Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy

January 27, 2021

Mt. Rundle Oil Paint Rendered — Vermillion Lakes, Banff National Park, Alberta

The single most important thing you can do
to improve your chances
of living well upon the earth
throughout the time left for living
is to become accomplished
in taking "No" for an answer.

By "accomplished" I mean
taking "No" for an answer
when, where, and how it needs to be done
the way it needs to be done
every time it needs to be done,
with grace and aplomb
in the moment and over time
(That means no pouting,
sulking,
resentment
or keeping score).

Begin practicing by asking people
ridiculous favors,
knowing they will have to say "No,"
and taking it like the Ace
you are working to become!

–0–

Medicine Lake Bed 09/28/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta

Doing what is not-meaningful
better be supporting what is meaningful
by providing us with the wherewithal
to do the things that make our little heart sing
and our little toes dance
with the rest of the time 
that is ours left to live.

If we are doing what is not-meaningful
in order to do what is not-meaningful,
we have to sit ourselves down
and have a come to your senses
and get your feet under you
and start living from your center talk.

And, if you don't know what your center is,
remain seated until the mud settles
and the water clears
and you know beyond doubt or hesitation
what is and is not your center,
your still point,
your adamantine foundation stone
upon which you and your life are anchored.

Your life is your responsibility.
What you do with it is up to you.
Waiting for some magical motivation
to pull it all together for you
is waiting for Godot,
who doesn't exist
and will never arrive.

Stop living magically,
and start doing what is meaningful to you.
That is all the magic anyone needs
to live the life that is waiting to be lived!

–0–

**Into Golden Canyon 03/15/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Death Valley National Park, California**

I wish Republicans would tell me
what the good is they call good,
and what the evil is they call evil.
One-on-one, I mean.
Not some senator speaking
for all Republicans everywhere.

I want to know from the people 
who are proud to be Republicans
what they are so proud of.

What values/principles/standards
are guiding their boat 
on its path through the sea?

And, while we are at it,
I want to know what yours are.

I want to know how clear you are 
about them,
how well thought out they are,
and how they are reflected
in your daily life,
how they impact the people around you.

In what specific,
concrete,
tangible ways
do they guide your boat
through each day?

How would I know they are important to you
by watching you live your life?

What is the good you call good?
The evil you call evil?
Good for whom?
Evil for whom?
Whose life is better for it?
Whose life is worse for it?

And, while we are at it,
I'll say that the good I call good
is best described by the terms
Freedom!
Equality!
Justice!
Truth!

And by the principle of 
doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
moment-to-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day.

I can't do better than 
living in ways which 
serve those terms
and that principle.

And I endeavor consciously,
willfully,
intentionally,
deliberately
to do that
in the way I live every day.

January 26, 2021

**Dune Walker 02 03/12/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California**

The ideal human being,
from my point of view,
does what is theirs to do,
and steps back,
letting nature take its course.

The ideal human being
would not see money 
as the path to power--
asking, "Power over whom?
In the service of what?"--
but as a means of providing
the tools necessary 
to do their work.

The ideal human being
would not impose anything
on anyone,
but would assume good faith
on the part of everyone,
and would trust everyone
to do their part
in serving the good of the whole,
with sincerity,
non-contrivance,
balance and harmony
being the highest interests
of culture and society.

They would spend their time
in devotion to their cause
of integrating opposites
by being present with,
and aware of,
their current circumstances,
living from their center,
which is the center of the whole,
and doing their thing
in response to the needs of the moment,
in each situation as it arises.

January 25, 2021

Dune Shadows Oil Paint Rendered — Star Dune, Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley, California

If heart could be coached,
everyone would be LeBron James.

Books on how to play chess,
and tennis,
and on like that forever,
are published and sold
every year. 

Books on how to play anything
(or live) 
with heart,
are hard to come by.

What is it with heart,
that only a few people get,
and everybody else wonders about?

Well. 
I don't know.
I take photos with heart.
I work with photos in Photoshop with heart.
I read and write with heart.
And, by that I mean,
nothing is going to stop me.
"Not no way.
Not no how"
(The Wizard of Oz).

And, I would bet you $20,
if I still did that kind of thing.
That each one of you
has something
no one can talk you out of
or scare you away from.
I would bet there is something
you all do with heart.

But not everything.

LeBron James doesn't do everything with heart.
Probably a lot of things.

So, rather than tell you 
how to live with heart,
I'm going to ask you
to be aware of 
where in your life 
you live with heart.

And suggest that you 
increase the amount of time
you spend in those places,
doing those things.

The more time we spend with things
that are meaningful to us--
the things we do with heart--
the happier we are
and the happier other people are
to be around us.

It works out well for everyone!

Let your heart tell you what to do
and you will catch yourself
smiling for no reason
throughout the time left for living.

–0–

Jordan Pond 09/23/2012 Oil Paint Rendered — Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

I wish the people I was born into
had known what they should have known--
and that I had grown up
knowing what I should have known--
and that even now, 
I knew what I should know,
just by virtue of being alive,
and having been alive,
all these years.

Why don't I know what was there
to be known
from the start--
and at every step along the way
from then to now?

Why don't I know all I do know,
right now?

Like what I don't know,
for example.
Why don't I know what I don't know?

Everything would be better
with some mindful awareness,
with some attention to what's what,
with some attentive presence
in every moment
of every day.

We are all somewhere else 
most of the time.
We all think we would be better off
somewhere else,
and drift away from here
into what we dislike about here,
and how we wish we were there,
no there,
no there-over-there...

I ache to just be here.
Fully here.
Fully now.
Fully present to life
as I am living it.

To be there.
Not here.

–0–

**First Light on Bow River 09/21/2009 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta**

I have to orient myself
in time and space,
moment-to-moment.

In a "Here I am, now what?"
kind of way.

I have to get my feet under me,
remember who I am and what I am about,
find my foundation stone,
live from the center,
again and again
throughout the day.

There is no carry-over
from one moment to the next,
from one situation to the next.

I cannot live from my memory
of how I just did it.

I have to start all over,
begin anew,
as though I just plopped out off the womb,
and have to find my way 
through the first moment of my life
from the very beginning.

I have been taking photographs seriously,
that is intentionally,
consciously,
with purpose and knowledge of how to do it
for over twenty years.
And I step into every scene,
and it is the first scene.

I have forgotten everything--
or all of the important things--
since the last scene.

I am assuming that because I just did it,
this scene will be just like that one,
and I don't check the focus.
Etc.

Back in the film days,
I would forget to put film in the camera
starting out.
Or the film wouldn't "catch" on the clip,
and I wouldn't remember to see
if the rewind knob on the camera was turning
as I advanced the film.

You can't miss a detail!

I don't know what the equivalent
of film in the camera,
loaded and working properly,
is for you,
but I know there is one.

There is one for everybody.

We cannot do it, whatever it is,
like we have always done it,
and do a very good job of doing it.
We have to do it 
as though we have never done it, ever.

We have to be new at it.
This has to be the first time.

We have to live as though this is our first day
on the job.

We have to see with fresh eyes.
Hear with fresh ears.
Be alert to our assumptions
and inferences,
and expectations,
and all the things we are taking for granted.

The world is new in some sense
every moment.
We cannot sleepwalk through our life.

–0–

**Schwabacher Landing 06/15/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming**

How to be in the moment.
How to do right by the moment.
How to live for the sake of the moment.

These are the lessons of life.

You think it is about getting somewhere.
About attaining something.

Everybody is out for what they can get.
What they can get is determined
by what they want.

They don't know what to want.
They want everything.
They are kids at the candy counter.

What does wanting know?
What informs wanting?
Where does wanting come from?
What are we hungry for?
Starving for?
Dying for?

What is it going to take
to satisfy us?

Wanting drives us through life
searching for what we want,
for what is worth wanting,
for what is worth our time.

No one can tell us.
No one knows.
It is all up to us.

Enter The Silence.
Seek The Tao.
They work in tandem.
Together.
I think they are the same.
They are on the same side
of the coin.

The other side of the coin
is Yin and Yang.
They also work together.
They also are the same.

The coin is The Source
of what we seek.
The coin is what we seek.
We live to serve the coin.
We belong to the coin.

Silence.
Tao.
Yin.
Yang.

In possession of the coin,
we are possessed by the coin.
We are the coin.
"The Father and I are one"
(The Mother and I are one).
There is only one.
We are it.
It is we.

For what?
For Life!

It is all about being alive--
but more than that:
Being alive to being alive!
Living at one with all things!
Particularly ourselves!
Living at one with ourselves!

Moment-by-moment.
Situation-by-situation.
Day-by-day.

If you think that's easy,
give it a spin.

First, we have to get out of the way.
We don't even know what that means.
We think there is only us here.
How could we be in the way?

Kidding ourselves is what we do best.
No.
Lying to ourselves is what we do best!
No!
Telling ourselves what we want to hear
is what we do best!!
NO!
Shooting ourselves in the foot
is what we do best!!!

We excel in sabotaging ourselves.
In being in our way.
We are not even one with ourselves.
Where do we start?
What do we do?

Enter The Silence.
Engage/Live in accord with the Tao.
Integrate Yin/Yang.
Live with sincerity,
balance and harmony.
Know what you know.
See what you look at.
Be transparent to yourself.
Which makes you transparent to transcendence.
And one with all things.
Alive to the moment of your living.
Alive to being alive.
To the wonder of being alive.
To the wonder of all things.

The work of a lifetime.
Begins here and now.

January 24, 2021

**The Beaver Hut Oil Paint Rendered — Schwabacher Landing, Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming**

If you cannot be vulnerable,
you will be symptomatic all your life,
and crazy as well.

We are surrounded by vulnerabilities!
There is no way we can be protected
from them all!

Everything worthwhile about us 
and about our life
is strictly dependent upon 
our vulnerability threshold.

The more vulnerable we can be,
the more mature we are capable of becoming,
the more relaxed and natural
we are able to be in relation 
to the world,
and the more capable we are gong to be
in responding appropriately
to each situation as it arises
throughout our days upon the earth.

If you are going to take anything on faith,
let it be your capacity to be vulnerable
and be just fine 
with whatever life throws at you.

Practice raising your vulnerability quotient
by deliberately putting yourself
in situations you don't control,
letting yourself be free to make it up as you go.
Like dancing to tunes you have never heard,
or finding your way around in a strange city,
or driving down unfamiliar roads
to see where they go.

–0–

**Upper Waterfowl Lake Oil Paint Rendered 09/22/2007 — Banff National Park, Alberta**

Living in accord with the Tao
is listening to our unconscious,
is immersing ourselves in a situation,
waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear,
and seeing what emerges 
as the way to respond to what is called for
over time,
as we tweak our response
to take additional information
into account,
balancing and harmonizing
the contraries and contradictions,
complexities and contingencies,
as they become apparent
in the eternal dance
with what can happen
and what needs to happen
through the ages
throughout eternity.

There is no steady state
of "peace at last."

There only/always living in the moment
in light of what needs to be done there,
in light of what is called for,
in light of what can be done there,
in light of what we need
to do what is needed there,
all our life long--
all life long.

Growing up is adjusting ourselves
to the requirement
of having to adjust ourselves to something
all our life long.
If we are not growing (up),
we are dead.

–0–

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Oil Paint Rendered — Canyon Village, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

In the story of the woman taken in adultery,
Jesus takes a time-out,
squats and draws in the dust with his finger,
then he rises and says,
"Let the one without sin cast the first stone."
Beautifully done.
Rising wonderfully to the occasion.
Responding to the moment 
directly,
without consulting the authorities,
taking a poll,
or asking his mother what he should do.

Jesus speaks from the source of sincerity,
balance and harmony.
"Like the spirit blowing where it will."
Who knows what it will come up with next?

And, in order for it to happen then and there,
Jesus called time-out,
and sat drawing in the dust.

He was withdrawing from the moment of action,
to center himself,
put himself in accord with the Tao,
listen within,
open to the wisdom of the heart/soul/unconscious/psyche
waiting for the shift
that urged him to rise and speak
out of the truth of what was called for
in the time that was at hand.

In order to do that,
he had to have been there before.
Going there is called "prayer."
It is also called "meditation."
"Reflection."
"Contemplation."
"Connection."
"Communion."

If you don't know what I'm talking about,
sit still,
be quiet,
and watch what happens.

And repeat this over time.
"Over time" being
regularly for the rest of your life.

And stop trying to cover all of your bases
by carefully thinking things out in advance.
Trust yourself to know what you know
in the moment that is calling for it,
to be known,
by listening through some equivalent
of drawing in the dust.

–0–

**The Bud Ogle Cabin Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

It's a snap
to think the wrong things are important,
to leave the path,
stray away from the way,
and have nothing to do
with the things crying out
for us to do them.

Being clear.
Being focused.
Being grounded and centered.
Being present and accounted for.
In the service
of what is ours to do.
Is not a snap at all.

We have to be awake
and mindfully aware
at all times.
Self-transparent.
In accord with the Tao.
Attuned to the moment
and to ourselves.
Alert to what is happening
and what is called for
moment-by-moment.
Caring so much about
being who the moment
needs us to be
that we distance ourselves
from all other concerns
in order to act sincerely,
without contrivance,
spontaneously doing
what is appropriate to the occasion
one occasion after another
all our life long
and being right about it
every time.

Doing the right thing.
At the right time.
In the right way.
All the time.
Is not a snap.

And, if we aren't doing it,
we are letting ourselves
and each other
down.
All the time.

–0–

Cullasaja Cascade Oil Paint Rendered — Cullasaja River Gorge, Nantahalia National Forest, Highlands, North Carolina

From prison, John the Baptist
sent his disciples to ask Jesus,
"Are you the one who is to come,
or shall we wait for another?"
Jesus replied, "Go and tell John,
'I am who I am,
doing what is mine to do--
no one can do better than that!'"

What would it take for us
to be who we are,
doing what is ours to do--
And letting the outcome be the outcome?

Not trying to pivot ourselves
into some luxurious,
privileged,
glorious ever after--
but just meeting the moment,
moment-by-moment,
doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
just being who we are,
doing what is ours to do
throughout each day,
throughout our life?

January 23, 2021

02c

Mt. Robson Oil Paint Rendered — Mt. Robson Provencal Park, British Columbia

Living to do what the moment
needs us to do
is to put ourselves in the service
of that which is greater than we are.

It is the most spiritual thing on the planet,
serving the moment,
being alive to the here and now,
being aware of the here and now,
being present to what is present with us.

Mostly, we pass through the here and now,
on our way to somewhere else--
somewhere more important,
more interesting,
a better place to be.

We are either alive now or not.
If not now, when?
When are we ever alive?
When are we ever doing what the moment
needs us to do?
It is always something else.
Something else is always in the way.
Of being here, now,
looking, listening,
attuned, aware, alive
to the moment
and what it needs from us.

–0–

Mormon Row Barn 06/23/2001 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming

Living in each moment
as though it is the most important moment ever
would radically transform the world.

We throw moments away,
looking for the moment
we have been waiting for.
And we miss all the ones
that had been waiting for us.

Showing up and living truthfully
isn't about the Boy Scout Law.
It is about being present
and seeing what's what--
what is happening
and what needs to be done in response,
and making the response
the moment is calling for
out of our repertoire
of gifts/genius/virtues/character/etc.
that come with us from the womb.

Think of it as practice
for the Big One 
when it comes around--
and treat all of the little ones
as though they are the ones
that matter.

Offer what is needed
when it is needed
where it is needed
the way it is needed
for as long as it is needed 
moment-by-moment,
and everything will 
fall into place around that,
and the difference
will be amazing.

January 22, 2021

**Hammock Creek Oil Paint Rendered — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina**

Living to be what the situation
is calling us to be--
doing what it is calling us to do--
would flip our life around.

Turn it inside out 
and upside down,
kill us and resurrect us
in one reality-transforming instant.

As it is, we live to get the most out of
every situation that comes along.
"What's in this for me?"
is the question that guides our life.
"How can I get what I want,
here and now?"

To think that the situation has needs of its own
that we can meet
out of the goodness of our own little heart,
with nothing to gain,
get,
acquire,
amass...
Well that's an unconventional thought!
And one we are not inclined
to consider!

You can see how religion was invented
to keep us safe from the intrusion
of The Mystery of situational neediness
into our happy
(Or soon to be happy,
the minute we get what we want
and have our way throughout eternity)
life.

Religion makes no claims upon us
and our time.
We genuflect, 
make the sign of the cross
(Or their equivalents across
all religions)
and go on about our life,
none the worse for wear.

But to throw us vulnerable
and at the mercy of every situation
for as long as our life lasts
is just a monstrosity of a concept!
It's like an invasion of vampires 
from Mars,
maybe worse!

Forget it!
We are not going there!
Ever!

And The Mystery settles down
to wait us out.

–0–

The Watchman and the Virgin 05/20/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

Growing up is caring in the right way,
at the right time,
about the right things.

Nobody can tell us how to do that.

We live our way to right assessment,
right interpretation,
right perspective,
right view point,
right seeing,
right hearing,
right knowing,
right understanding,
right doing,
right being.

The key is self-awareness,
self-reflection,
self-examination,
self-exploration,
self-transparency,
self-correction...
all along the way.

This is where Dharma
comes into play.
Dharma is Right Duty.
It is doing what is called for
in the time and place of our living--
doing the right thing,
in the right way,
at the right time,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day,
all our life long.

We should/ought/must always do
what needs to be done--
what needs us to do it--
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.

And we cannot know what that will be,
or should/ought/must be,
prior to the moment as it unfolds before us.

This is what Jesus was talking about
when he said,
"The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."

The spirit doesn't know where it is going,
or what it is doing next.
It responds to the circumstances
as they develop
in ways that are appropriate/fitting
to the occasion,
and it never knows--
it cannot know--
what that will be 
before the time for acting.

In precisely that moment,
we act, the spirit acts,
our spirit acts,
without contrivance,
without concern for our own welfare,
our own profit,
our own gain,
our own benefit,
to do what is called for
with the gifts we bring to the moment,
right here, right now.

And do it again in the next moment
flowing from this one.

Sometimes that means taking a nap
when it is time to take a nap.

–0–

Smoky Mountain Winter 03/02/2014 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee

What is your response?
That is where you exercise
your only control
in each situation as it arises.

We are in charge of our response.
We are responsible for our response.

"It's people like you
who make people like me
hate people like you,"
is missing the point
of "people like me."

The point of each of us 
is to not be yanked around
by "people like you,"
or by any aspect of our life,
and made to do what is against our will
and purpose,
but to live from our own center,
with balance and harmony
in offering what is being called for
moment-by-moment
out of the gifts/genius/talents/abilities/etc.
that we have to offer
the circumstances of our life
in the time left for living.

We are here to be ourselves
in response to our life!

To incarnate ourselves anew
in each moment of each day.

We do that by the response we make
to each moment of each day.

What is your response?

You dream a dream.
What is your response in the dream
to the dreamed situation?
What is your response outside the dream,
as you reflect on it?

Your response, in the dream and out of it,
is what your dream is about.
We dream ourselves into responses
worthy of us.
We grow up--
we grow ourselves up--
by examining,
studying,
exploring,
investigating,
the responses we make 
to our dreams
and to our life
throughout our life.

Every situation asks something of us.
How do we respond?
What response do we make?

The first proper response
in each situation,
is to slay the dragon
whose name is Thou Shalt!
(Joseph Campbell)
and live in the moment
fresh from the kill,
free to be exactly 
what the moment needs us to be,
however foreign to the shoulds,
oughts,
and musts
at work in every situation
to keep us from responding appropriately
to the needs of the moment
as it opens before us.

What response will we make?

That is our question to answer
in each moment of each situation of each day
for as long as life shall last.

In light of what do we live?
Moment-to-moment?

January 21, 2021

**Blue Ridge Tree on a Hill Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

What is worth doing for itself alone?

Start there.
Give yourself to the actions
that are their own fulfillment 
and reason for being.

Horseback riding, perhaps. 
Walking on a foggy morning 
through the woods.
Reading stories to the grandchildren.

Surely, your life is filled 
with things that you do for the joy of it!

Do those things with clarity,
willfulness
and attentive presence!

These are the things you live to do!
These are the sources of meaning in your life!
Do them with reckless abandon!
LIVE to do them!

Work them into each day!
Do not be bashful or apologetic!
These things are who you are!

Look to expand their number,
to increase their presence
in quantity and frequency
in your life!

You are here to do what you love to do
for no reason beyond loving to do it!
Do not be slack in doing what you love!

Your life will love you for it!

–0–

**Four Girls II Panorama Oil Paint Rendered — Johnson Creek, St. Helena Island, South Carolina**

There is a right way to do anything,
and a wrong way to do it.

Mozart wrote his symphonies 
with the right way to do it in mind.
This is not to say that someone
wouldn't/couldn't come along
with an interpretation
that would blow even Mozart away.

Even though 10,000 people might
present interpretations
that would leave him lamenting
that he wrote it at all.

There are ways of responding to the moment
of our living
that are so right
everyone witnessing it
would respond with a standing ovation.

And ways of responding that are so wrong
that everyone hearing about it
would writhe in shame and dismay.

We stand between--
and offer some variant of--
right and wrong
in each moment of every situation
that arises,
all our life long.

We could be more consciously aware
of that than we are.

We could listen intently
to what the moment is calling for,
realize with clarity
what our role in the moment
requires of us,
and offer it without seeking
to exploit our opportunity
for our good/gain/profit/advancement,
but seeking simply
to offer what is needed,
when it is needed,
the way it is needed to be done
and let that be that.

Without merit or applause,
and nothing arising from it
beyond the next moment,
in which we respond with awareness
and behavior appropriate to the occasion.

Moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day
all our life long.

This simple way of living
is well within our reach,
and yet it exceeds our grasp,
day in and day out,
all our life long.

What is that about?

–0–

**Barn on Mormon Row 06/30/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming**

It is always right before us.

The Gospel of Thomas says Jesus said,
"The kingdom of God is spread out over the entire earth,
and no one sees what they are looking at."

The stone the builders reject.

The pearl of great price lost
among the costume jewelry at the flea market.

The treasure buried in the field 
people walk past every day.

The man sitting on his ox
looking for his ox.

The woman with her glasses on her head,
looking for her glasses.

What can you do with people like that?

Jesus is born anew in every generation.
No one sees him.
Most of the time he doesn't see himself.

John the Baptist sent his people to ask Jesus,
"Are you the one? Or shall we look for another?"
If you have to ask,
maybe you ought to change your expectations.
In order to see what is right before you.

And then, there is the Buddhist take on things:
"If you meet the Buddha on the road,
kill him!"

Because you are what you seek!
Get it?
So be who you are!
Without trying!

What could be simpler?
Or more difficult?

–0–

**Fall on Little River 11/10/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tremont, Tennessee**

Our life has a life of its own.
Our place is to find it,
align ourselves with it,
and live out our days
loving our life and enjoying it forever.

The clues to finding our life
and living it
are bread crumbs of meaning--
and by "meaning" I mean
the things we enjoy and do 
for themselves alone,
and not because they will lead
to something else.

In other words,
our life consists
of doing what is meaningful
and letting nature take its course.

What is meaningful about
your present life?
Do more of that!

Next question?

Seriously. 
What are your questions?
Don't tell me--tell yourself!
Make a list of your questions.
Everything flows from there.
Answers mean nothing.
Questions mean everything.
Let your questions guide you
to a life worth living!
Let your questions lead you
to a life worth having!

We know more when we know 
what our questions are
than we would ever know
knowing what the answers are.

Ask your questions,
and the questions they beg to be asked!
That is the way to all things
wise and wonderful!

You are wasting your time 
talking to people who have the answers.
Talk to people who have the question--
especially the right questions!
They know what's what,
and what's not.

What are your questions?

January 20, 2021

**Fort Buhlow 01/25/2017 BW Oil Paint Rendered — Pineville, Louisiana**

Living aligned with our life
and living in accord with the Tao
is bringing our best to meet the day,
like water seeking its way,
not forcing its way,
by responding appropriately,
at the right time, 
in the right way,
to each situation as it arises.

That sounds simple enough. 
What makes it difficult?
Why is it impossible?

Carry this with you as a 
meditation,
a modern koan, 
to resolve before you die.

–0–

**Crested Dwarf Iris Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina**

Spiritual has no necessary connection
with religion,
theology,
doctrine,
dogma,
creed,
catechism,
belief
or conviction.

It has everything to do with truth.
With integrity.
With doing the right thing,
in the right place,
at the right time,
in the right way.

Spiritual is living so attuned to,
so in tune with,
so at-one with,
so aligned with,
so in accord with
the moment and what is called for there
that our spontaneous response
is exactly what is most fitting,
proper and appropriate
at that time
and in that place.

The participation in that kind of truth,
of that kind of integrity of being,
and being witness to it,
are both spiritual experiences
that draw forth the spontaneous Yes!
of acknowledging the perfection
of oneness of life and being
with time and place.

Spiritual is being thus aligned
with life and being, time and place.

The old Taoists called it 
being in accord with the Tao.

It is the foundation of spirituality
across time and space.

–0–

**Sourwood 02 11/04/2020 Oil Paint Rendered — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina**

Becoming conscious is our sacred obligation
from birth to death.

We live to become conscious
of life, living, and being alive.

A moment spent being unconscious
is a moment we will never get back.
A life-time of mindlessness
is wasted,
is thrown away.

Living like cows following 
the cow in front of them
from the barn
to the pasture
and back to the barn
is life as we live it--
as it has always been lived
by those who have gone before us.

We must live to break the pattern.

Start with Jon Kabat-Zinn's YouTube videos
(The shortest ones first),
and practice Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction
like you practice breathing
throughout the time left for living.

Ask all of the questions that beg to be asked.
Say all of the things that cry out to be said.
Slay the dragon named Thou Shalt! daily,
hourly!
Live to be aware of the moment of your living,
to see what is happening
to hear what is being called for in response,
to do what needs to be done
without contrivance
or self-interest,
with sincerity
and spontaneity,
moment-by-moment.

Live like the stream seeking its way to the sea
with nothing in it for you,
making a path where there is no path,
finding a way where there is no way,
exerting a will that is more than a will
and is not a will at all
all the way to the end,
where you start the journey over,
being water on its way to the sea,
being water all the way,
being who you are,
living to discover who you are,
doing what is yours to do
as only you can do it,
as time and place allow it,
demand it,
require it,
all our life long.

If we are not being conscious,
why not?

What are we waiting for?

January 19, 2021

**Dogwoods Oil Paint Rendering — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

We live on to pass it on--
to pass life on.
Not only physical life,
but spiritual life as well.

And spiritual life has nothing to do with beliefs,
ideology,
theology,
doctrine,
dogma,
creeds,
catechisms,
words,
thinking,
reason,
logic,
rationality.

Spiritual life has to do with dancing,
playing,
laughing,
singing,
drumming,
poetry,
metaphor,
symbol...

What is a metaphor for you?
You are a metaphor for what?

My father knew nothing of these things.
He could not pass any of them along to me.
Just as his father had nothing
of spiritual substance 
to pass along to him.
Just as his grandfather had nothing
to pass along to his father...

My mother was as bereft 
as her mother,
as her grandmother...

Not a breath of real life in the whole lot.

The line stretches far back
into the dense fog
of the very beginning.
Nothing but the physical side
from the start.

Our spirit is shriveled
from lack of attention.
Our heart is dried out,
the juices of life are depleted.

Where shall we go to restore our soul?
Who has passed on the secrets
of full life,
pouring over,
spilling out?

I know that some have.
I have found mine in the writings of those
who speak of things 
no one in my family knew of.

I have adopted spiritual fathers and mothers
who have nourished me back to life,
who lived on to pass it on,
and where would we be without them?

And now it is our turn,
living on to pass it on--
what do we have worth passing on?

Perspective,
kindness,
compassion,
questioning,
seeking, 
playfulness,
laughter,
gentleness,
generosity,
...

How long is your list of things
that need passing on?

Live to add to it everyday,
and pass them around
for all to enjoy
and pass on!

–0–

**False Hellebore Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia**

Here is my fool-proof,
never-fail,
method for changing your mind
about something--
anything--
all things
(And by changing your mind,
I mean changing the way you think
about something [etc.],
the way you feel about something [etc.],
the way something [etc.] impacts you,
affects you,
effects you [etc.]
forever.

There is absolutely nothing to it.

All you have to do is start living
as though your mind has changed.

The old psychological saw at work here is
"Feelings follow actions."

If you want to change the way
you feel about something,
change the way you act in relation to it.

Start acting the way you want to feel/think/perceive.

Pretend your way to a different reality.

"Fake it 'til you make it,"
as the folks in AA like to say.

The catch is that you have to fake it
with your heart in what you are doing.

You have to fake it so well
you begin to trick yourself,
and you catch yourself being unsure
how you "really feel."

Of course, you will have to work through
all of the barriers your put in your own way--
the thoughts about not being genuine,
not being authentic,
not being real,
not being true to yourself, etc.

Do not pause to think about it
or to argue the point.
Just get back to work
acting as though you feel
as you wish you felt
about whatever it is
that needs to be changed
about your attitude and your life.

Maybe it's washing dishes.
Start washing dishes 
as you would if you wanted
to wash dishes.
Put your whole heart into it.
All the way.

This approach to being alive
will transform your world,
and the world of everyone who knows you.
In no time at all.

–0–

Sunwapta Falls 09/24/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta

If it is good for people,
I'm for it--
why is that bad?

Why can't Republicans use
that statement 
as their identifying motto/slogan?

What is bad about being good for people?

Why do Republicans not call it socialism
when their taxes pay for roads and highways
and libraries
and the first twelve years of school,
and their own salaries
(If they work for the government),
but call it socialism
when their taxes pay for health care
and the next four or five or six years of school
and unemployment stipends
and child care?

Why don't Republicans want the government
to be on the side of the people?
Particularly when the government's own rules
say it is "of the people,
by the people,
for the people"?

Why would anybody want to be a Republican?
Besides being well-paid
by wealthy corporation
to keep their taxes low--
Or to make their taxes non-existent?

Republicans are in it for the money,
and will promise you anything 
to get your vote,
then do what they want to do
when elected.

Republicans are not on the side of the people
because corporations pay them 
to not be on the side of the people,
because that would increase corporate taxes.

No one has ever been called
"a bleeding heart Republican"
for as long as there have been Republicans.

Republicans are shepherds of corporation.
They don't care about the people.

Look it up.

January 18, 2021

**The Cascades Oil Paint Rendered — Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina**

We live on
to pass on 
what we have learned about living
from living.

The problem with this is
that most of us
merely pass on
what has been passed on to us
from those who passed it along 
from someone who passed it along...
through centuries and eons
of passing along the same old same old stuff,
with no one in the entire chain
ever once examining what they were handed
and asking, "What makes you think this is so?"

We think it is so 
because we have been told it is so.
And we never question anything
because we have been told not to question anything.

What has your life taught you
about being alive?
That is the only thing worth knowing.
The only thing worth passing on.
And we pass it along,
not as though it is gospel truth,
but as a way of saying,
"This is what I have made of what happened to be,
see if you can verify it 
through your own experience."

Teaching people to look at their life,
to listen to their life,
as the most valid source
of what is true
when properly interpreted
and understood,
puts everything on the examination table
and invites questions from all sides.

And that is the essential attitude
in learning what our life has to teach us
about life, and living, and being alive.

Live on to pass it on!
And let that be that!

–0–

**Sunwapta River 09/21/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Jasper National Park, Alberta**

What would you go to hell for?
What would you go through hell for?
It's the same thing, don't you see?
And we have to be both clear and right
about what is worth going to hell for,
and what is worth going through hell for,
and do it--
time and again,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
all our life long.

It is death and resurrection all the way--
it is like dying, and like being raised from the dead
all the way!

We have to care enough about the important things
to die for them,
figuratively or literally.
We cannot allow the specter of death
to scare us off,
to scare us out of the life we are
being called to live.

We live meaningless, empty, lives
because we won't die for anything
worth dying for.
We die because we won't die.

We won't die because we think
the wrong things are the most important things.

Living, for example.
Living in the service of the wrong things
is not living at all.

Money, for example.
Wealth and privilege.
Power.
Control.
We give up everything for nothing in return.
And die long before we are dead.

We have to turn the light around here.
We have to sacrifice all the things we think
are important
in the service of the things 
that are actually important.

Being right about what is important
is the most important thing!

What would you go to hell for?
What would  you go through hell for?
Are you right about it being important?

–0–

The Other Lone Cypress 01 11/10/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Lake Brandt, Greensboro, North Carolina

The message of the Savior is
"There is no Savior!"

When Jesus said, "If you would be my disciple,
pick up your own cross everyday,
and come with me!"
he was saying,
"A servant of Truth lives to die
in the service of Truth!"

We live to die!
We live to deserve to die!
We live as though every day
is the last day we have to live!

Life is to be spent in the service of Truth!
We are here to live truthfully!
To live truthful lives!
To live a life aligned with its center:
"Like a wheel turning out of its own center!"
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

We live to incarnate
what is deepest, best and truest about us!
We live to be-and-to-do who we are!
We live to be at-one with The Other Within,
and with The Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being!

Our life is our canvas
and we are the artist
painting the truth of existence
with every stroke of the brush.

Passing it on!

We live on to pass life on!
Jesus passed it on!
Everyone who has known
what Jesus knew
passed it on!
Dying in the service
of that which was worth their life!

And so it is said,
"Know what is worth going to hell for,
and be right about it,
and live to go straight to hell
when you die!"

We have to be willing to go to hell
in this sense
to return to Eden.
Eden is where we celebrate
having lived to deserve to die
and go to hell.

If you can understand this,
live on to pass it on!

January 17, 2021

**Pioneer Cabin Oil Paint Rendered — Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, Tennessee**

We have to attain a certain level
of maturity
before we are able to live
with the kind of balance and harmony
required to dance with our circumstances
without being crushed by them.

People who aren't somewhat grown up
before their life begins to deliver
disappointment and heartbreak,
grief, loss and sorrow,
winking and saying,
"Just wait to see what 'cha got coming next,"
are going to have a hard time 
just catching their breath.

How do we grow up?
How do we develop the kind of perspective
that takes things in stride,
does what can be done about them,
and lets that be that?

All of the spiritual leaders
through the centuries
have been mature beyond their years--
and beyond their peers.

Jesus was old as a child.
The Buddha grew up through years
of coming to terms with how things are.

Maturity is an advantage
that wealth and position
cannot touch.

Knowing what is good for us
and what is not--
and going with the good--
is valuable knowing,
but without knowing how 
to pull that rabbit out of the hat,
we are no better off
for knowing what it would take
to be better off.

How do we increase our level of maturity?
How do we grow ourselves up?

Take those questions as yours to answer,
and live in the service of finding it
in the time left for living.

–0–

Mt. Rundle 02 09/22/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Banff National Park, Alberta

A caveat regarding The Other Within:

A partnership is not the way
to the realization of your dreams.
It is the end of contrivance in all forms.
And the beginning of complete sincerity
and self-transparency.

There is no using The Other for anything
other than The Other.

There is nothing in it for us beyond
living in accord with the Tao
through each situation that arises
all our life long,
with nothing to show for our work
except the satisfaction
of having done the best we could
with what we had to work with
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.

"If you want to be my disciple,
pick up your cross daily
and follow me."

If Christians took the word of their lord seriously,
there would be very few people in church.
Their idea of a cross
is a decoration to wear 
as a pendant or a tattoo.

Jesus is supposed to be good for heaven,
else why bother?
And thinking The Other Within
is the path to fortune and glory
is to stray from the path,
to leave the way,
and to wander without direction 
through the wasteland forever.

So with Jesus or The Other,
understand it is about the quality of life
on the Journey,
and not about the acquisition of anything
along the way.

There is no merit to be gained.
There is only finding our life 
and living it,
for the joy of doing it.

The joy of having done it
is what forever is for.

–0–

**Three Horses 11/25/2010 Oil Paint Rendered — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Horse Barn Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina**

Carl Jung said,
"There is within each of us
another, whom we do not know."

In order to transform our relationship
with ourselves,
we have to acknowledge,
honor,
welcome,
engage,
collaborate
and align ourselves with
The Other who resides within.

Sounds weird. 
Accommodating ourselves to weird
is one of the requirements
of the Journey.

The Other within is our best invisible friend,
and our guide, mentor
and access to the depths that are forever.
And only one aspect of The Mystery
at the Heart of Life and Being.

There are dimensions--
like light waves and sound waves
that we are incapable of seeing or hearing--
that are imperceptible and undetectable,
and as real as last night's dream,
and that close at hand.

Our place is to find our place
and simply be who we are,
trusting that to be our part to play
in the whole that is beyond describing.

It is like this:
I think it was Martin Palmer who said,
though I cannot locate the reference,
so it may be Thomas Cleary who said,
or someone else who said,
"The path that can be discerned as a path
is not a reliable path."

They offered this statement 
as an alternative translation
to the Tao te Ching's statement,
"The Tao that can be named/said/told
is not the eternal Tao."

I connect this with a statement Jesus 
is said to have said:
"The spirit is like the wind
that blows where it will."

I understand this to mean that
not even the spirit of God knows
what it is doing,
or what it will be doing next.
Even the spirit is on a path
that cannot be discerned!

We are all in the same boat.

It is all in flux and dependent upon
everything else.

There is no master plan,
and yet,
everything is just what it needs to be,
and can't be anything other than what it is.

Think back over your life.
Nothing had to be what it was,
and yet, 
everything had to be exactly what it was
to get you here, now.

We are totally free to be something
completely surprising (weird) in the next moment,
yet absolutely bound to being who we are forever.

We never out-live having been where we have been,
and never out-grow having had parents--
the specific parents we had,
and yet, we are unrestricted in making of that 
what we will.

This is karma.
Consequences have consequences.
"We meet our fate on the road we take
to escape it" (Carl Jung).
Freedom is bondage.
Make your peace with that
and live on!

Living on is the point,
the whole point,
and nothing but the point.
Martin Hägglund does a wonderful job
elaborating "living on"
in his book This Life,
though it is not for sissies.
Neither is life.

Which gets us back to the importance
of forging a relationship
with The Other whom we do not know.
We need all the help we can get.

Sit still, be quiet,
see what meets you there.
Reflect on your nighttime dreams,
and your daytime flights of fancy/fantasy.
Find the themes running through your life.
Explore everything.
Get to the bottom of you.

We are the source 
and the goal 
of our own seeking.
What we are looking for
is who is looking.

Who is The Other whom we do not know?
Make it your Quest to find out!

January 16, 2021

**Emerald Lake 09/27/2006 Oil Paint Rendered — Yoho National Park, Field, British Columbia**

We cannot control what happens,
but.

We can strongly influence 
what happens next
by the way we respond
to what happens.

Balance and harmony
do not depend upon
external circumstances.

Living from our center
with sincerity and non-contrivance,
mindful awareness
and optimal emotional distance
between ourselves
and what is happening
in each situation as it arises,
positions us 
to see with right seeing,
hear with right listening,
and offer what is called for
in the right way
at the right time--
spontaneously,
without anxiety,
like a parent taking care 
of their child,
or like a tennis player
responding to their opponent's 
ground stroke--
even as we pass through 
the clashing rocks
on the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea.

–0–

**Dry Falls 04/02/2007 Oil Paint Rendered — Pisgah National Park, Cullasaja River Gorge, Highlands, North Carolina**

The trick with caring
is to live as though we care
whether we care or not.

Fake it, as the AA slogan goes,
'til you make it!

Live to fake it so well,
not even you can tell
"if it's real or if it is Memorex"!

It doesn't matter if you really care
if you really live as though you do!

Just act the part!
Play the role!
Live so as to deserve 
an Academy Award every day
for the way you express/exhibit/incarnate
caring in the world!

If the world can't tell the difference,
and if you can't be sure of the difference,
for all practical purposes,
there is no difference!
And you will be doing what we need you to do!
And all of life will be blessed
by your doing it!

Live like you mean it!
Care like you mean it!
Whether you do or not!
The difference you make in the lives of others,
and in the world at large,
will be the same!

Do not get hung up on "not really meaning it"!
Live as though you really mean it!
Feelings follow actions,
as the old saying goes.
So get in there and act your way
in to feeling what you don't feel yet!

Living as though your heart is in caring
about your life,
is a necessary step toward caring about your life!

If you are going to take anything on faith,
take this on faith--
and live as though it is so!
And it will be so!
The world is dying for you to will and to do here!

Step into your life
and live there in ways that do 
what needs to be done there
the way it needs to be done
when it needs to be done
in each situation as it arises--
whether you feel like it or not--
and all the world will rejoice and be glad!

–0–

Cullasaja Cascade Oil Paint Rendered — Pisgah National Forest, Cullasaja River Gorge, Highlands, North Carolina

We are here to care
about everything we care about,
and we are here to care about all things.

Caring is the foundation of life,
living,
being alive.
To not care is to be dead.

The only thing separating the living
from the dead
is that the living care about being alive,
and the dead don't care about anything.

Give yourself a caring-quotient.
On a scale of 1 to 10,
with 1 being dead
and 10 being maxed out in love with the universe,
where do you stand now?

Are you more dead than alive,
or more alive than dead?

You owe it to yourself,
and to me,
and to all of us who are,
ever have been,
or have yet to be,
to move toward caring more
each day of your life!

Caring is caring about what we do
and how well we do it.

Caring is the most important thing about us.
Everything hinges on the quality and depth
of our caring.

If you are going to practice anything,
practice caring about everything!
About everyone!
About all of it!

Care like it is the only thing that matters!

It IS the only thing that matters!

–0–

Tunnel View Oil Paint Rendered — Yosemite National Park, California

Martin Hägglund, writing in This Life,
says we have to attach ourselves
to what is meaningful in our life.

We cannot abandon what is meaningful
in the service of ambition.
We cannot put meaning aside,
or put it off,
until we have socked away a fortune
and have it made.

The price of a fortune
is the loss of a life.
The life that meaning
was calling us to live.

There is no substitute for meaning.
There is only meaning and denial.
If we are not living meaningful lives,
we are kidding ourselves.
We are lying to ourselves.
And are in denial.

Drinking too much,
drugging too much,
partying too much,
working too much,
burning the candle at both ends too much...
chasing money,
burning meaning.

We have to sit down with ourselves
and have a come to the truth
of how it is really moment.
We cannot kid the part of us
that knows meaning when we see it.
So, sit down with that part and listen.
If you will.

You have to will it to be so.
You have to will your life back into place.
You left the way,
turned aside from the path,
and wound up in the wasteland of your discontent,
and now you have to find the road back to Eden.

Ah, but you know the price of returning to Eden!
No one goes back there without dying!
This doesn't mean a physical death,
but  spiritual death.
We have to die to all that is keeping us 
from living a meaningful life.

That means working it out.
It is like dying to work meaning into our life,
to live comfortably around meaning,
to live with a foot in different worlds,
to pay the bills and do what we pay the bills to do!

Death and resurrection is the recurring theme
of living the life that is our life to live.
A life of meaning and purpose
is a life of joy and sorrow,
a life of vulnerability and pain.
A life of being true to ourselves.
A life of troth,
good faith,
and dharma--
lived aligned with our heart,
in accord with the Tao.

We have to will that life into reality.
Day by day.
Moment by moment.
It doesn't just happen.

"Pick up your cross, daily," said Jesus,
"and come along with me.
Those who put their hand to the plow,
don't look back."

Every seer who has seen has said the same thing.

Living meaningfully is no walk in the park.
We cannot do it only when we feel like it.

Are we up for it or not?
That's the question.
We like the idea,
but are we committed to it?

Will we live meaningfully,
or throw life away?

That is the choice.

We are kidding ourselves
if we think it isn't so.