light of,
and in service to,
what we know to be important
out of our own experience with life
and our own observations
of life being lived around us.
What is helpful?
What works?
What is guiding our boat
on its path through the sea?
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03
Lake Marion 2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Santee State Park, Orange County, South Carolina
Every single thing in the cosmos
(And anywhere else)
strives for homeostasis,
for balance and harmony,
for equilibrium,
equanimity,
peace,
smooth and easy.
That is the first thing.
The second is this:
Flowers turn toward the sunlight,
bees search out the flowers,
ants find the picnics,
cats land on their feet,
and water seeks its own level.
Every single thing in the cosmos
(Etc.)
has its own innate nature,
its own original nature,
its own way of doing things.
Roots go downward,
limbs and branches go upward.
Geese fly south in the fall
and north in the spring.
And nothing knows why.
That is the second thing.
This is the third thing:
How does this pertain to you?
What does this have to do with you?
How do you fit into this picture?
How do you find your balance and harmony?
What is your original nature?
How do you assist with--
or work against--
yourself?
How is this going to impact
your way with life
going forward?
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04
The Other Side of the Tracks 11/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Greensboro, North Carolina
Where do you take refuge?
Where do you find solace?
Where do you go to restore your soul?
What are your sources of comfort and courage?
What keeps you going?
It is important to know these things,
and to consciously,
deliberately,
intentionally,
willfully
and regularly
avail yourself of their balms
and salves,
their peace and consolation.
We aren't much without the sustaining retreats
to "the land of gentle breezes
where the peaceful waters flow"
(Anne Murray, Snowbird).
Know where to go when you need to,
and go there!
Botany Bay 01 Oil Paint Rendered — Botany Bay Plantation Wildlife Management Area, Edisto, Island, South Carolina
What does orthodoxy fear from heresy?
Orthodoxy's insane response to heresy--
excommunication,
denunciation,
torture,
execution via burning at the stake
and attacks in the Colosseum
by lions and wild dogs,
hanging
and drowning--
exposes fault lines destabilizing
the foundations of orthodoxy.
What does truth have to fear
from the exploration of truth?
Orthodoxy on all levels
is the most unstable platform imaginable
for viewing life and knowing truth.
"See it like you are told it is"
is a ridiculous imposition of blinders
upon all who are "saved" by orthodoxy.
Let orthodoxy answer all of the questions raised
by the assertions of orthodoxy!
And all of the questions its answers raise!
How long into that process before we reach
the place of having to "take everything on faith"
because orthodoxy says so?
"Take everything on faith in orthodoxy!"
Orthodoxy is grounded on the assumption
of God being who orthodoxy says God is
"because the Bible says..."
And who says the Bible is the final word
in "faith and practice"?
Why, orthodoxy, of course.
Orthodox is a nice, tight, little circle
of "It is so because we say it is so,
and if you don't say it is so, also,
you are a heretic and must be executed now
because we say so."
Orthodoxy has to go,
along with its theology,
and we start over again
from the beginning.
"In the beginning the earth was without form
and void."
Let's start there,
with nothing,
and see where it goes.
It won't be long before we get into
a tussle over whose view of the way things are
is the right view.
Whose idea of truth is the true truth?
And there will be a big fight,
lasting for eons,
and executions,
and orthodoxy will be born.
Again.
Disagreement about the way things are
is at the heart of the way things are.
The American experiment with democracy
has proven that Majority Rule
is no way of securing agreement
about how things are and what matters most.
There is no way.
The best we can do is to have
really large,
unending,
ongoing
conversations about the way things are
and what matters most--
with no one being excommunicated
or executed because of their views.
Truth Shapes Truth.
This is the scientific method
applied to society, culture and politics.
Ask all of the questions that beg to be asked,
and all of the questions their answers
beg to be asked.
Always and forever.
And grant everyone the right
to their own religion throughout time.
And no one kills anyone ever.
Now, how are we all going to decide
to do it this way?
Life is such a hoot,
all the way down!
–0–
02
On Roan Mountain 02 06/13/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain National Forest, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina
We cannot help how we see things.
The way we see things
is influenced by 10,000 things,
put together in ways
that are unique to us individually.
"Individual" means seeing things
as we see things
and not as somebody else--
much less everybody else--
sees things.
The first principle is to see things
the way we see things.
The second principle is to see our seeing.
The third principle is to see how our seeing
impacts, shapes, forms what we look at,
so that we generally see what we expect to see
and not necessarily what is there.
We cannot hope to see until
we see how our seeing creates
and sustains/maintains what we see.
Our parents,
our point of origin,
our environment,
our culture
create an umwelt for seeing
that determines--
or strongly influences--
what we see throughout our life,
by molding how we see from the start.
We look through the lens
of our experience/expectations
when we look at anything/everything.
And we cannot help how we see things.
But, we can see our seeing,
and look closer,
particularly at our biases,
assumptions,
presumptions,
inferences,
conjectures
and
conclusions.
The field of General Semantics
is well worth exploring here.
The related field of Reality Therapy
is also a good source
for thinking about our thinking
and examining what is going on
with our experience of reality.
We cannot help how we see things
and we all have deep convictions
about how things are.
This is a problem that creates problems.
We believe that how we see things
is the way things are--
and it is how everyone ought to see things.
And those who don't agree with us
are The Enemy
who must be converted or ostracized,
excommunicated, shunned or shot.
It's a problem of world-wide proportions.
We begin the process of resolving the problem
by stepping back.
And standing aside.
Stepping back and standing aside
takes the impetus to be right
and destroy all opposition
out of the picture.
We are no longer motivated
by the desire to conquer,
subdue and vanquish
all that stands between us
and the realization
of our will to prevail.
Stepping back and standing aside
opens the way for The Way.
The Way is the way of conversation,
of communion,
of I/Thou,
of "Thou Art That."
We are one with The Way of Oneness
with all things
and enemies of no thing.
The Way of Oneness
is the way of looking and listening
until we see and hear,
know and understand.
This requires waiting
for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.
Within and without--
within ourselves and
between/among all of us.
We do not talk to argue,
debate, harangue and prevail.
We talk to listen, hear,
comprehend and understand.
By doing the work of articulating
what we have to say
and grasping what is being said--
by ourselves and by those speaking to us--
a shift happens,
a light dawns,
realization descends
and transformation occurs.
Not because anyone made anything happen,
but because all participated equally,
with sincerity and good faith,
in the happening.
This is the way of peace
and compassion,
loving-kindness,
balance and harmony,
and life everlasting.
World without end. Amen.
A Flight of Geese November, 2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Brandt, Greensboro, North Carolina
Pace and timing, Kid.
Pace and timing.
The geese fly when it is time for flying.
The photographer takes the picture
when it is time to take the picture.
Now is always "the acceptable time"
for something.
Being right about what
is where we come in.
It is our place in the cosmos
to know what it is time for
here and now,
and to be right about it,
and to rise to the occasion
and do the best we can
in the service of the What,
Here and Now--
and let that be that,
as we move on to the next here and now,
looking,
listening,
for the What that needs to happen then and there.
It is always the right time for something.
Maybe a nap.
Maybe a pizza.
The possibilities are well nigh infinite.
We have to be alert to our choices
and sensitive to what is being called for,
to what we are being asked to do.
Curve ball or slider,
or a fast one on the inside corner?
It is our place to know these things.
And it is the batter's place as well.
How it all unfolds
is what we are here to find out,
in the moment-to-moment
Adventure of Being Alive.
Pace and timing, Kid.
Pace and timing.
"Many are called, but few are chosen,"
said Jesus of Nazareth.
Along with,
"The Kingdom of God is spread out
all over the earth,
and no one sees it."
And:
"What you seek is right before you,
right here, right now,
and people walk by it unknowing,
like it is a treasure hidden
in a field by the side of the road,
or a priceless pearl
in the costume jewelry bin
at the local flea market,
or a stone the builder's reject."
Of course, there is a catch.
Joseph Campbell points it out
with his,
"What you seek lies far to the back
in the darkest corner
of the cave you most don't want to enter."
The new life we long for
will eat our old life alive.
That is the reason for many being called
and few answering the call.
Do we have what it takes
to do what needs to be done?
Jesus' death on the cross
doesn't save anyone from anything.
It points the way to everyone
to the path of being fully alive
in the time left for living.
The trek to the empty tomb
takes us through the Garden of Gethsemane
and across the face of Golgotha,
into the depths of the cave
we most do not want to enter.
They don't mention that to you
in the sermons about Easter Morning.
Theology denies the very truth it proclaims.
The truth only sets us free
to do what needs to be done.
How free is that?
We want to be free
to do what we want
and have it thrill us
the way we want to be thrilled.
And that's what the truth
sets us free from
in setting us free for
doing what needs us to do it
here and now,
where what we want
only gets in the way.
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03
Mute Swans 08/16/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
I will run out of time
before I run out of things to say.
And some things can't be said often enough.
So, here we go.
Again.
Some more.
As always.
Doing what needs to be done,
when and where it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
with the gifts, genius, daemon
(sounds like "diamond")
that come with us from the womb,
is not beyond any of us.
What keeps it from happening
all of the time?
The stake we have in the outcome.
Something is at stake in every moment.
Something is to be gained.
Something is to be lost.
Something matters to someone
more than doing what needs doing.
Someone will do anything
to get something,
or to keep from losing something.
What needs to be done in each moment
is lost and forgotten,
ignored and overlooked,
by those who live in the service
of getting and keeping what they want.
Our own personal good--
or that of those we love--
is our highest good.
The good of the moment
doesn't have a chance.
The moment is here only for our good.
We are not here for the moment's good.
We cannot be good for the moment
because we are here for our good
in every moment.
And that is the kink in the hose.
–0–
04
Goodale 10/25/2019 11 Oil Paint Rendered — Adams Mill Pond, Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
That Which Has Always Been Called "God"
is the Silence at the Heart
of Life and Being--
which is also the Source of Life and Being--
which is also the Mystery of Life and Being.
Calling it "God"
and doing flips
to get it to do our bidding
is one of the best examples
of self-deception being labeled
"self-evident,"
and passing itself off for
"revealed truth"
in the Big Book of Tricks We Play on Ourselves.
There is only us and the Silence
and all that comes from the Silence
into the sphere of Life and Being--
eventually returning to the Silence,
and to what then,
we do not know.
All we know is right here right now.
What we make of it
and do about it
is up to us.
"Right" and "wrong"
are ways of structuring
our experience of Live and Being,
but both are dependent upon
the needs of the moment at hand
in conjunction with the times
that are always a-changing,
but within which it is possible
to be "ahead of the times"
or "behind the times."
To be "at one with the times,"
"in sync with the times,"
"in accord with the times,"
is to be "in the flow of Life and Being,"
and to "have it made"
as much as we can have it made
within the time and place of our living.
But that is to also be somewhat
"ahead of the times,"
and "behind the times,"
at the same time.
And it is all a part of the dance
with the Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being.
"There is only the dance" (T.S. Eliot).
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05
November 08 11/04/2019 Oil Paint Rendered — Doughton Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
At some point,
we are all on our own
and have to make out
as best we can.
That being the case,
it would behoove us
to learn how to read the Silence
and sense what is emerging,
arising,
beckoning,
calling,
guiding,
directing there,
and rely on it
as "a very present help"
in all times and places.
Our relationship with ourselves
and the Silence
is the sustaining,
creative,
source of Life and Being
throughout our life,
and tending that relationship
is the most important/helpful
thing we can do for ourselves
in finding our way
along the way.
Sit still,
be quiet,
and wait,
watch,
look,
listen
for what occurs to you
in the silence--
on a regular, recurring, basis.
And decide for yourself
what to do about what happens there.
"We are the sculptor
and we are the stone"
(Alexis Carrel).
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06
Parker’s Creek 02 10/19/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, Pamlico Sound
What's helpful?
What works?
These are two centering,
grounding,
focusing questions
that every graduating senior
from high school,
junior college,
college,
university,
graduate school
should be required to answer
with a 200 word essay.
Comparing their answers over time
would be revealing,
and would reflect the graduate's
maturation over the course of their studies.
Very little else does that.
How do we measure maturation
with any degree of clarity?
We can do an adequate job
of defending a PHD thesis
without any idea of what is helpful
or what works.
But, if we are going to do much
of a job with our life,
we have to figure these two things out,
and apply our answers appropriately,
early on.
Fir Forest 05 06/20/2016 Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain National Forest, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina
Learning to be alive
in the time left for living
is a simple matter of
transforming your relationship
with yourself
and with your life.
You've been doing it all wrong.
Reconciliation is a two-way street.
We have to reconcile ourselves
to the world,
and we have to reconcile the world
to ourselves.
Here's the catch:
The world is not going to change
until you do.
When you change you,
you change the world.
And everything flows from
the shift you make within
to begin seeing what you look at.
Starting with you.
What we see depends on
how we look.
More specifically,
on what we look for.
How much time do you spend
looking for beauty
in yourself and in the world?
What is beautiful about you?
What are your most beautiful features?
Where are you stopped and astounded by
something beautiful that you do?
Spend the rest of the day
looking for the beautiful things about you,
for the beautiful things you do.
And notice how you make this difficult
by interfering with the process
with judgment,
opinion,
disapproval
and censorship.
Seeing has to be just seeing!
Seeing beauty is seeing beautifully!
Take judgment,
opinion,
disapproval
and censorship
out of the way
and everything is beautiful.
See?
Start seeing beauty everywhere you look!
–0–
02
Sparks Lane February 2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
The problem with theology
across the board,
around the world,
throughout the cosmos,
is that God is right
and we are wrong.
In the Old Testament,
Abraham turns all of this on its ear
with his declaration:
"Shall not the Judge of the Universe do right?"
Judging, as he did,
"the Judge of the Universe."
Job should have taken the same tack.
We would all be better off.
But.
By the time Job came around
theology was firmly in place,
and held there by the power of those
who held the power of God in place
with their interpretation
of who God was/is and what God wanted,
which is always what they wanted
God to want.
The interpreters of God are God.
But.
In obeying them,
the people are not obeying God,
but who God's interpreters say God is.
Jesus said it best:
"Why don't you judge for yourselves
what is right?"
They (the interpreters of God) killed him
for that.
It doesn't pay to mess with
Those Who Know Best!
The current ideas of God
are held in place by those
who kill those who have different ideas.
How do you think orthodoxy came to be?
The martyrs were all heretics, don't you know?
Orthodoxy torched the flames
that burned people at the stake.
Orthodoxy determined what was heresy
and what was Revealed (to Orthodoxy) Truth.
And now we have this wonderfully consistent
and systematic theology declaring who God is
and what makes God happy.
It is a miracle!
Not!
We got here by murdering the opposition
to Orthodoxy's way of seeing things.
God is who Those Who Know Best say God is.
And they say God is right
and we are wrong.
That's wrong.
"Why don't you decide for yourselves
what is right?"
How would we know?
We would begin by living out of
the center of ourselves!
Feeling our way along!
Trusting ourselves to be corrected
by the results of our deciding
what is right and what is wrong.
Observing everything.
Forcing nothing.
With self-transparency
and self-awareness
and self-correction
leading the way,
like a "wheel turning
out of its own center"--
a gyroscope maintaining
balance and harmony
with itself and its environment,
being true to itself
within the context and circumstances
of its existence,
reflecting its way into
new realizations
and new ways of seeing and doing
what needs to be done,
moment-to-moment
in each situation as it arises,
constantly deciding anew
what is right
and serving it with the gifts,
genius,
daemon (sounds like "diamond"),
spirit
and vitality
that come with us from the womb.
God couldn't do it better than that!
We need a better way of thinking about God.
Which means we need no theology at all.
We are God's way of becoming conscious of God.
We are mirrors which reflect God
to each other and to God.
This is not theology.
This is awareness dawning.
Only those who are stirred by it
to reflect and consider
their own awareness dawning
will find this helpful.
Everyone else will find it to be heresy
or meaningless.
The only kind of God-talk that is helpful
is the kind with a life of its own.
It cannot be argued or debated,
it can only be heard or not-heard.
Think of God as the right kind of silence.
The kind of silence that is vibrantly alive
with realization, awareness, insight, illumination,
recognition, creativity, comprehension, wonder,
amazement, vitality, fascination, and the qualities
and characteristics of life aborning.
God is life in the silence of being.
And so it is said, "Be still and know that I am God!"
And the "I am," is as much the knower as the known.
If this stirs something to life in you,
let it do its work--
allow it to work you over,
separating you from all the theology
you are weighed down under,
faithful to Meister Eckhart's observation:
"The final leave-taking is leaving God for God."
The fascist dream is a nightmare--
for everyone,
including fascists!
If we rid the world of everyone
not like we are,
we are left with ourselves,
and the realization
that who we hate is us!
Fascists hate themselves
and blame everyone not like them
for it:
"It's people like you
who make people like me
hate people like you
for carrying the projections
of people like me!"
That is the first part of the paradox.
The second is this:
To want to rid the world of fascists
is fascist.
And that leaves us with this:
Do not kill anyone ever
actually, literally, physically, really--
just work to change their mind
about what is important!
Here is what is essentially important:
It is all useless, hopeless, pointless,
meaningless and absurd,
and coming to a very bad end:
We all die--
and how we live in the meantime
makes all the difference!
If you are ever going to take anything on faith,
let it be this:
It matters how we live our life!
It matters that we live our life like this:
Doing what needs to be done,
where it needs to be done,
when 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!
That is all there is to it.
We don't have to want to.
We don't have to fee like it.
We don't have to be in the mood for it.
We only have to stand up and do it--
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises
all our life long!
Everything depends on it,
and flows from it.
And we must do it
just like our heart is completely in it.
Everything depends on it!
Everything!
Believe that with all your heart
and mind
and soul
and strength--
and DO IT!
And the world will be a better place to be
overnight!
–0–
02
Beidler Forest 11/22/2019 07 Oil Paint Rendered — Audubon’s Beidler Forest and Four Hole Swamp Wildlife Preserve, Harleyville, South Carolina
All religions agree on the important points:
Do what is right
and treat each other well.
And the heart of them all is
confession,
repentance,
atonement,
redemption.
They disagree about the fluff.
The fluff is where
the theology,
the doctrines,
the dogma,
the ways to tell who is in
and who is out,
who is us and who is them,
come in.
Religion without the fluff
is what religion is all about.
Doing what is right--
what needs to be done--
where it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
how it needs to be done
because it needs to be done
is all the religion we need.
Believing it matters how we live
and doing our best
to be who we need to be
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises
is all the religion we need.
Living like this will include
confession,
repentance,
atonement,
redemption.
Because that's how things are,
and it takes grace and compassion
to hold things together
and keep things going.
–0–
03
Chester 11/25/2019 02 Oil Paint Rendered — Chester State Park, Chester County, South Carolina
Once you know what you will go to hell for,
you are free to do what needs to be done
moment by moment
in each situation as it arises,
and no one can knock you off of that.
This is who you are
and this is what is yours to do
here and now,
and that's that.
There is nothing to match clarity
for peace, balance and harmony.
With clarity,
we are able to sit tight,
stand firm,
walk tall,
ride it out,
and do what is called for
without dropping a stitch
or losing our focus.
One aspect of clarity
is knowing what the destabilizing
forces are
and preparing ourselves
to recognize and deal with them.
How we deal with them
is an aspect of knowing
what needs to be done,
and we do that best
by seeking out the silence
and watching for what emerges,
arises, occurs to us
and trusting ourselves to it,
and knowing how to respond
when we find ourselves responding.
Sincerity is spontaneous
in its response to its circumstances.
There is no plan or agenda
for being sincere.
There is only responding as necessary
to the situation as it develops.
The way tennis players respond
to what is happening during a point,
or the way football players
respond to what is happening during a play.
We dance with the moment
as only we can
and let that be that--
knowing that we will get better at it
over time.
–0–
04
Carolina Wren 06 Oil Paint Rendered — Scenes From My Hammock, Indian Land, South Carolina
The on-going, unending, task of life
is making our peace with life,
coming to terms with life,
letting life be because it is.
Always the discrepancy,
the discordance,
between how things are
and how we want things to be.
Always the need,
the requirement,
of growing up some more again,
and letting this be how it is,
because it is,
and nothing will change it,
and there is only picking ourselves up
and getting back in the game--
living as though
how we live makes all the difference,
because it does--
in ways we cannot begin to know
or understand.
Believing in doing what needs to be done
the way it needs to be done
when and where it needs to be done
because it needs to be done
is the essential act of faith.
Everything flows from,
revolves around,
depends upon,
that core belief.
If you are going to
take anything on faith,
let it be this!
And live as though it is so!
Because it is!
–0–
05
Fir Forest 01 06/20/2013 Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain National Forest, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina
Taking the Parable of the Prodigal Son
as our starting point,
questions that beg to be asked are:
What kind of God can be pissed off?
What kind of God can be pissed off
to the point of sending people to hell?
What kind of parent could get to the point
of being so enraged at their children
they they would send them to hell?
Theology has to go.
Sin is not a problem.
Jesus didn't need to die
in order to change God's mind
about us.
We don't become all pure, pristine
and ready for heaven
because we "believe in Jesus."
Jesus is one of us.
Is us.
We are Jesus.
On our best days,
we are as Jesus was
on his best days.
"Dying" is simply handing over
how we want things to be,
and doing what needs to be done,
anyway, nevertheless, even so.
It is what any parent worthy of the position
does in relation to their children,
and what any child worthy of the position
does in relation to their parents.
We all grow-up,
adapt,
adjust,
acquiesce
and do what needs us to do it
because that is what we are here for,
and the way we do it
makes all the difference.
No heaven, no hell,
just us living to make all the difference,
because that is who we are,
and everything depends on it.
Anybody can make things worse
by the way they respond to their life.
And anybody can make things better
by the way they respond to their life.
Why would we want to make things worse?
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06
First of Fall 03 09/29/2020 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
The silence is the interface
between two worlds,
the visible world and the invisible world,
the world of conscious, concrete,
actual, tangible,
apparent reality,
and the world of psychic contents
and processes.
We walk two paths at the same time,
and need to become aware of our place
in integrating,
balancing and harmonizing
the two worlds
in the way we live our life,
and to become the steward
of life that we are capable of being
on all levels of living.
The invisible world is talking to us
all of the time,
around the clock,
throughout our life.
We aren't interested,
and pay no attention.
If we cannot exploit it,
use it to our advantage,
benefit from it materially
we don't have time for it,
no matter what "it" is.
Conscious awareness
is the invention of the unconscious--
a hoped-for advance
that would bring the unconscious
to life in the life of individuals,
enabling an exploration
of the physical cosmos
in sync with the interests
of the unconscious.
Wholeness coming to life
throughout time and space--
dancing the dance of the ages,
at one with the music of the spheres.
The wonder of wonders,
side-tracked by the idea
of what's in it for us.
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07
Goodale 10/25/2019 11 Oil Paint Rendered — Adams Mill Pond, Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Sit tight,
stand pat,
is the best advice
you can get
when it comes to
seeking clarity
and finding our way to
the path through the
heaving waves of the wine-dark sea.
"Wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear."
Stirring up more mud
in searching for the way
is not the way.
Waiting,
with the faith
that everything becomes clear
with time,
is the preferred solution
to not knowing what to do.
Know that you don't know
and wait to see what you do.
You will likely either find yourself
doing something that is a better fit
than anything you could have thought up.
Or, a shift will happen,
and a door will open.
Walk through!
Poof! Like that goes the problem.
In the meantime,
sit tight,
stand pat.
On Roan Mountain 29 06/19/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Roan Mountain Highlands, Carver’s Gap, North Carolina/Tennessee
Our balance and harmony
are strictly contingent
on our safety,
security
and stability--
which, in turn, rely
on our being free
from the intrusions,
incursions,
invasions and overrunings
of Those Who Know Best
And Must Be Pleased.
Balance and harmony
are generated by,
and flow from,
a life that is lived
from its own center,
doing what it needs to do,
when it needs to do it,
how it needs to do it
without any pressure or direction
from sources other than itself.
Balance and harmony
are the source
of vitality,
spirit,
joy,
enthusiasm,
ardor,
fervor,
passion,
zeal,
vigor,
and all related aspects
of being fully alive.
And they hinge on our
being in charge of the life
we are living--
and on being right about
what is being called for
from the heart of that life.
We have to know what is right for us,
and live out of that
without having to make anyone else happy
with us and what we are doing.
The more advisors/directors we have,
the crazier and deader we become.
Who is running your life?
If it isn't you
(And if you aren't right about
what is right for you),
they are ruining your life
and taking the life right out of you.
Wake up!
Reclaim your place
as the servant of the signals
arising from the depths of knowing
within your own soul/psyche!
And begin doing what you know
needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
where and when it needs to be done.
Restore your balance and harmony,
live your life!
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02
Crepe Myrtle 07 03/27/2021 Oil Paint Rendered
What guides our boat on its path through the sea?
Answering this question properly
takes us to the heart of the matter.
To the heart of who we are
and where the impulses of our action
comes from.
There are two options at this point:
What we want to do, and
What we must do.
If you don't know the difference
it is because your wants
have become musts,
and you must have what you want
right NOW!
You are being driven/compelled
by your own wanting/craving/desiring
to have/get/possess/do.
Your sense of peace and satisfaction
disappear like dew before the morning sun.
And you must have/do the next latest thing NOW!
again.
And the horror here is
that you are like everyone else you know
in this regard.
All we know is what we want
and this isn't it.
The good news is bad news.
There is a way out of the endless cycle
of constantly wanting more
and being content with nothing,
but.
It is like death itself.
Jesus becomes the model here.
Not the Jesus of the Church,
every church,
all churches,
who says reliably,
dependably,
consistently,
constantly,
"Come to me,
and I will give you
what you want forever."
That Jesus is a sales pitch
and nothing more.
The Church should be ashamed.
But.
It knows we can't handle the truth
and tells us a lie
to keep us coming back
to want and to do what it takes
to have what we want,
though we never can.
The Real Jesus
stands before us and says:
"I am the way, the truth,
and the life,
and no one comes to the Father
but by me."
And he tells us
to pick up our cross
and come with him
to Golgotha.
Not what we have in mind.
"Death and resurrection, Kid.
Death and resurrection!"
The life is on the other side of death.
We have to die again and again
in bearing the pain of being alive.
That is the path away from wanting/having
to doing what it takes
to be fully alive in the moment of our living.
We have to bear the pain
of not having what we want
in order to have what we want.
In order to have what is essential.
In order to be fully, completely,
totally alive.
We have to die in order to live.
This is the path from want to must.
When we do what we must do,
what we want to do is pushed aside,
becomes irrelevant,
inconsequential,
frivolous,
ridiculous,
absurd.
Abraham Maslow said that people live for five things: Survival, Security, Personal Relationships, Prestige, and Self Development.
Joseph Campbell said,
"These are precisely not the values that a mythically inspired person lives for.
"A person who is really gripped by a dedication, by a zeal, will sacrifice all these things for the sake of his or her own passion.
"These five values are the values people live for who have nothing to live for. Nothing has seized, caught, or driven these people “spiritually mad.”
"These people, aren’t worth talking to."
These people want what they want
but don't know what to want.
And they have to allow themselves
to be gripped by a compelling must
whose origin comes from beyond
wanting and wanting not,
which is the deep source
of what is right for us
irregardless of circumstance
and preference.
To do what must be done,
we must be still and quiet
and wait for the dust to settle
and the air to clear,
watching for what arises,
emerges, appears, occurs to us
from the silence,
beckoning us to
take up the adventure
of being alive
in the time left for living,
no matter what.
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03
Peach Blossoms 03/23/2021 04 Oil Paint Rendered — Springs Farm, Fort Mill South Carolina
When Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will,"
He was saying that the spirit
doesn't know what it is going to do next.
It knows what it is doing now,
but not next.
The spirit is always doing now
exactly what needs to be done,
but it will be something else next.
It will need to be done,
but it won't be what is being done now.
Now and next are different that way.
And what all is after that is
completely beyond speculation.
Now is enough.
Or, as Jesus said,
"Today's trouble is sufficient for today."
Now is always favorable for something,
what varies from time to time.
So we have to be on our toes,
at the ready--
the wind might shift at any moment.
Those who live with the wind
that blows where it will
in their hair
travel light,
with few presumptions
and fewer agendas.
They ride loose in the saddle,
and walk light on their feet,
with their eyes always open,
and ears tuned to the silent nudges
of "the still small voice"
calling them to tend
what needs to be tended
at the time that is at hand.
Theology is the end of religion.
The religion that has to be explained,
defined,
elucidated,
spelled out,
nailed down,
argued
and debated
into being
is dead on arrival.
Living religion thrives
on fascination,
realization,
awe,
wonder,
amazement,
joy,
laughter,
dancing,
relishing,
exuberance,
confidence,
peace,
grace,
kindness,
compassion,
generosity,
integrity,
mindfulness,
awareness,
self-transparency,
questions,
silence,
balance and harmony,
playfulness,
mercy,
non-contrivance,
spontaneity,
sincerity,
good faith,
good will,
honesty,
truthfulness,
and on and on like this...
Religion ends
when it tries to make sense
or make disciples.
We find religion
that is the essence of religion
with our heart,
not with our head.
We live our way there.
We do not think our way there.
You have to know what I mean
before you can understand
what I am saying.
–0–
After Theology
Putting ourselves in accord
with the way things are,
and with the way things need to be--
because that is the way
they truly need to be,
and has nothing whatsoever to do
with how we want them to be--
is the work of our life.
We do this through
emptiness, stillness and silence.
Being still and emptying ourselves
of fear, desire and duty, etc.
and opening ourselves
to the silence
from which all things come,
we wait "for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,"
allowing The Way
to open before us,
guiding us into the service
of what needs to happen
in each situation as it arises--
which we meet,
moment to moment,
with the gifts/daemon (sounds like "diamond")/
talents/abilities/specialties/interests/
proclivities/shtick/etc.
which come with us from the womb,
constitute our original nature,
and set us off from each other
as unique and individual parts
of the whole,
and equip us for the work
of 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,
because it needs to be done
here and now,
all our life long.
Knowing what needs to be done
and being right about it
is a function
of seeing, hearing, knowing, understanding,
perceiving, sensing, and feeling--
intuitively
and instinctively
responding to what is happening
in the present moment
with the integrity, sincerity,
simplicity,
innocence and spontaneity
of children
with no awareness of,
or interest in,
their own good,
but with clear insight into
and interest in
the good of the situation as a whole.
In this spirit,
we rise to meet the occasion
in each situation as it unfolds,
doing the work of giving
what we have to offer,
and stepping back,
letting nature take its course,
and allowing the outcome to be the outcome,
which ushers in a new situation,
to which we respond in the same way,
situation by situation,
day by day,
all our life long.
We do this while maintaining
our balance and harmony,
integrity, sincerity and integrity,
spirit, energy and vitality,
and walking two paths at the same time
in meeting our personal needs
and the need of the situations
we experience through each day,
living out of our original nature
without contrivance
or self-centered interest
in personal gain/profit/benefit/advantage/good.
We are assisted in this
with clarity of vision and purpose
gained by reducing the noise
and complexity in our life
to a minimum,
knowing when we are being "hooked"
into fear/desire/duty,
and returning to the emptiness
and the silence
as needed for balance and harmony
in service to the flow of life and being
throughout each day.
May it be so for all people everywhere
over all time and every place--
beginning here, now!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 