November 20, 2020

03

Tree Panoramas 04 10/25/2019 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
Our life is designed
to bring out the best in us,
or not.

Joseph Campbell said,
"It took the Cyclops
to bring out the hero in Ulysses."
But, not in all those
the Cyclops met before Ulysses.

We do not have to stand up
and step forward to meet our life
with our best in hand.
We can run. 
Carl Jung said, however,
"We meet our destiny on the road
we take to avoid it."
Yet, ever there, 
we do not have to meet it
with our best in hand.

We can turn to denial,
despair,
dejection,
addiction...
and die long before
some coroner makes it official.

Our life doesn't always
bring out the best in us.
How we respond to the demands
of the moment
is our call to make,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.

Having what it takes,
and doing what needs to be done,
is as much a matter of perspective
and perception,
courage and willful determination,
as it is skill and ability.

Just making the effort
attracts help from 
the most unexpected places.
Just opening ourselves
to the gifts of our imagination,
creates shifts and openings
in our circumstances
we could never expect.

We craft miracles by
stepping forward,
wondering how we are going to
do this thing that is called for.

Again and again.

Ours is the Sisyphean task
of putting our shoulder to 
our life and rolling it up the hill
each day
and following it down the hill
each night,
to roll it up the hill again 
the next day,
day after day after day.

How did Sisyphus do it? 
I would have to make a game of it.
I would make a friend of the rock
that is my life.
I would love the rock
and my relationship with the rock.

Each day, I would roll it to almost
the top of the hill,
seeking the still point
between up and down.
It would have to be there somewhere.
The place of balance and harmony.
The place of rest.
Aha!

And I would take a break,
and count the seconds each day,
before the tipping point gave way,
and down she goes.
I would live to discover my personal best,
and strive to beat it each day.

And I would walk slowly down hill,
to start over again tomorrow.

I would give it my best each day,
with no end in sight,
and no way out.
It is called making meaning,
what humans do best.
Just me and my rock called Micky
(For Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stone).

–0–

02

Carolina Thread Trail 05 11/09/2020 — Twelve-Mile Creek Swinging Bridge, Lancaster County, SC/Union County, NC
We find the center by seeking
and exploring,
and exhibiting,
our Original Nature
and our Natural Rhythms.

"Is this Me or Not-Me
here and now?"

Is the question that 
carries us into the roles
our lives require us to play,
and the masks we wear day-to-day.

Joseph Campbell talked about
the Primary Mask being who 
our parents, our culture, our society
ask/expect us to wear,
and the Antithetical Mask being who
we are in our inmost self.

For 40.5 years in the ministry,
I was an introvert
pretending to be an extrovert.
I did it by being conscious of it.
By not pretending to myself.
I stepped into the role 
my life was asking me to play,
like I would if I were an actor
playing my part for the Big Screen.

Life is like a Big Screen.
We show up,
deliver our lines as they should be delivered,
act our part as it should be acted,
take our bows,
and return to our life off-screen,
where we can settle into "just being ourselves"
for a while.

The masks are essential.
We have to walk two paths at the same time.
Who we are 
is who-we-ought-to-be
and
who-we-can't-help-being.
Where the two paths clash considerably,
we have to work it out.

I could not have been a minister
in a right-wing evangelical church.
I knew where to draw my lines.
There are some parts we cannot play
and be true to ourselves.
Actors do not accept every part
they are asked to play. 

Fraser Snowden said,
"The only true philosophical question
is 'Where do we draw the line?'"
The answer to that question
is a door opening to the mystical
center of ourselves,
revealing who we are
in ways we might never have guessed
without being pushed to the point
of drawing a line.

All of our lines are mirrors 
reflecting us to us.
In drawing our lines,
we know who we are,
what is important,
and where we stand.

Where have you drawn lines
in the past?
Where are you drawing lines
in the present?
Where are you likely to draw lines
in the future?

There you are.

Other places/doors/mirrors revealing
us to us
are the things/people that/who attract us
and the things/people that/who repel us.
Anything, any person,
that/who evokes a visceral reaction in us
is telling us about us.

Who we vote for and why.

The things we intend to do 
and keep forgetting to do.

The things we intend not to do
and find ourselves doing.

The tunes we hum/sing without meaning to.

The themes which keep playing themselves out,
or coming to the surface again and again,
when our mind is "just wandering."

The dreams--particularly the Big Dreams,
and the recurring dreams--we have at night.

The day dreams--dreads and happy fantasies--
we have during the day.

The ways we spend our money.
The ways we spend our time.

Our viewpoint.
Our preferences.
Our fears.
Our desires.

All are clues to who we are,
to who we are afraid of being,
to who we do not want to be at all,
that need to be examined,
investigated,
explored,
contemplated,
mined
for the gold.

The paths to the center
are paths to meaning and purpose,
hope and fulfillment,
identity and confidence,
balance and harmony,
and wait for our cooperation
to lead us to ourselves.

–0–

01

Looking East 05 09/01/2014 — Water Rock Knob, Blue Ridge Parkway, Maggie Valley, North Carolina
We start where we are,
with seeing all there is to see
here and now--
right here, right now.

Asking all of the questions 
that beg to be asked.

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

Without judgment, evaluation 
or even opinion--
and with compassion and acceptance--
in a "This, too! This, too!"
kind of way.

All of it is grist for the mill.
We are milling ourselves.
Who we are
and who we have within us to be.

We are seeking ourselves,
and looking for the life 
that is ours to live.

We find both
waiting for us
at the center.
It all comes together
at the center.

All paths lead to the center,
flow from the center,
circle around the center.

The paths are not straight.
There is nothing linear 
or sequential about us.
"The shortest way through
is the long way around"
(Conventional wisdom saying).

Carl Jung talked about "individuation"
(What we are about,
becoming who we are,
doing what is ours to do)
as "The circumambulation of the self."
It is a long,
downward spiral to the center 
of life and being.

At the center
is also The Source,
which is also The Mystery,
of Life and Being.

We are one with The Source
and The Mystery
of Life and Being.

And, here is the secret
of the center,
at the center,
we are connected
with everyone else
at their center.

The many are one at the center.
and say, "AUM...",
which is a lot like saying, "WOW...",
together,
through the ages.

November 19, 2020

03

Fall Canopy 02 11/08/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
We see things the way we see things.
And.
Everything hinges/turns/flows from/falls out around
how we see things.
Nothing is more important
than being right about the way we see things.
That being the case--
and who could see it any other way--
you would think we would take the pains required
to see things as they are.

In other words,
to see the things we look at
as scientists would see them
and not as religious fanatics would see them.

That would mean
stepping back from the way we see things
to see ourselves seeing things.
And make inquiries.

Why do we see things the way we see them
and not some other way instead?

Where does the way we see things come from?

How many other ways of seeing things
can we imagine?

How do we know the way we see things
is the right way to see things?

Who would be proud of us 
for the way we see things?
Who would be disappointed in us 
for the way we see things?
Who are we trying to please/displease
by the way we see things?

Where do we get our ideas 
about the way we ought to see things?

Who are the authorities we respect
when it comes to how to see things?

Other than taking their word for it,
how could we determine whether the way
we see things
is the right way to see them?

What standards/principles govern
the way we see things?

What experiments can we devise
to test the validity of the way we see things?

How can we determine if we know 
what we are doing,
seeing things the way we see things?

What are we afraid of
when it comes to examining 
the way we see things?

What are the questions we are afraid to ask
about the way we see things?
What are the questions we refuse to ask?

How do we know that we know
what we are talking about?

Who says that the way we see things
is the right way to see things?
Who says that the way we see things
is the wrong way to see things?
How do we know who is right?

What are we taking for granted
when it comes to the way we see things?

What are we assuming to be so?

What justifies us in seeing the way we do?
What calls us into question?

What does how we see things
say about what is most important to us?
How do we know that ought to be important?
Who says so?
Who says not-so?
What makes us think they know,
or don't know,
what they are talking about?

Etc. and so forth all the way
to the bottom of the matter.

–0–

02

Sunset at Water Rock Knob 08/05/2007 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Maggie Valley, North Carolina
What feeds your soul?
What makes your little heart sing?
What brings you to life?
What nurtures you,
nourishes you,
restores you,
centers you,
grounds you,
balances you,
harmonizes you,
reconnects you to you?

Make it your practice 
to incorporate the things
that do these things
into your life
on a regular basis.

You are responsible for 
your own self-care.

We neglect ourselves
to our own demise.
It is like dying a slow death
by our own hand.

Whose side are you on?
Would anyone ever guess
that you are on your own side
by the way you treat you?

You are your only hope.
You are the guardian
of your own Inner Guide.
Follow the guidance 
of the One Who Knows Within!

And start doing the things
that bring you to life!

Regularly!
Dependably!
Relentlessly!

–0–

01

Moss Glen Falls 03 09/25/2015 — Stowe, Vermont
How confident are you
of living out of your own center?
How courageous are you
in living out of your own center?

When your center comes under attack,
how do you defend it?
When you come under attack,
how conscious are you
of retreating to your center?

Your center is your adamantine core.
Your immovable,
unassailable rock. 
Your unshakable foundation.

Do you have any idea
of what I am talking about?

Are you blown about,
unsure of yourself,
easily talked into and out of
anything?
With no north star to guide you,
and no gyroscope 
to hold you on course?
Second-guessing and self-doubting
leading the way?

If so, it is time to find your center.

Your center is an extension of the Source,
with your own particular blend
of tastes/interests/peculiarities/
proclivities/idiosyncrasies/gifts/
ways/characteristics/etc.
forming the "I am" that grounds you
and sets you apart from everyone else.

You are alike everyone else
in that we all stem from the Source,
and we are different from everyone else
in that we are a unique combination
of traits unlike anyone who has ever been
or will be.

And the idea that we should abandon who we are
and be identical to everyone else is anathema.

Our place is to BE who we are
in relationship with everyone else,
in the old, "Define yourself
while staying in touch" kind of way.
Tricky.
And it all hangs on our knowing
and living out of our center.

Our center is the home 
of our Original Nature
and our Natural Rhythms.

Joseph Campbell said,
"We know when we are on the beam
and when we are off of it."
"The beam" here is a metaphor
for our center.

We know when we are centered,
balanced and in harmony with ourselves,
and when we are not.

We have to know what we know.
Pay attention.
Be aware.
And consciously allow our action
to flow from our center
by observing ourselves in action,
and checking to see if the origin
of what we are doing--
how we are living--
is flowing unimpeded from our center,
or if it is being directed 
by some other source
(Like the desire to be pleasing,
or the fear of being abandoned),
and doing the work
of coming to terms
with our vulnerabilities
by being aware of them,
and of living out of our center
by being aware of it.

Awareness is the solution
of all of our problems today
and every day.

Perhaps this would be a good time 
for me to mention
the Jon Kabat-Zinn YouTube videos
(The shortest ones first)
on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

It is difficult to live out of our center
without being aware of what we are doing.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the awareness guru.
Start with him.

November 18, 2020

05

Walnut Creek Trail 09 11/09/2020 — Lancaster County, South Carolina
My short list of the most important things:

See what you look at.
Look at everything.

Hear what you listen to.
Listen to everything.

Know what you know,
and what you don't know.

Sit quietly as often as possible
for as long as possible. 

Contemplate your original nature
and your natural rhythms.

Realize that you cannot change your life
without changing the way you live your life.

Without changing the way you think about your life.
Without changing the people you run with.
Without becoming transparent to yourself.

When you become transparent to yourself,
you become transparent to transcendence.

When you become transparent to transcendence,
you become as God,
with you and "the Father" being one.

How different are you willing for your life to be?

–0–

04

Lake Chicot 09 10/27/2015 — Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platte, Louisiana
It is our body of work that does it.
It is the cumulative impact
of our life on other lives
over the full course of our life
that makes our living worthwhile,
and stands as our contribution
to the whole--
that constitutes "doing our bit"
in support of the idea of humanity
in the cosmos.

It's like this:
We affect every moment for better or worse,
for good or ill,
by the way we respond to the moment.
We influence every situation
through the response we make
to the situation.

We are, then and there, for the sole purpose
of being who we are, then and there,
for the good of then and there.

You can blow that off if you want to.
That is your way of responding 
to here and now.

You can do that with every here and now
that proceeds from this here, this now.
Blow it off.
Maybe that is just who you are,
and you can't help it,
even by paying attention to it,
and wondering if there is a more helpful
way of being present
in the situations that constitute your life.

I'm saying that you owe it to yourself
and to the rest of us
to be consciously present
in each situation as it arises,
and to offer those situations
what is being called for there
to the best of your ability,
one situation at a time
all your life long.

Blow it off if you want to.
Never mind if you like.
I did what I could do for you,
you wanted nothing to do with it,
and that's that.

But, before you go, look at it this way:
An orchestra,
a choir,
a quartet,
a duo,
you standing alone at the microphone,
works best when everyone 
is on key, in tune, 
and harmoniously in accord with the music.

Stay with me here.

Every situation is a performance
before an audience,
with music
and a microphone,
with a rhythm and a flow,
calling us to dance in sync
with the movement of that time
and that place.

And when we do it,
it is beautiful.
And when we do not do it,
it is not.

Your place and mine
is to grace each situation 
with the full wonder of our presence,
day in and day out forever.

Blow it off if you must.
But, know what you are doing 
when you do.

How we live matters!
It is the only thing that matters!
And we get to practice our part,
to play our role,
to be who we are,
offering what we have to give,
in each situation as it arises.

We have no excuse for failing 
to be good at being us over time.
And everything depends on our
being good at being us,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.

Don't believe it if you want to,
but why wouldn't you believe it?
Why would you believe something
that lets you get by with being
a fly in the soup,
a gnat in the eye,
a scourge on the earth,
a blight, a curse, on the legacy 
of humanity eternally,
the bane of human existence
through all the ages?

Answer me that,
before you go.

–0–

03

Atlantic Moonrise 01 08/08/2007 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina
Being right about who we are,
and living to place ourselves
in accord with who we are
is the essence of true-human-being-hood,
and the most meaningful thing we can do
in the time left for living--
for ourselves and all of humankind.

"What I do is me/for that I came,"
said Gerad Manley Hopkins.
"By the grace of God, I am what I am,"
said Paul the Apostle.
"I yam what I yam!"
said Popeye the Sailor Man.

There is no greater honor
or pleasure
than being who we are
in the way we live our life.

And it is the Secret Cause
(Stephen Dedalus/James Joyce)
that directs us to our death.
And what a beautiful, wonderful 
way to die that is.

We are going to die some way,
some how.
Why not die being who we are?
As a direct consequence of being who we are?
Deliberately,
willfully,
being who we are every step of the way?

What is a better way to go?

Mean to die by the way you live!
Let that be your gift to the world!
As surely as Jesus' death was
his gift to the world!

To live and to die being who we are
is the greatest meaning 
we can give to our existence!
Why throw it away drinking beer
looking at the ocean?

Drinking beer, looking at the ocean,
is only a pilgrimage to restore our soul
and deepen our commitment
to being who we are in a world
that doesn't notice or care who we are--
a "pause that refreshes"
and enables us to stand up,
and step back into our work
of being who we are,
doing what needs us to do it,
the way only we can,
all our life long.

–0–

02

Around Bass Lake 07 10/13/2014 — Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina
The rhythms and themes,
tastes and interests,
proclivities and ways of making coffee,
or whatever we drink instead,
which direct and define our living,
are unique among people
who have ever lived,
or will ever live.

We are one of a kind,
individual
and distinctive,
set apart.

And then we get married.

It takes fifty years or so
to knock off the sharp corners
and smooth out the rough edges
and make each of us fit company
for the other of us.

Marriage is equivalent to the smashups
that went on for eons
after the Big Bang 
that eventually created
the laws of physics and biology
by destroying everything 
that didn't belong as it was 
where it was.

We all take our place over time.
Become domesticated
and can be trusted to know
our limits
and where we belong,
and where we have no business being.

And, it would help to know something
of the rhythms and themes, etc.
of the person we are marrying
before we marry.

Insuring compatibility
will not guarantee no collision
of galaxies, but,
it will reduce the likelihood,
and that alone would make it
worth the effort.

–0–

01

The Grove 07 01/29/2015 –Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, Hollywood, South Carolina, The Big House now serves as office space for the Refuge
We all die by our own hand.
We all are the secret cause of our own death.
We all have rhythms and themes
and ways of being, and being-not,
that carry us through our life
to the very end.

We step toward our own dying
step-by-step,
moment-by-moment,
day-by-day.

In each of us, 
our fate and our destiny
meet up
and work themselves out,
to our oblivious,
unknowing,
out-of-touchness,
and our clueless turning
from one thing to another,
completely unaware 
of the rhythms and themes
that are dancing us,
directing us,
all our life long.

Noticing and knowing 
what we are doing
will enable us to smile
as death comes upon us,
and step toward it
as though we are meeting our lover,
greeting it with a warm embrace,
saying with passion
and meaning every word,
"It is so good to meet you at last,
and on such a good day to die!"

November 17, 2020

03

Fall Leaves 24 11/10/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
All religion is based 
on the premature interpretation 
of experience.

The discovery of recurring cycles
in the relationships
between the stars and planets--
with mathematical regularity--
did not,
does not,
mean anything beyond what it is.

However, the stargazers who put 
everything together 
made it mean what they 
said it meant
by interpreting it the way they did.

We should leave things we don't know
anything about uninterpreted 
until we know better what is going on.

This is the difference between
science and religion.
Science calls its interpretations
"hypotheses."
Religion calls its interpretations
"facts"
(Everything religion "takes on faith"
becomes a fact the instant
it is so taken).

Joseph Campbell said,
"The whole point of science
is that there are no facts,
only theories."

No religion, 
or spokesperson for religion,
would say that about religion.

–0–

02

The Seated Buddha — From my Symbols of Transformation Collection
The Hero's Journey is a meaningful life.

A meaningful life is the first thing to go.
Our eye is on the prize,
and the old Zen maxim always applies:
"The ability of the archer to hit the bullseye
varies in inverse proportion
to the size of the prize for doing so." 

A meaningful life is the bullseye.

But, we go for the money every time.

–0–

01

Tupper Lake Sunset 01 09/22/2015 — Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, New York
Is it better to win or to lose?
To be tall or to be short?
To live with a plan or to live without a plan?
And ten thousand other questions like these.

Who is smart enough to know 
what is better in a general, 
vague,
absolute kind of way?

Better depends upon the situation at hand.
Better is clear in the here and now. 
In the far from now, 
there is no telling.

What is to our advantage
changes with time and place.
Every asset is simultaneously a liability,
and every liability is an asset,
depending upon a combination of factors
that are time and place dependent.

We are built to rise to meet
every occasion.
We are ideally suited 
for the life that is ours to live.
The life that is ours to live
is a perfect fit
for what we bring to the table.

When we start messing with things
with an eye on perfection,
we mess things up royally 
for ever one.

This is the moral of the Garden of Eden.
The moral of the Garden of Gethsemane
is "Thy will, not mine, be done,"
with the "Thy" being the Tao of time and place
situation and circumstance,
and consisting of what is being called for
here and now.

If you like something,
it is likely to change in time.
And, if you don't like something,
that, too, stands a good chance of changing.

Forget what you want and don't want,
like and don't like.
Step into your life without opinion
or expectation,
judgment or demands.

Trust yourself to the developing situation,
and be whom the situation can trust
to do what is right
at the right time
in the right place
in the right way.

Things have a way of turning out
as blessing and grace
just by doing what is right
one situation at a time,
as though something
knew what it was doing.

November 16, 2020

03

Lake Chicot 06 10-27-2015 — Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platte, Louisiana
Why do we care about what we care about?
We will never explain our way to the bottom of it.
The question can be answered 
only with another question.
"Why do you care about what you care about?

We do not have access to the Carer within.
We like what we like.
We don't like what we don't like.
We love what we love.
We don't love what we don't love.
We care about what we care about.
We don't care about what we don't care about.

There is an entire cosmos within
which we do not control,
understand,
comprehend,
or even know about.

Why do we see the way we see?
Feel the way we feel?
Think the way we think?

Our viewpoints are not our own.
We do not reason our way there,
and cannot reason our way out of there. 

We are led about,
directed and guided through our life
by what, we do not know.

Who/What is piloting our boat
on its path through the sea?
And, if we have a destination in mind,
Who/What put it there?

No matter how we try to evade,
escape,
deny
the conclusion,
we cannot avoid
the inescapable reality
that our life 
has a life of its own.

The only reasonable,
logical
(since we like logic and reason so),
alternative here
is to open ourselves to
the truth of another boarder,
and devote ourselves 
to the task 
of sensing/feeling
the influence
of instinct and intuition,
and trusting ourselves 
to the realm of hunches,
nudges
and things that occur to us
"out of the blue"
(or in the wee hours of the night),
in determining what is being called for
within the circumstances at hand,
responding with liege loyalty
and filial devotion,
in doing what we are led to do,
and allow our outcomes to be our outcomes--
without judgment or opinion,
but with grace and compassion
pouring over, spilling out--
and see where it goes.

–0–

02

Crepe Myrtle 01 11/10/2020 Oil Paint Rendering — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Carl Jung referred to the feminine aspects of a man
as his Anima,
and to the masculine aspects of a woman
as her Animus.

When men are being the best woman they can be,
and women are being the best man they can be,
the word is balanced and in harmony,
and everything happens
exactly as it needs to happen
on all levels,
every day.

Things are as they are because
men think they are to be men,
and women think they are to be women.

And that isn't the only problem.

No one has any idea of what a Real Man is,
and no one has any idea of what a Real Woman is.

We all need to go back to the womb
and start over
with parents who understand,
in a world of parents who understand,
and see how things would be
if we had a proper upbringing.

Who is the best man you have ever known?
Who is the best woman you have ever known?
Live toward being the best
of both those people
in the way you live your life.

If you are a man or a woman,
live to bring forth the best man
and the best woman,
you have ever known.

That will shift things toward the good.
Then we can work to improve our ideas 
of "man" and "woman."

And that will get us within reach
of the ideal human being.

And that will be a world
worth living in!

–0–

01

Along NY Highwat 30 06 09/28/2014 — Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, Tupper Lake, New York
I am the jewel in the lotus--
om mani padme hum--
so is the Buddha,
so are you.

And, so are we all 
the jewel in Indra's net,
each reflecting the other
by the light of realization/awareness/
illumination/enlightenment/awakening.

One is many,
many are one.

We are the same in our differentness,
with each of us being unique,
set apart,
individually identified
by our outlook,
our fingerprints,
the sonogram of our voice,
the coloration of our eyes,
the cones of our irises
our idea of a meaningful life,
and 10,000 other things--
and each of us being exactly alike
by being different in so many ways.

One is many.
Many are one.

And we get to each other 
through ourselves.
We cannot be intimate
if we will not be vulnerable.
We can be only as vulnerable
as we are conscious
of who,
and how,
and what we are.
The less self-transparent we are,
the more hidden we have to be,
all wars are fought by those
who refuse to know themselves.

If you want to know me,
know you.
There I am.
If you do not want to know you,
you will never know anyone.

You are the jewel in the lotus
only when you know it to be so--
and being humbled by it,
not impressed,
because you know it to be so
of everyone.

Everyone is the Buddha.
Everyone is the Christ.
And the Hero's Journey
is living a meaningful life.

If you understand this
and apply it,
you have it made.

Om mani padme hum.

November 15, 2020

03

Walnut Creek Trail 07 11/09/2020 — Lancaster County, South Carolina
Everything hinges upon,
flows from,
falls into place around
living meaningfully.

Living meaningfully
is living with your heart in
what you are doing.

What keeps that from happening?

There are no substitutes for it.
No stand-ins.
No reasonable facsimiles.

All of the distractions,
like money,
sex,
alcohol and pot,
can't erase the emptiness
or disappear the truth
that your heart isn't in
what you are doing.

The only fix 
is for you to sit down
with your heart,
and listen.

Then find ways of putting
yourself in accord with your heart.

Living meaningfully 
is the solution
to all of our problems today.
And tomorrow.
Forever.

–0–

02

Fall Leaves 34 11/10/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
You can be trusted to know
what is good for you and what is not,
where you belong and where you do not,
what is "you" and what is not,
what is reliable and what is not...
and to learn how to know what you know,
and trust yourself to know it
as you go along.

You are born with what it takes
to know what you need to know
to find what you need
to be who you are
and do what is yours to do
in doing what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
situation-by-situation.

That is all there is to it.

But.

You cannot do it 
without sitting still
and being quiet
on a regular basis
all along the way.

–0–

01

Adams Mill Pond Reflection 02 11/09/2014 — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina
Joseph Campbell said,
"Bliss is that deep sense
of being present, here and now,
and doing what you absolutely 
must do to be yourself 
in the time and place of your living,"
(Or words to that effect).

And if that is also the way
it should be done,
the way the situation is calling
for it to be done,
you are transparent to transcendence,
which is as close to God
as we are going to be in this life.

Here's the problem:
There are multiple layers
to every situation.
What is allowed on some levels
are anathema on other levels.
What can you get by with
is the question.

Can you get by with being true
to yourself here and now?
This is your role in the process.
Only you can determine 
what you can get by with,
and what has to give,
what has to go,
for you to be true to yourself
in each situation as it arises.

Your problem is finding places
where it is safe to be you,
and finding people around whom
it is safe to be you--
and, even then, you will be 
risking everything,
every now and then,
in being who you are
and doing what is called for
in the situation.

This is called dancing
across the slippery slope,
traversing the dangerous path,
along the razor's edge.
It is not for the faint of heart.
And it will require dying
again and again,
and being born again
again and again.
All the way to the end of the dance.

November 14, 2020

03

Walnut Creek Trail 06 11/09/2020 — Walnut Creek, Lancaster County, South Carolina
God is not a fact.
God is a metaphor
for the Mystery at the Heart of Life and Being.
God is more than can be known,
or said,
or thought,
or imagined.
To say more than that about God
is heresy,
suggesting that God can be explained,
described,
told of,
said.

Heinrich Zimmer said, "The most important things
cannot be said.
The second most important things
are the metaphors we use
to talk about the most important things,
and they are misunderstood.
The third most important things
are the things we talk about."

We can only experience the most important things,
and then sing songs
or write poems,
or paint pictures,
or dance
or devote our lives to living
in the wonder of the knowledge
that cannot be said.

Ways of opening ourselves to the experience
of the most important things
include meditation/contemplation
of the mystery of our own being
and the wonder of the cosmos.

Placing ourselves in regular,
reverent,
company
with art,
music
and nature.

Conversations with other people
about their experience
of the holy/ineffable/Numen
in their lives.

Considering the abundance
of religious symbols worldwide,
we might select a few to contemplate
each week,
exploring the difference between
what the symbols connote
and what they denote--
what they imply/mean/suggest/indicate
beyond themselves
and what their literal/primary/actual
meaning is.

Exploring the connotations of symbols
is the path to realization
and awakening.

The connotations of God
go far past the catechisms and doctrines,
and open us to new possibilities
of wonder and engagement
beyond the reach of reason and logic.

–0–

02

Sourwood 19 11/10/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
"They cast their nets in Galilee
Just off the hills of brown
Such happy simple fisherfolk
Before the Lord came down.
Contented peaceful fishermen
Before they ever knew
The peace of God That filled their hearts 
Brimful and broke them too.
Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless, in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod,
Yet, children, pray for but one thing–
The marvelous peace of God."
            --William Alexander Percy

"The peace of God" is another term for
"The Secret Cause."
They are interchangeable
and equivalent.

There is no "peace of God"
apart from our alignment with,
and liege loyalty to,
the Secret Cause.

Just as there is no life without death.
Just as every birth is death in the making,
and every death is a threshold to new life,
Just so, our embrace of the Secret Cause
is a union with "the peace of God"
that is "strife closed in the sod,"
and a crucifixion waiting to happen.

"Yet, children, pray for but one thing!"
It is "for this we have come."

Both in terms of "What shall I say,
'Father, save me from this hour'? 
No! For this I have come!"

And: "What I do is me, for this I came!"
(Gerad Manley Hopkins)

We find what we seek
in our identification with the Secret Cause,
though it be like the moth's
identification with the flame.

The Secret Cause of our life 
is death and life and death and life...
The two are one.
It is oneness all the way down.
And up.

All of our dichotomies are false dichotomies.
Good/Bad,
Right/Wrong,
Left/Right,
Up/Down,
Black/White,
Simple/Complex...

Duality comes to an end
in the realization of oneness.
Both/And,
Either/Or--
which is it?
It is both/and
it is either/or.

Death is life,
life is death.

We die at every transition point
throughout our life,
and are born again
on the other side 
of every successful transition.
Only to die again 
at the next transition point.
And our life never runs out of 
transition points!

And the Secret Cause
is the cause of most of them!

In the service of the Secret Cause--
the Secret Cause of our life,
of the life that is our life to live,
of the purposes and meanings
that are life itself for us--
we confront the contradictions,
dichotomies,
and polarities
that bring us forth
by demanding our death
again and again.

The Hero's Journey is one long series
of deaths and resurrections.

"Yet, children, pray for but one thing:
the marvelous peace of God!"

It is Yin/Yang all the way down--
with Yin/Yang understood to be a metaphor
for the integration of opposites,
which remain oppositional
throughout their oneness,
as we bear the pain of that tension
our entire life,
by bringing them together in our life.

–0–

01

The Cascades Panorama 04/19/2011 — EB Jeffres Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Wilkes County, North Carolina
When we live aligned 
with the Secret Cause--
the Secret Cause of us,
of our life,
of the life that is to be our life--
we are at one with our destiny,
and centered in
and grounded upon
the why, what, when and how 
of our existence.

In that place, we are "immortal,
invincible,
God-only wise,"
and "though we die, yet shall we live."
And nothing can knock us off
"the still point,"
"the axis mundi"
"the center of the universe"
and "of the turning world."

We are anchored to the adamantine foundation
of our life--
of all of life--
of the entire cosmos
and whatever might lie beyond it.


We are one with everything,
and live with a confidence
that borders on recklessness,
and have to call upon the guardians
of humility and self-transparency
to rein ourselves in
and live within the situations
and circumstances of our life
as they unfold about us--
as those who have work to do
that is vital to the whole
and to the Cause.

Serving the Secret Cause
in the time and place of our living,
in the here and now of our existence,
opens us to the agony of Jesus
with his, "I have come 
to set the world on fire,
and how I wish it were already kindled!"
But, like him,
we have to submit to the times,
and trust ourselves to the secret workings
of the Secret Cause--
to the unfolding of the Tao
in its own time
and in its own way,
and remaining true to our role
of exhibiting in the moment
our gifts/daemon/virtues/character
in doing what is called for
situation-by-situation,
day-by-day
for as long as life shall last--
at one with the Mystery
at the Heart of Life and Being.

November 13, 2020

05

Peaks of Otter 10/29/2019 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Bedford, Virgina
Each of us has a destiny to fulfill,
a life to live,
a work to perform,
a calling to serve,
a self to express, exhibit, incarnate,
a divine spark to nourish
into a flame of glory and wonder
so that no one can tell where we stop
and God starts.

Sounds a bit much, I know.
But, there is Jesus saying, 
"Come, follow me."
And, "Greater things than I have done,
you will do."

He's saying, "Get out of your own way
and be who you are!
And allow the Mystery of Being
to come to life in you
in ways that are uniquely yours
to bring forth!"

Carl Jung said,
“In the final analysis, 
we count for something 
only because of the essential 
that we embody. 
If we do not serve that, 
life is wasted.” 

Our destiny is to be who we are
at the core of ourselves,
who we are capable of being,
who we are here to be,
to become.

Jung also said,
"There is in each of us
another, whom we do not know."
This Other is "the essential
that we embody."
Whom we live to know
and to serve with our life.

We do that consciously
by paying attention to 
the unconscious clues
that are always winking at us,
trying to catch our eye.

Our life is like that of a fairy tale,
or of Luke Skywalker,
and the clues are lying all about us.
Help is on every side,
and the audience is groaning
because we won't see what is right there.


So, we have to learn to stop, look and listen.
What are we missing?
What did we dream last night?
What makes our little heart sing?
What brings us to life in a way
that makes us forget what day it is,
and not know how long we have been doing
the thing we love to do?

What keeps coming back around?
What won't go away?
What do we keep pushing aside,
only to have it pop up again in a month
or a year?
What do we find ourselves thinking about?
What do we wish we could do?
What do we keep finding excuses
for not doing?

There is a secret cause dying for us 
to find it,
claim it,
live it as our own dream
dreaming we would adopt it
as our own life.

It is our destiny.
We have to work it into our life!
We have to find ways of being who we are!
We have to honor the dream that dreams of us!

We would be most remiss if we did not.

–0–

04

Carolina Thread Trail 04 11/09/2020 — 12-mile Creek Bridge, Lancaster County, SC/Union County, NC, 
We can make anything better or worse
by the way we respond to it.

That being the case,
you would think we would study up on our
response ability and how to perfect it,
becoming experts in responding appropriately
to every occasion.

You couldn't be more wrong.
Why is that?
Why don't we make a concerted effort
to live the best possible life
under the circumstances?

Why don't we all swear to the One Who Knows
within each of us,
an oath of fealty, loyalty,
allegiance and devotion,
that we will, with their help,
make our best effort
to respond to the events of our life
in ways that have the best chance
of turning things to the good
of ourselves,
our circumstances,
and all those concerned,
by simply doing what is called for
moment-by-moment
all our life long?

Why don't we do that?
I'm serious.
Why don't we?

–0–

03

Black Australian Swans 04 10/25/2019 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
The single thing that will make
the most difference for the good
in our life 
is growing up.

The single thing that makes 
growing up impossible
is our infantile desire to have our way.

Get our way out of the way
and everything falls into place
exactly as it needs to
for our life to be exactly 
what it needs to be.

This is the truth at the heart
of all good religion.

What did native Americans
mean when they said
"It's a good day to die"?
Good for whom?
Good for what?
Good in terms of what?
Certainly not in terms
of having their way!
But what else is there?
How good can not having our way be?

You see how far from good religion
we are.

Religion for us is nothing but a ploy
to get our way
(That would be heaven when we die).
We give to get in our religion.
Which isn't giving at all,
but dealing,
gaming.
Whatever we do in our religion,
whatever we give,
isn't a gift,
it is an investment,
that we expect to pay off handsomely
in the world to come.

Having our way is the only way
in our world.
Growing up will have to wait.

Forever.

–0–

02

Walnut Creek Trail 08 11/09/2020 — Walnut Creek, Union County, North Carolina
There is within each of us
a self who knows
and a self who thinks it knows.
And it is our place to know
which is which,
and throw in with the self who knows.

This is a problem
because the self who thinks it knows,
is sure it knows.
Is convinced it knows.
Knows it knows.
But.
It does not know.
And does not know that it does not know.

It is our place to know
that one self does not know
as much as it thinks it knows.
And to make inquiries.

We are to ask the questions
that beg to be asked,
and say the things
that cry out to be said
to both selves,
and see which self
does the best job
answering and retorting.

Put the selves to the test!
"What makes you think
that what you think is so
is so?"
"What do you base your beliefs on?"
"By what authority do you say
what you just said?"
"How does what you just said
jive with what you said five minutes ago?"
With what you said yesterday?"
"What do you have at stake--
what do you have to gain or lose--
in things being the way you say they are?"
"Who would be most proud of you--
the most happy with you--
for saying what you just said?
For thinking what you think is so?"
"Who are you trying to please?"
... And on like that,
getting to what is behind
what each self "knows,"
or knows, is so.

Do not take what either self says
as truth
without exploring it exhaustively 
for its validity.
Make them say what is so 
about what they think is so.

Talk it out.
Make them come clean.
The truth will shine through
if you take the time 
to clear the window of perception
by getting to the source
of the perspective.

Your place is to investigate
what comes up from within
in knowing what each knower knows--
and does not know.
And deciding what to do about it.

–0–

01

Fall Leaves 03 11/08/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Fear, guilt and regret
lock us into an ever-deepening
and increasingly repetitive
cycle of fear, guilt and regret.

The more fearful, guilty and regretful
we are,
the more fearful, guilty and regretful
we will be.

It is up to us to turn the haunting Cronies
away!
"ENOUGH!
I SAY ENOUGH!!!"
Turning to stare them into silence
and send them away,
we step toward our own center
and become the redeemer/savior
of our own future
and the life we have yet to live.

We have to claim that future
and that life,
and secure them against the encroaching
erosion of fear, guilt and regret.
"BEGONE!
I SAY BEGONE!!!"
Has to be repeated with force
for as long as it takes to be free,
and settled into who we are,
what we have done and failed to do,
and what may happen to take everything away.

Our work is to be
"a wheel rolling/turning 
out of its own center"
(Friedrich Nietzsche),
grounded in our original nature,
focused on seeing/doing
what is called for
in each situation as it arises
with the gifts/daemon/virtues/
character/spirit/vitality/life
that are ours to offer
throughout the time left for living.

This is the salvific orientation
that stabilizes us
and anchors us to the core
of sincerity,
balance and harmony,
and enables us to live spontaneously,
without contrivance,
in responding to the needs of the moment,
moment-by-moment
forever.

November 12, 2020

03

Fall Leaves 31 11/12/2020 — Sassafras Leaves, 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
We have to grant our imagination
access to us.
We do that by allowing our mind
to range freely over our 
external and internal landscape,
playing with the possibilities,
turning things upside down,
inside out,
seeing things as they are
and as they should be
and as they never will be,
wondering why
how
what
when
where
about it all.

Taking things apart.
Putting them back together differently.
Getting to the bottom of everything.
Or half-way to the bottom of something.

Let your imagination wander around
with everything you have ever been told was so,
with everything you have always held to be so,
and see what you imagination has to say
about what is so,
and isn't so,
and may be so,
or not so.

Let your imagination play with your life!
And join in the game!
Playing along!

–0–

02

Tree Tops Panorama 10/25/2019 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
We need all the help we can get.
We are here, in part, to help one another.
The government is the extension 
of ourselves into an organized body
of helpfulness,
providing all people access
to what they need 
to live fulfilling,
productive,
creative,
satisfying lives.

The government is our collective way
of assisting one another
in the task of finding our life
and living it.

But, the government has been shanghaied
by corporate money and power
to serve corporate greed
at the expense of the people's need.
"Profit At Any Price"
is the motto of rampant capitalism
gone rogue.

The government has been taken over
by capitalists
who are out for their own idea
of the good
and use the people as means
to their ends.

The capitalists turn the people
against themselves
by demonizing labor unions,
and collective bargaining efforts,
and social programs,
and civil rights endeavors,
and environmental movements,
and anything that the capitalists
perceive to be a potential threat
to their ability to increase their wealth.

The capitalists own the government
and the media
and the social/cultural institutions
that keep the people living
well below their potential
or their optimum level of functioning--
and incite jealousy, hatred and fear
of each other among the people
to keep their own interest in
and allegiance to,
Profit At Any Price
serving them well in their pursuit
of increasing their wealth
for the sake of increasing their wealth
throughout the rest of time.

Capitalists need to wake up,
grow up,
and get a life
that is centered on their 
self-development as persons,
as human beings,
without thinking that is in any way
connected with their net worth. 

Money is just an easy way out
of doing the work required
to become a full/complete/actualized
human being.

Money is a diversion/distraction
from the work of being who we are
in the service of the true good of the whole.

We only need enough money
to buy the tools we need
and provide the wherewithal 
to do what needs to be done
with the gifts/daemon/character/
virtues/vitality/interests/
enthusiasm/heart and soul
that are reflected in our 
original nature
and come with us from the womb
and are at our disposal
in the work to find our life 
and live it
in being who we are,
doing what is ours to do,
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.

How to do that
is more of a problem
than it needs to be
because people are out for themselves
at the expense of everyone else.

Greed is driving the world.
Compassion is a much better choice.
See what you can do about 
putting things right
in the time left for living.

–0–

01

Fall Leaves 28 11/10/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
It takes more than the will to live.
It takes willing to live
beyond being 98.6 and breathing.
It takes willing to live 
as self-directed,
self-aware,
self-sacrificing
human beings,
in the service
of That Which Is Greater
Than They Are,
and Knows More Than They Know,
in doing what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
with no interest in,
or regard for,
their own personal advantage,
gain,
benefit,
good,
interest,
or boon,
but with the sincere
devotion to the good of the whole
and loyalty to That Which is Greater
Than They Are,
and Knows More Than They Know,
leading the way,
supplying their motivation,
and driving their effort
day-by-day.

A bit more on That Which Is Greater
Than They Are
and Knows More Than They Know...

In The Hero With A Thousand Faces,
Joseph Campbell says, talking about the Hero--
which is to be understood as 
every person through time--
"There is everywhere a benign power
supporting him in his superhuman passage."

And later:
"This is the power known to science as energy,
to the Melanesians as mana, to the Sioux Indians
as wakonda, the Hindus as shakti, the Christians
as the power of God... Its manifestation in the
psyche is termed, by the psychoanalysts as
libdio. And its manifestation in the cosmos as
the structure and flux of the universe itself."

This is the power that is known to the Taoists
as the Tao.

This is the power that is at the heart of all
religion everywhere.

We all, at various points in our life,
have experienced something beyond
ordinary, apparent, reality
at work in our life and in the world.
That "something"
is The Mystery At The Heart Of Life And Being--
about which we can say no more than
"It Is!"

But, if we cooperate with it,
if we collaborate with it,
if we "throw in with it,"
place ourselves "in accord with it,"
live "aligned with it,"
there comes to pass in our lived experience,
a sense of peace and well-being
unsurpassed by anything money can buy.

November 11, 2020

03

Fall Leaves 12 11/08/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, an iPhone Photo
Grounded in, 
and living out of,
our original nature 
and that which is ours to do,
we are invincible,
untouchable,
beyond reach,
and cannot be knocked off
dead center
no matter what comes along.

Send up the Cyclops!
And Medusa!
Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes!
It doesn't raise a sweat.

We are invulnerable when we are 
being who we are,
doing our heart's sure things.

The way is clear before us:
Align our conscious identity
with our unconscious original nature,
and cast off all motives,
desires,
ambitions,
incentives,
aspiration--
and live connected with our heart
and its sense of what it needs to do.

Letting our heart
and our original nature
lead the way, 
is to be on the way
across the slippery slopes,
the dangerous paths
and the razor's edge--
with nothing to fear,
and the next adventure
to look forward to.

–0–

02

Sumac 03 11-10-2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Mindful living is being aware
of the present moment
with compassion for,
and acceptance of,
the "is-ness" of what is,
without judgment or even opinion,
on every level 
for as long as the moment lasts--
and then being present 
in the same way
in the next moment,
and so on, 
throughout what remains
of the time left for living.

Jon Kabat-Zinn has some valuable
YouTube videos that will help
with the process.

Watch the shortest ones first,
and change your life
one moment at a time.

–0–

01

Sourwood 15 11/10/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
No one can tell us 
what our Original Nature is.
That is ours to ferret out for ourselves.

Each of us is unique
in a special kind of way.
Our Original Nature
is like an emotional/psychological fingerprint.

We also differ by the sonic patterns
of our voice,
the coloration of our eyes,
the cones of our irises.

Not to mention our idea
of a good pizza.

We are as different as different can be.
We all are alike in that way.

We are different and we are the same.

The tide comes in,
the tide goes out,
the tide turns around...
Which way is it?
The tide is all those ways at once.
If it is not coming or going
it is turning around.
That's the tide for you.

Our place is to say "Yes!"
to everything.
But everything includes "No!"
We say "Yes!" to "No!"
and say "No!" to things that are out of place,
or out of time,
or out of place and time.

"Everything in its own place
and in its own time!"
"Nothing in the wrong place,
or in the wrong time!"

"Yes!" can become "No!"
"No!" can become "Yes!"
depending on the time and place,
the here and now,
the situation that is at hand.

The Dalai Lama's bodyguards
carry automatic weapons.
That is "Yes!" being prepared
to say "No!"

Shiva is the Lord of the Dance,
among other things.
He dances with time and place,
with here and now,
and is always exactly what he needs to be
in each time and place of his being.

Which means, of course,
that Shiva contradicts Shiva,
as all God's worthy of the title do.

Yahweh is a God who hides
in thick darkness 
sometimes,
and is said to be The Light of Life
in whom there is no darkness at all
sometimes.
Which way is it?

The tide comes in
and the tide goes out
and the tide turns around.

The only God worth having around
is the God who sacrifices God,
who kills God,
who bears the cross of contradiction
all the way to death,
to be resurrected/reborn as God.

Birth and death,
coming and going and turning around,
forever.
This is the dynamic of life,
of eternity,
of the way things are. 

There is no static state of being.
Rigid,
static,
unbending,
unmoving,
unchanging...
is death, not life.

Life is becoming
by dying
and being raised from the dead
to new life,
which is becoming...

When something becomes,
something else dies.
Dying is the prerequisite of becoming.
We are born to die again and again
in the process of becoming who we are,
of maturation,
of developing wisdom and grace.

This life.
Life is the way of dancing 
with the time and place of our living,
being what is called for here and now,
and being something else then and there.

Always moving,
coming, going and turning around.
Dying again and again,
coming to life again and again,
metaphorically and actually
(Where does that line lie?),
on and on.

Never stopping.
Never quitting.
Never arriving.
Always moving on.
Dancing with time and place,
being what is needed here and now,
doing what is called for forever.

World without end. Amen.

November 10, 2020

03

Crepe Myrtle 01 11/10/2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
When this all started,
there were no natural laws.
No law of gravity.
No law of inertia.
Laws and rules hadn't been invented.

Then there was this really big BANG,
and everything started flying in all directions
at once,
and it took several years
for it to get sorted out
and into stars and planets,
constellations and galaxies.

The universe figured it out
by letting things bang around 
until order appeared,
and now we have clocks and calendars,
physics and chemistry,
scientists and mathematicians.

It's amazing what can happen
just by letting things happen.
That is pretty much what happened 
with each of us.

None of us knew what we were doing,
most of us still don't,
and not one of us planned to be where we are,
or got here by making all the right moves.

We are here by virtue of the same process
that got the universe here.
We knocked around,
got knocked around,
and here we are.
Still getting knocked around,
and are on our way to somewhere else.

We don't comprehend any of it.
It is all such a mystery.
Yet, we pretend everything is well in hand
and completely under our control.

We are masters of our destiny, you know.
Captains of our ship.
And all that.

We are the biggest mystery of it all.
And we think getting what we want 
is all it takes.
What we want is our way,
at all times,
in all places.

That is such a laughter.
Give us our way--
we don't know what to do with it!
We find our way to where we need to be
by taking one wrong turn after another.
And, poof, like that,
we wind up in exactly the right place.
Or not.
Either way, it's a mystery how it works out.

It is as though something
knows more than we do.

But, how could that be?
It's a mystery.
There is no one here but us,
but there is more to each of us
than meets the eye.
Even our own eye.

WE are the mystery!
You might think 
we would be more interested
in getting to the bottom of us
than we are.
But we are more interested
in watching re-runs of sitcoms.

And that's another mystery.
Mystery is everywhere!
And we are the biggest one anywhere!

–0–

02

Carolina Thread Trail 06 11/09/2020 — Swinging Bridge, 12-Mile Creek, Lancaster County, South Carolina, Union County, North Carolina
Living in accord with the Tao
is laying aside all ambition,
all aspiration,
all agendas,
all aims,
all purposes,
all goals,
all objectives,
all desires...
other than and contrary to
living in accord with the Tao.

It is trusting the Tao,
trusting ourselves to the Tao,
beyond all logic and reason,
with liege loyalty 
and filial devotion,
doing what is called for
with complete sincerity,
spontaneity
and non-contrivance,
in each situation as it arises
moment-by-moment
all our life long--
with the Tao understood to be
doing the right thing
in the right way
at the right time
and being right about
what is right--
living so in tune with the here and now,
the time and place of our living,
that we are at one with what is happening
and what needs to happen in response,
that we do what is called for
without hesitation
and without thinking,
time after time after time.

Like a stream flowing downhill,
adjusting its flow 
to take boulders,
fallen trees,
cattle in the water,
and dams being constructed
into account on the fly
on its way to the sea--
and being right about
what needs to be done
in every moment of the journey.

–0–

01

Walnut Creek Trail 02 11/09/2020 — Union County, North Carolina
Fine is the balance,
thin is the line,
between having it made,
and having nothing at all.

Everything about democracy
depends on the willful cooperation
of all those involved in the work
of democracy.

Depends upon the good faith 
of those promising 
to "preserve, protect and defend
the Constitution against all enemies,
foreign and domestic."

If those so promising 
are themselves Domestic Enemies
of the Constitution
and Participatory Democracy,
well Who Is Going To Stop Them
from initiating a hostile takeover
of the government from within
the government?

The GOP has succeeded in placing
itself in the position
of destroying democracy
without a shot being fired.
Vladimir Putin has bought himself
a country
for less than one air craft carrier
would cost.
Talk about a coup!

All Trump has to do between now
and January 20, 2021
is fire all of the government workers
--the head of the Department of Defense 
was the first to go--
who might be disloyal
and replace them with "acting" loyalists,
and have them all refuse to obey
the norms and procedures
for transferring power to Joe Biden.

The government then would obey Trump.
Democracy would be kaput.
And the take-over would be complete.
Then it would just be a matter 
of cleaning things up,
with the ouster and martyrdom
of all of his political enemies,
at home and abroad.

Sweet.
Smooth.
Easy.
Simple.
What could go wrong?

That's the question that turns the future.

And however the future turns out to be,
it is sickening
that the fortunes of democracy
depend upon the willing and willful compliance
of all the people doing what is truly right
in upholding the principles of democracy
throughout the long generations of people
taking their oaths of office
and serving the country to the best of their ability
so help them God.

November 09, 2020

03

Black Australian Swans 03 10/25/2019 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina
What is your enthusiasm quotient?
Are you a proponent of enthusiasm?
An advocate?
An avid proponent?
An enthusiast?

On a low-to-high scale
of 1 to 10,
where do you rank yourself
on your daily degree of enthusiasm?

How many things are you enthusiastic about?
How often are they a part of your life?
If you were to raise your level
of enthusiasm,
what would you do?

Is your life more of a burden
or a pleasure?
What accounts for that?
Contributes to that?

What would need to change
for you to be able to find
more pleasure,
more joy,
in just being alive?

To what degree is your residual
amount of joy/pleasure
circumstances dependent?
To what degree is it a natural
expression of who you are?

Does your thinking flow from 
joy and pleasure?
Create joy and pleasure?
Create their opposites?

What governs your thinking?
Why do you think the way you think?
What makes it easy for you
to think the way you think?

How often do you think about your thinking?
Think about your feeling?
Are aware of your thinking/feeling?
Can you separate thinking from feeling?
Are they two things for you
or one thing?

Upon what does your enthusiasm depend?
What part do reflection and realization
play in your emotional response to your life?

–0–

02

Fall Leaves 06 11-08-2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
The 22-Acre Woods are,
for all practical purposes,
my private preserve--
for which I pay no taxes
or have any liability.

My wife and I own a quarter-acre lot
nestled into the northwest corner
of our subdivision,
which is also the southwest corner
of the 22-Acre Woods
(And I am the only one
who refers to the small tract of trees
in this way).

There are roughly 800 people
in our development,
and we may see a dozen of them--
generally the same dozen,
mostly teenagers--
walking (or biking) through the woods
in a given week.

I am the only one I have ever seen
with a camera in the woods.

They are owned by a family
of six or so elderly children
who can't find a buyer for the property
because it is landlocked
with one access point in and out,
and it is a drainage area
for rainwater on its way to the sea.
There are more attractive parcels 
close-by for developers to choose,
and I relish each day
without a bulldozer in it.

I can walk out our back door,
or our front door,
and be in the woods
as quickly as I can check the mail.

They are a wonderful mixture
of hardwoods and pine.
The deer have moved out
due to encroaching construction, 
but small animals and snakes
and a pair of red-shouldered hawks
are holding out for as long 
as luck allows.

I am two weeks away 
from stepping into my 77th year,
and osteoarthritis in both knees--
and COVID-19--
keep me from traveling 
to photo-worthy sites
more than two hours away,
and make the 22-Acre Woods
my primary source for scenes.

Access is always the first rule 
of photography.
Without access,
a camera is worthless
regardless of what it costs,
and the 22-Acre Woods
are always accessible--
until the bulldozers arrive
and begin doing their thing.

So, I welcome another fall, 
and the daily opportunity
to go for a walk in the woods.

With a camera in hand.

–0–

01

Fall Leaves 04 11-08-2020 — 22-Acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina
Cruelty and compassion 
are the marks of bad religion and good religion. 
All religion falls out between those two poles. 
Theology has nothing to do with it. 
How we live/treat one another 
is all that matters. 
It doesn’t matter why. 
It matters what.

Consistently--
or even occasionally--
doing the right thing
for the wrong reasons
is infinitely better than,
and always to be preferred over,
doing the wrong thing
for the best of reasons.

Do not stop to get your theology right!
Do not even pause to wonder about it!
Theology is as much an excuse
for not doing what needs to be done
as it is a reason 
for doing what needs to be done.

Getting your theology all ordered,
lined-up,
systematic,
proof-texted,
iron-clad,
and irrefutably so
is just a way of feeling smug
about your oversights
and omissions. 

Live with sincerity,
straight from the heart,
spontaneously responding 
to what is called for
moment-by-moment,
without contrivance
or agenda,
judgment or opinion,
with nothing to gain or lose--
like the prodigal's father
and the good Samaritan,
the Buddha and the Christ
in every age--
and leave the thinking
to those who see everything
but what they look at.