Seeing what we look at
and knowing what's what
without opinion
or expectation, 
plans
or agendas,
but with clarity
and understanding,
balance and harmony--
and doing what is called for
in ways appropriate to the occasion
in each situation as it arises
no matter what
all our life long,
would do it I think.

May it be so for us all!
Always and forever!
Amen!
May it be so!

–0–

We get up and meet the day 
as though it matters. 

Living with intensity 
and with intentionality 
anyway, nevertheless, even so 
is essential, 
and must be our lifetime commitment  
to each other 
and all others 
around the world. 

Caring  as though it matters 
that we care 
regardless of whether 
it matters or not is crucial. 

It’s as though we all 
are playing a part 
in a movie that requires us 
to act as though 
it matters who we are 
and what we do, 

and we pour ourselves into it 
every day 
with a performance worthy 
of an Academy Award. 

Every day. 

To love everyone in a way 
that they can’t tell 
whether we really love them or not. 

Every day. 

The world is dying for people 
who will do these things, 
reliably, 
consistently, 
deliberately, 
dependably. 

We owe it to ourselves 
and to each other 
to help the world out, 
whether it deserves it or not. 

My pledge to you. 

And, you?

–0–

We wait for clarity and motivation,
and follow the inner drift
of the soul's delight.

As time goes by, 
I find myself thinking of "soul"
(and "heart")
as "Right Brain,"
and thinking of "ego"
as "Left Brain."

The duality of Right Brain/Left Brain
provides the foundation and clarity
of our life's work:
Establishing the balance and harmony
between the two hemispheres of our brain
which is exemplified 
in the quality and flow of our life.

We live to unify the opposites,
unite the polarities,
reconcile the disparities
and bring the two together,
aligned and in accord 
with the here and now of our living.

How we do that is through
the conscious awareness of what's what
and what needs to be done in response to it
in each situation as it arises,
dancing with the music of the moment,
bringing order out of chaos
and Yes out of No
through all of the circumstances of our days.

What is called for?
How can we meet that
with the gifts of our original nature
and innate virtuosities?

Take the questions into the silence
and see what comes to mind.

–0–

The day has a mind of its own.
As does our life.
We wait to see what comes
and what we do with it,
and that tells the tale.

We get up,
get dressed,
open the door,
and the day,
our life,
takes it from there.

With a bevy of things
we would never have guessed.

Our place is to respond appropriately
to each thing that comes along,
and see where that takes us
and what we do about it
all the way to bed tonight,
and back at it again tomorrow.

No plans,
no agendas,
no knowing what's next
or caring,
just seeking the flow
and seeing what's called for,
understanding that the path
is revealed in hindsight,
and no one knows before hand
what is being staged
or how it will all merge together,
disparate parts
producing a whole
that is our life
one day at a time.

Epiphany!
Revelation!
Realization!
Enlightenment!
Surprise!

Waiting for us to get out of bed.

–0–

Loss of balance and harmony
is the cause of the disturbance
in the flow of life
and the experience of the clashing rocks,
and the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea worldwide.

And the cause of imbalance and disharmony
everywhere
is wanting what we have no business having.

Wrong Wanting
is the source of all of our problems today.
Every day.

Starting with Adam and Eve,
which is the most brilliant summation
of The Problem
ever presented,
and it has nothing to do with God
or the creation of the Cosmos,
or Original Sin.

Wrong Wanting is the culprit
behind all of our misery and whining
from the start.

Wrong Wanting results in the loss of paradise,
and the way back into the Garden of Eden
is dying to our desires
by flipping our Wanting from Wrong to Right.

Wanting the right things
and serving Right Wanting with our life
is all it takes to restore balance and harmony
in our day-to-day experience
of living in the flow of life,
aligned with the Tao
and at one with the way of things
worldwide forever.

But, like Adam and Eve,
we think we have a better idea.

And here we are.

–0–

Indigenous spirituality has it right
on all points,
starting with No Sin,
if you can imagine that.

Religion without sin.
What kind of religion is that?

Religion from the bottom up
and the inside out,
not something handed to us by the priests
and the experts,
not something hinging on Right Belief,
but flowing from the truth of personal experience.

How much of Colonialist Religion
is grounded on separating us from our experience
and gluing us to counter-intuitive,
self-denying,
trust-us-to-tell-you-how-is Blah-Blah
that makes no sense whatsoever?

Talking snakes.
How someone can sin for someone else
(i.e. Adam and Eve), and
How someone can atone for someone else's sin
(Jesus of Nazareth).
And why God would create people
who are going to disappoint him
and cause him to hate them forever
when he could just get it right
on the production line
and everyone would live happily ever after...

No one would come up with something like 
the power-hungry with the need for total domination
would invent and say,
"You're going to hell if you don't do it
like we tell you to do it!"

Indigenous peoples around the world
have a better idea
and they don't kill heretical heathens
who don't think like they do.

And the environment would be
a lot better off 
with them at the helm.

–0–

It is the same with all of us.
We gather ourselves 
and meet the day.
Every day.

It would help, I think,
if we could actually gather together
and meet the day as One,
drawing strength from each other's determination
to bring our best forth
in doing right by ourselves
and each other.

So, I'll meet you in the silence,
in the stillness and emptiness
that awaits us each day
and step with you into whatever awaits us,
smiling,
knowing we have what it takes
to be here tomorrow,
doing it again.

We are bound by the silence,
by the stillness and emptiness
and the knowledge that it is filled
with the spirit of life
that never dies,
in the sense that energy can't be
created or destroyed,
only converted or transformed.

We can take our consolation in that
as we step forth together
into whatever is next,
winking and saying,
"See you tomorrow!",
all the way.

–0–

Projection is perception,
perception is projection.

In order to see,
we have to see our seeing.

In order to hear,
we have to hear our hearing.

Everything we have ever seen/heard
interferes with our seeing/hearing
by creating memories and expectations,
making it difficult to separate here/now
from then/there.

It all carries over,
stirring up the muddy water
even as we wait for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

We produce our own blindness/deafness
by straining to see/hear.

And so the essential need
for the right kind of emptiness,
stillness
and silence
on a regular and recurring basis.

Indigenous wisdom declares
that ceremony is essential to balance,
but not the kind of ceremony colonialism
(If we are not indigenous, we are colonial)
produces/creates/perpetuates/imposes
with its memorized phrases and route rejoinders.

Leaving us to create our own ceremonies
out of our own imagination.

We will have to sit with that
in the right kind of emptiness, stillness, silence,
waiting for the mud to settle
and the water to clear.

Listening to our nighttime dreams
and our daytime flights of fantasy.

We might also take up listening to the trees,
and to all forms of nature.

We have to learn the spiritual languages
of intuition, telepathy, awareness, trance,
meditation, realization, enlightenment, knowing...
by being with and listening to the natural world
with wonder and respect.

–0–

I don't know how to turn things around.
No one does.
People have been trying to turn things around
for thousands of years.
Things have been getting worse all that time.

In light of this,
I think turning things around is a poor goal.
The best goal is caring about one another.
Caring about another.
Caring about something more than ourselves.

I find myself caring about indigenous peoples,
and trees.

A year ago, neither were on my horizon.
Our lives are capable of taking turns
we can't imagine.
Turns for the better.

I'm glad not to know where this shift is going--
I am just along for the ride.

I think if we will allow ourselves
to care about the things we are interested in--
and allow our life to lead us into interests
we don't know we have--
we will surprise ourselves with what happens,
and with what we are capable of.

Caring leads the way,
and we find what we care about,
not by thinking about it,
but, simply by caring what we care about.

Start there and give the horse that is your life the reins.
For the ride of your life!

–0–

Grace and kindness improve everything.
Ruthlessness and anger make everything worse.
Where we go with that,
what we do about it,
makes all the difference.

--0--

EXCERPTS FROM THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE’S STRONG ENDORSEMENT OF PRESIDENT BIDEN

Under the leadership of the oldest and arguably the most experienced president in American history, the team in the White House for the past three years has performed remarkably well, despite the rancor and divisiveness that have afflicted this nation for nearly a decade.
 
The accomplishments of an administration dedicated to governing, one that believes in the power of government to make life better for the American people, is a key reason we heartily endorse the reelection of President Joe Biden. The other reason, equally important, is to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation that would accompany the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
   
The economy has recovered from the perils of the pandemic and is now healthier than that of any other advanced nation. With unemployment approaching a 50-year low, companies large and small need workers.
 
Inflation is trending downward, somehow, despite all dire prophecies of economists, without the bitter medicine of a recession or a period of high unemployment. Food prices are still high, and hard-working Americans are still wincing at grocery store receipts, but gas prices have fallen, as the U.S. produces more oil than any country in history, including Saudi Arabia. In an ongoing effort to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, the administration is investing $7 billion in an ambitious solar-power project and is promoting other alternative energy projects, as well.
 
The stock market is percolating along and hitting record highs.
 
The Biden administration in its first year managed to pass a bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that’s expected to add an estimated 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years. It’s repairing roads and bridges, upgrading air- and seaports, modernizing our power infrastructure, investing in public transit and passenger rail and cleaning up Superfund and brownfield sites.
 
Steadily growing reliance on the Affordable Care Act during this administration has made coverage more affordable and more accessible for millions of Americans. More than 21 million Americans are now enrolled, up from 12 million shortly before the pandemic.
 
The Biden White House also has given Medicare the power to directly negotiate with Big Pharma, thereby lowering drug prices and placing a $35-per-month cap on the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries. 
 
After decades of “thoughts and prayers” and little else in response to mass killings, the Biden White House managed to shepherd a bipartisan Safer Communities Act through a balky Congress. With the support of 15 Republican senators and 14 Republican House members, the act represents at least a modest effort to address gun safety in this country.
 
The Biden administration has managed to organize and lead an allied response to a brutish dictator’s invasion of a neighboring democracy. As Ukraine desperately tries to hold off Russia’s invasion, Biden, in the words of former Republican Party operative Stuart Stevens, is “standing on the side of freedom versus tyranny in the largest land war in Europe since WWII.” 
 
Under the leadership of a president with decades of experience in the Middle East, the administration is seeking a path to peace and stability in the post-October 7 conflagration involving Gaza, Iran and Israel and the desperate Palestinian people. The administration also is trying to tamp down the potential danger of a region-wide war. It’s hard to imagine Biden’s predecessor having either the patience or the prowess to play a significant role in resolving a devilishly complex crisis.
 
We are well aware that the Biden administration has not been successful on every front. The calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was the most obvious failure. The administration’s inability to quell chaos at the border is another, although blame primarily belongs to caviling and cynical MAGA Republicans in the House. In servility to Trump, they torpedoed a bipartisan border-security plan painstakingly crafted in the Senate. Biden can’t solve the crisis by executive order; he needs Congress to act.   
  
We are reassured in large part because Biden has restored the tradition of a capable team running the White House, a tradition trampled by Trump’s deeply flawed scheme to run a one-man show. Like Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt, Biden’s deft management of his team has made him, arguably, the most productive president since LBJ in the early months of his administration. He has, as they say, forgotten more than his presumed Republican rival will ever know. That’s not saying much, and at the same time, it says it all.
 

Greedy, selfish, ruthless, mean
seem to describe the worst of us.

Compassionate, just, gentle, kind
seem to do for the best of us.

With the rest of us falling out
between those extremes.

Everything takes its place
along the continuum between extremes.

"The Golden Mean" balances, harmonizes,
the Yin and Yang of too much and too little,
offsetting each other eternally
over all levels of existence,
with "relatively stable equilibrium"
being the best that can be hoped for
over varying degrees of time.

Keeping that in mind
with an eye on our own 
emotional/physical/psychological/etc.
states of being throughout each day,
gives us the ability to consciously
adjust the ups and the downs
in being "just here, now,"
ready for what comes
in a "this means that" 
or a "here we are, now what?" kind of way,
with the ideal being
that of "the still point
of the turning world,"
throughout time and space.

–0–