June 9, 2019–July 17, 2019
- 06/09/2019 — Politics,
as it is currently being practiced,
is a way
of guarding,
protecting,
enhancing,
serving,
promoting
one’s personal beliefs
and interests–
at the expense
of everyone else.
Donald Trump is the best/worst
example of personal gain
being the prime motivation
of political activity,
but the large amount of money
available for “campaign contributions”
through political action committees
is motive enough
for many other “public servants.”
And that there are strings attached
in the form of votes
and support
in return for the donor’s investment
is a small price to pay
for the rewards to be reaped.
Don’t think the politicians we elect
as our personal representative in Washington
have our best interests at heart
in the bills they pass,
and in the bills they keep from passing.
The power of the office,
any office,
is also attractive to those
who want to end abortion,
advance the ideology of white supremacy,
oppose gay rights,
civil rights,
women’s rights,
the rights of workers,
children,
people of color,
immigrants,
Veterans,
the homeless
and the poor.
As ridiculous as it is,
a number of people running for office
hate the idea of democracy,
with its standards
of Liberty,
Justice,
Equality,
Truth–
and will actively work against
democracy
and the Constitution
if elected.
“Promise them anything,
and then do what you want,”
is the subversive banner
under which they run.
We need a faster way to vote out
who we vote in.
Anybody exhibiting bad faith–
whether politicians or judges,
elected or appointed,
needs to be removed and replaced immediately
through enhanced recall petitions
issued by Oversight Committees
on national, state and local levels.
The procedure and process for correcting
political wrongs is far beyond
needing to be overhauled and streamlined.
We The People have been
played the fool long enough.
Business as usual
cannot be allowed to continue. - 06/09/2019 — The Adventure Awaits The Traveler 2019-05 03 HDR — Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, Auto Tour, Hardeeville, South Carolina, May 21, 2019
You know when the dreads come upon you,
despair winks at you from the corner,
and depression sinks into your bones
like the cold of winter’s long night?
Sit up.
Look around.
Size things up–
the things you see
when you look around.
What is not right there,
with what you see?
What is out of place?
What doesn’t belong?
What is crumpled,
dirty,
needs washing?
Get up
and take care of it.
Make things right.
When you are done,
look around again.
What is not right there now?
If things are fine,
then let things be fine.
If there are things
that are not fine
that you can’t do anything about,
let them be not fine.
We have to square up
with a lot of things
that are not fine.
It is an on-going task of life.
We do not have to be emotionally “hooked”
by things that are not fine.
They are simply not fine.
And we can’t do anything about them.
So what?
Now what?
Seeing what is there
without opinion or judgment
or emotional involvement/engagement
is accepting the fact of what is there,
even though is is quite unacceptable itself.
Take up the practice of emotional detachment,
the perspective of emergency room personnel
dealing with everything coming through the door.
It is far from fine,
and we will do what we can do about it
as best we can.
And that’s that. - 06/10/2019— Mississippi River 2019-04 05 — Mississippi Welcome Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, April 22, 2019
That Which Has Always Been Called God
cannot do anything about, or with,
That Which Has Always Been Called Stupid.
And that is why
we are where we are today.
It takes cooperation–
collaboration–
for things to work
like they need to work
to be like they need to be.
God is not almighty,
all powerful,
omnipotent…
God is like someone
who was born in a stable
and died on a cross.
Vulnerable.
Impotent.
Dependent.
At the mercy
of conditions
and circumstances
and available resources.
Like yeast in the dough,
or a seed in the ground,
or a candle flame
flickering in the wind.
That Which Has Always Been Called God
comes packed in the DNA
or everyone.
We all have equal access
to That Which Has Always Been Called God.
But.
That Which Has Always Been Called God
does not have equal access to each of us.
Some of us are more accessible
than others of us.
Too many of us
are not accessible at all.
Everything turns on–
depends on–
flows from
how accessible we are
to That Which Has Always Been Called God
over the full course of our life.
“Invoked, or not invoked,
God will be present.”
But.
Where will we be?
Will we be present
with That Which Is Present With us?
In order to be present
with That Which Is Present With us,
we have to get ourselves
out of the way.
We have to stand aside.
We have to stand apart from
our agenda,
our desires,
our idea of how
we want things to be.
We have to step away from
our wants,
our will,
our way–
and wait,
in the stillness
and the silence,
for a compelling vision,
an urgent notion,
a faint,
mere hint of a possibility,
to arise within
and beckon us
to take a step
in the service
of what calls our name
on the adventure
of being alive.
06/10/2019 — When there is nothing
that can be done,
there is nothing to do.
It is called being helpless.
So, be helpless.
And wait for the tide to turn.
For the shift to happen.
For the circumstances to change.
And, while you are waiting,
be attentive to the moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
Alert.
Expectant.
Ready.
For the time for what needs to be done
to be at hand.
- 06/10/2019. — Lake Chicot 2019-04 03 HDR — Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platte, Louisiana, April 24, 2019
Our distinguishing features include
our physical attributes
and our spiritual/psychic traits–
our perspectives and perceptions,
our preferences,
proclivities,
interests,
values–
and not merely the rank order of values,
but also the weight each value
has for us in any given situation–
outlook,
attitude in any given situation,
talents,
abilities,
gifts,
daemon,
degree of awareness,
degree of self-transparency,
authenticity,
etc.
We are different
colors,
hues,
textures,
shades,
frequencies…
up and down the line,
across the table,
around the world.
And,
there are those of us
who know better than
the rest of us,
who and how all of us
ought to be.
We are at war
over our identity
every single day
of our life.
Who will we be today?
Who we are,
or who somebody else
wants us to be
(from moment to moment
throughout each day)?
“THAT’S not who you are supposed to be!”
How many times do we run into
some variation of that declaration
over the course of our life?
We are fighting for ourselves–
for our right to be who we are–
in a world geared to forcing us
into molds we do not fit.
Or, we better be!
The spiritual journey,
the Hero’s Journey,
is the trip to who we are,
yet the church
is one of the primary places
where we are not allowed in
just as we are
(In spite of all the Everyone Welcome
signs on the front lawns
and entrance ways).
Where do we go to be who we are?
How often do we go there?
How long do we stay?
How will we ever know who we are,
if we are never allowed to be who we are?
Joseph Campbell says “The Primary Mask”
is the one we are handed at birth
and told to wear,
so that we fit in
and look like everyone else.
He says “The Antithetical Mask”
is our original face–
“the face that was ours
before we were born”–
which we are to grow into
over the course of our life,
in a “Know Thy Self,”
and a “To Thine Own Self Be True”
kind of way.
But, how do we do that
if we are never allowed to experiment?
If we are never permitted to be
who we are not supposed to be?
This is our problem
to work out as we are able–
to grow into who we are
over the course of our life.
We probably will not be able to do it
if we hang out with the same people
all our life long.
Most of us will have to change
the way we live
in order to live the life
that is our life to live.
There is a price to pay to live that life,
and there is a price to pay to not live it.
Which price will we pay? - 06/11/2019— Magnolia 2019-05 02 — Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, Hardeeville, SC, May 21, 2019
The Bread of Affliction
is the Bread of Life.
The Cup of Suffering
is the Cup of Salvation.
If we know and understand that,
we have it made.
It also can be known and understood like this:
The slippery slope,
the dangerous path,
the razor’s edge,
winds through
the contradiction,
dichotomy
and paradox
of Eden and Gethsemane,
across the face of Golgotha,
to the empty tomb
and life beyond death.
And like this:
Dying is realizing what’s what,
and doing what needs to be done about it.
Which is the same thing
as being alive.
And like this:
Sin is being wrong about what’s important,
Salvation is changing our mind about what’s important.
And like this:
It is never any more difficult
than growing up. - 06/11/2019— 11th Street Docking 2019-05 04 — Port Royal, South Carolina, May 20, 2019
It doesn’t matter what you believe.
I don’t care what your theology is,
or what form your yoga takes,
or if you have a theology,
or practice any form of yoga.
The only thing that matters is this:
Do you have what it takes
to size up the situation,
see what is happening
and what needs to happen in response
in light of all things considered,
and do it the way it needs to be done
with the gifts,
talents,
abilities,
traits,
preferences,
proclivities,
daemon
that are yours to offer–
to the extent that would be helpful–
as best you can
in each situation that arises
al your life long?
Believe anything you want to believe,
practice any form of yoga you want to practice,
including believing nothing at all,
and practicing nothing at all–
as long as it enables you to
do see what needs to be done
and do it
in each situation as it arises.
All your life long. - 06/11/2019— Tidal Creed 2019-05 00 Panorama — Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Townsend, Georgia, May 21, 2019
It is as though we all
are seeking to harmonize
ourselves with our life–
to be in tune with our life–
to be in the flow of our life.
To find where we fit,
what suits us,
where we belong…
It is as though we are all
blindfolded at birth
and told to find the life
that is our life to live,
while all the adults
are yelling conflicting
directions at us,
and enforcing arbitrary rules
that are more hindrances
than helps,
and telling us things
are important
that have nothing to do
with the task at hand.
We are searching
for what works for us
while people are handing us
a great variety of things
they say is exactly what we need,
and none of them work at all.
We are looking for the aliveness
of our life,
and we get counterfeit,
bogus,
phony,
imitation,
stand-in,
false,
mock,
sham,
substitutes
because nobody
has a clue about
the real thing.
The only one who knows
is locked away inside of us,
and no one gives us the key
to the door,
or even tells us there is a key,
or a door.
And we spend our life
getting hints whispered
through the keyhole,
in a language we don’t understand,
with no one to translate
or interpret
what they mean.
This is crazy.
That is the first realization.
We are on our own
and it is all up to us.
That is the second
and the third.
From there,
all the rest come into focus:
We have to speak truthfully to ourselves,
as contradictory,
mutually exclusive,
paradoxical
and riddle-like
as the truth always is.
We have to trust ourselves to know
what we are seeking
even though we have no idea
of what that might be.
We have to provide our own foundation
that allows us the freedom
to feel our way along
as we play the Hot/Cold game
with ourselves.
We can’t give up.
We can’t quit.
We have to believe
in the value of the treasure
we seek
as we cull out dump truck loads
of Not This, Not That, Not That Either stuff
every day.
We find clues everywhere.
Wisp of memories of things that mattered,
a tune we can almost remember
playing in our head,
white rabbits disappearing
around corners…
The chase is on!
Follow every lead!
We are getting closer all the time!
To who we are,
and what does it for us! - 06/12/2019— Oktoc Dairy 2019-05 01 — Oktoc, Mississippi, May 1, 2019
I never got it with trigonometry
and organic chemistry.
The structure of those disciplines
and my own structure
were/are incompatible to the core.
I cannot speak their language.
And you can’t make me.
Tell me you are going to call my parents.
Send me to Remedial Trig/Chem classes.
I’ll still be looking out the window.
I can hum right along
with looking out the window.
There isn’t a window
I can’t look out of,
don’t have an immediate affinity with.
I belong with/to looking out the window.
If they gave degrees in looking out the window,
or offered jobs,
with benefits
and perks,
I would have had it made,
back when degrees and jobs were a thing.
Now, just try to build a life
around looking out the window.
I did.
Without knowing what I was doing.
I just kept looking out the window.
I stumbled onto a camera–
was led there, actually,
by The One Who Knows
dwelling within us all–
and the viewfinder was a tiny window,
and my life smiled
for the camera,
and I took my tiny window
with me everywhere.
And lived happily ever after.
P.S. I wouldn’t want you to think
my camera pays my bills.
My camera is what I pay my bills to do. - 06/12/2019— Lotus Flower 2019-01 B Detail — Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, Green Pond, South Carolina, May 21, 2019
There is no plan.
All of this is the way it is
because something else
was the way it was.
One thing led to another,
and here we are.
What’s the greater miracle–
that everything is planned down to
the particular mites on a bird’s feather,
or that nothing is?
That Which Has Always Been Called God
is no planner in the sky.
That Which Has Always Been Called God
is right here in the thick of things,
in the midst of us,
in the center,
at the core,
of each one of us,
loving the ride,
seeing what can be done
with *these* circumstances
in every situation that comes along,
just for the joy of it,
for the wonder of not-knowing
where it’s going,
or what will happen next,
and dying to find out.
We live here, now,
in each here, now,
as the extensions
of That Which Has Always Been Called God
in the sphere of space and time.
Playing with the possibilities,
dancing with the music,
loving life. - 06/13/2019— Lake Chicot 2019-04 06 B — Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platte, Louisiana, April 24, 2019
So what?
Now what?
Are the two questions
that put us at the fulcrum
and enable us to become the lever,
shifting,
moving,
transitioning
the past into the future.
It does not matter what just happened
from the standpoint of its impact upon us, personally.
The question is now what?
We are emergency room personnel
and the door just opened.
Our reaction determines the future
for everyone impacted by the event in question.
Triage.
Vital signs.
Assessment.
Evaluation.
Interpretation.
Response.
Observation.
Readiness.
Awareness.
No judgment,
no opinion.
Just seeing.
Just knowing.
Just doing what needs to be done. In each situation
as it arises.
The door is always opening again.
Get up.
Be ready.
Here it comes.
So what?
Now what? - 06/13/2019— The Ghost Trees of Boneyard Beach 2015-01 05 — Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area, Edisto Island, South Carolina, January 28, 2015
Take the alcohol away
from a drunk,
and what do you have?
A wounded human being.
I was never an alcoholic,
but.
I have always been
a wounded human being.
“I’m Jim,
and I am a wounded human being.”
Alcoholics are attempting
to hide from their woundedness.
AA helps with that.
“Who the hell do you think you are,
pretending to be not-wounded?”
That’s the first question AA asks,
with words to that effect.
AA is the closest thing I know
to being a Community of Innocence–
Innocent in the sense
of having nothing at stake
in anyone being a member.
If you think you don’t need them, fine.
“Attraction, not promotion.”
If you are promoting something,
you are trying to get something.
AA isn’t trying to get anything.
If you are wounded,
you are welcome.
And who isn’t wounded?
Everybody is really welcome in AA.
AA is the most democratic institution in the world.
Woundedness knows no boundaries,
no limits,
no restrictions to its range.
We can be white and wounded
(Far, far, from “supreme,”
what a joke).
Black and wounded.
Brown and wounded.
Gay and wounded
(But, of course).
Female and wounded
(But, of course, again)..
The list goes forever.
The Buddha is said to have said,
“Go find one person
who isn’t wounded.”
Nobody has turned up anybody yet
(If you say you aren’t wounded,
you are in denial–
and you may be an alcoholic).
And, what does woundedness need?
A welcoming presence!
Welcoming presences are hard to find.
Nobody wants to be in the company
of woundedness.
Not the church!
You can’t be wounded in the church!
They will give you Jesus
and demand that you be just fine.
Smile, God loves you, you know.
Oh, and they love you, too.
Makes it all just fine.
If you aren’t smiling,
and show the least sign
of woundedness,
it means your faith is lacking.
You can’t be wounded and faithful.
You have to be triumphant
if you are going to be faithful.
“On Christ the solid rock I stand,”
and all that.
Where do you go to find
welcoming presences?
AA.
AA doesn’t have anything to sell you.
They aren’t trying to get anything from you.
They are as wounded as you are,
and glad to have your company.
Our woundedness
makes us all family,
with nothing to be ashamed of.
Because who isn’t wounded? - 06/13/2019— Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies 2019-05 07 — Canada Geese, Catawba River, Landsford Canal State Park, Catawba, South Carolina, May 28, 2019
Dreams are springboards into you
and your life.
Every dream,
whether it is a nighttime dream
or a daytime fantasy,
is a reflection of you and your life–
as if to say,
“This is how it is with you right now.
What are you going to do about it?”
Look for puns,
and for exaggerations,
and inflations.
For instance,
if you dream you are flying,
check your actual way of life
to see if you have
your feet on the ground.
If you dream you are in a car
with no breaks
going downhill,
check to see if you ever
put the breaks
on your enthusiasm,
our on your push to have your way
in your life.
Every dream/fantasy
is an invitation to muse
about your life
and how you are living it,
and what you need to do about it,
or what you need to have in it.
As if to say,
“Here you are.
Now what?”
Ask, “What does this say
that I need to be aware of?”
Mull things over.
See where it goes. - 06/14/2019— Nursery Photos 2019-05 06 — Sunflower, Pike’s Nursery and Garden Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, May 17, 2019
Sobriety gives us ourselves,
just as we are.
What we do with the gift
is up to us.
Listen, I say.
Look,
Feel,
Know,
Do,
Be.
And go where that takes you,
without having to know any more
than what is called for
in each moment of your living.
No judgement!
No opinion!
No wanting more than you need
to do what needs you to do it!
Reading the situation,
internally and externally,
and letting that be your guide.
Work with the givens
tucked into every situation
to give the situation
what it is seeking
by being who you are,
then and there.
Find your own balance,
your own level,
your own equilibrium,
your own homeostasis,
your own ecology,
your own sanity,
your own sobriety,
and live out of that orientation,
that perspective,
that mode of being-in-the-world
in responding to the world,
and let nature take its course,
let all things fall into place
around that.
Listen to your dreams.
Listen to your body.
Listen to your experience.
Listen to what’s what.
Listen to the silence.
Listen to the stillness.
See what emerges.
See what compelling urge
calls you to action.
Reflect on everything
to the point of arriving
at new realizations,
new ways of coming
to life in the time and place
of your living.
See what you look at.
Be who you are. - 06/14/2019— Lake Chicot 2019-04 04 B — Lake Chicot State Park, Ville Platte, Louisiana, April 24, 2019
What do your nighttime dreams
say about your daytime dreams,
aspirations,
ambitions?
When both sets of dreams
are in accord,
there is harmony
and peace
throughout our life.
When there is conflict,
contradiction,
dichotomy,
there is hell to pay.
Our work is to create
and maintain
the alignment
of inner with outer.
Integrity
is self-transparency
at work
to make us whole.
Integration
is the work
of maturity
and grace.
Maturity *is* grace!
There is no maturity
without grace,
no grace
without maturity.
Live to be whole,
gracious
and grown-up!
Live to align inner with outer,
so that your nighttime dreams
bless and direct
your daytime dreams/aspirations/ambitions!
06/14/2019 — Start with the contradictions–
go where it leads.
Reconciling ourselves
to the irreconcilable contraries
of our life,
and bearing the pain
of their dichotomy–
and the synchronization,
the choreography,
of their dance–
is the essence of maturation
and grace.
We exist to harmonize
discordant realities,
and make peace
with all that is–
by seeing/feeling/knowing/being/bearing
the tension
that holds it all together,
and makes all things one.
Good/bad,
dark/light,
sickness/health,
yin/yang…
We walk two paths
at the same time,
coming and going
simultaneously,
creating
what we are trying
to destroy,
destroying
what we are trying
to create.
“This, too.
“This, too.”
Meeting what we are running from
on the path we take
to avoid it.
Let it be,
because it is.
Dance with it
because “there is only the dance”
(T.S. Eliot),
and the dance is all there is.
- 06/15/2019— Summerton Diner, Summerton South Carolina, June 14, 2019 — If you like country cookin’ and all that comes with it, it’s worth the drive! And, it’s cash only, so be prepared for that.
“Monkey Mind”–
where our thoughts run away with us,
and leap about
with no coherent pattern
from one thing to another
like monkeys from limb to limb
and tree to tree–
is not to be disparaged.
It is simply another way
our “Other Mind”
(that would be the one
we are not conscious of,
sometimes called “The Unconscious”)
is trying to get our attention.
The Unconscious is always
trying to get our attention.
It has things to say
about what we are doing
and leaving undone.
What we do is who we are.
If we are always doing things,
like Paul in the Bible–
that we know better than to do,
that we know not to do,
that we wish we wouldn’t do–
it’s because we aren’t sold on
not doing it
in spite of all of our protests
to the contrary.
We wish we didn’t didn’t to it,
but.
We don’t really mind if we do.
Our lapses
and inconsistencies
speak volumes
about our purpose
and intentions.
When we say one thing
and do another,
the absence of integrity
is apparent.
We aren’t who we say we are.
We are who we pretend not to be.
Our Unconscious Mind
is not unconscious at all,
but always awake,
alert,
tuned in to the ways in which
we kid ourselves,
and refuse to square up
with who we are
and what we are doing–
and demanding accountability.
The Unconscious is always
the force for integrity
and accountability.
Our only purpose
is to be one with who we are–
to live in ways which exhibit
the Unconscious Values
at the heart of who we are,
and to not be carried away
by our wishes and wants
for the things at odds
with our best interest
and highest good.
Integrity is our best interest
and highest good.
Serving the gifts,
the talents,
the abilities,
the daemon…
that are ours to serve
in the time and place
of our living
is ours to do 24/7/52.
Who are we serving?
What are we living for?
The Unconscious demands
that we be aware of the questions,
and that we live in ways
that declare whose side we are on
in the daily give and take of our life.
“Monkey Mind” is one way
of calling attention
to the helter-skelter,
thoughtless,
reckless,
way we live our life.
If we attend the random thoughts
firing away in our “Monkey Mind,”
we will begin to make connections,
and see how this is related to that,
and how all of it brings out the
inherent contradictions,
dichotomies,
and incompatibilities
of our daily fare.
A theme runs through the thought jungle.
Calling us to wake up,
pay attention,
see what is going on,
and do the work
of reflection
and realization,
reconciliation
and reorientation.
Make it your practice
to watch your thoughts
and wait for the trends
to become obvious.
Ask the questions
that beg to be asked:
What does this
have to do with that?
Notice how often the same thoughts occur,
the same sequence,
the same tone,
the same old same old…
and what that combination
might be saying to you
about you.
A Thought Meditation,
revealing that random
is not so random at all. - 06/15/2019— Mayfly Hatch 2019-06 01 — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Lake Marion, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019
Sin is being wrong about what’s important.
Salvation is being right about what’s important.
How often do you change your mind
about what’s important?
When was the last time you changed your mind
about anything?
Changing our mind
is the primary requirement
in growing up.
We cannot grow up
if we do not change our mind
about what is important
throughout our life.
Each stage of development–
of maturation–
comes with its own list
of what is important.
If we do not get what is important right
in each stage of development,
we never progress past
the most recent stage we attained
in our understanding of what is important.
Too many people are stuck
in the pre-teen stage of development.
What is important to them
is burdening everyone else
by their refusal to change their mind
and grow up.
We owe it to ourselves
and everyone else
to know what is important
to where we ought to be
in the stage of development
commensurate with our current age group.
And change our mind about what is important
to reflect what ought to be important
in the time and place of our living. - 06/15/2019— Cypress Swamp 2019-06 01 Panorama B — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019
I may be wrong about this but.
That’s never stopped me.
I think we have a finite pool
of life-energy available to us and.
It can be expanded and deepened
through association with experiences
which fill us with more energy
and enthusiasm for life
than they require in our pursuit of them,
involvement with them.
It can be diminished and depleted
by our involvement with people and things
which require more energy from us
than they return to us.
We can die before our time
when our energy for life is exhausted.
We can live beyond our time
when our energy for life is replenished
and restored.
What kind of steward of life energy
are you showing yourself to be?
06/15/2019 — Reflection leads to new realizations.
Everything that holds an attraction for you
is a mirror reflecting you back to you,
hoping to spark realization
awareness
awakening,
connection,
insight
and more reflection.
This is a path
that has on end!
Be off!
See where it goes!
- 06/16/2019— Painted Bunting 2019-06 01 — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Visitor’s Center, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019
Sitting tight
is always an option
worthy of consideration–
as long as it is not
selling out!
Sitting tight
is *waiting* it out!
*Waiting* for the door to open!
*Waiting* for the shift to happen!
*Waiting* for the time to be right!
We have to know
that we are waiting,
and what we are waiting on–
what needs to fall in place,
what needs to happen–
for us to be able
to “move about the country.”
We are sitting tight,
waiting for moving time,
action time,
time to go.
That could be
waiting for the kids
to grow up!
We might need to sit tight
for a long time!
We couldn’t afford film
and diapers (etc.),
so the camera
went on the shelf
until our children
graduated from college.
Then, it came off the shelf.
06/16/2019 — I know more about
being me now
than I did when I started.
In the beginning,
I thought it was about
being someone else’s idea of me.
I spent a long time
living within lines drawn
by other people.
Doing it the way
they said do it.
Not at all clear about
why do it at all.
There is a lot of learning to live
blindfolded,
following instructions
from people
who are also blindfolded.
This is crazy.
They speak and act
with such authority,
all those people
who don’t know any more
than I do
about who and how to be.
They say they know,
but they don’t know.
Nobody has known
for years past counting.
But everybody is doing
what somebody else
told them to do.
We need to call time-out,
and sit still,
and be quiet,
until we can sort it out,
and know where *they* stop
and *I* start,
and who really knows best,
and who is only pretending to know.
And we don’t need
to wait until retirement
to do that.
- 06/17/2019— Great Egret 2019-06 01 Panorama — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019 —
The injured/diseased beak
brings out the resolute,
triumphant beauty
of this grande bird,
and calls us all to be
who we can be no matter
where we are,
or how we are,
or what has happened to us,
or may happen to us…
This wonderful example
of Nature giving it
the best she has to offer every day,
robs us of all
of our excuses,
and requires us to get up,
stand up,
square up
and step into each moment–
doing there
what is ours to do
as only we can do it,
without judgment
or opinion,
and refusing to allow
anything to slow us down!
06/17/2019 — Electric Peak 2011-06 01 Panorama — Yellowstone National Park, near Gardner, Montana, June 24, 2011
Find the things you love–
the things that are life for you–
the things no one can talk you out of loving–
the things you live to do,
the things you live to be with,
the things nobody can knock you off of,
the things you are grounded in
with all your heart,
and soul,
and mind,
and strength–
the things that are YOU!
Spend all of your available time
with those things.
Immerse yourself in those things.
That’s all the religion you need.
No theology.
No doctrine.
No dogma.
No having to take anything on faith.
No having to take someone else’s word
for what your grounding foundation should be.
Just you and the things/people
that are life itself for you.
Religion as it should be.
From the heart.
Of the heart.
With no doubt about it.
- 06/17/2019— Schwabacher Landing 2011-06 01 HDR — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Wyoming, June 26, 2011
The closer we come to God,
the less we can say about God.
The Numen,
the numinous,
the ineffable
is beyond words
and thoughts.
We can sense more than we can know,
and we can know more than we can say.
Thus, we fall back on
art,
music
and poetry
to express
what nature reveals to us
in regard to more than thoughts can think,
and more than words can say.
Which puts all theology,
doctrine,
dogma,
ideology,
creeds,
tenets,
canons
and articles of faith
in the category
Joseph Camp
bell called,
“The fourth best things.”
““The best things cannot be told, the second best are misunderstood.
After that comes civilized conversation;
after that, mass indoctrination;
after that, intercultural exchange.
And so, proceeding,
we come to the problem of communication:
the opening, that is to say, of one’s own truth and depth
to the depth and truth of another
in such a way as to establish
an authentic community of existence”
(*The Masks of God*).
And wherever that “authentic community of existence”
is experienced
(What I call “the Community of Innocence”),
there is the Numen,
at the heart
of the wonder of it all. - 06/18/2019— Mormon Row 2011-06 16 HDR — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming, June 23, 2011
You can understand
what I’m saying
only if you know
what I mean.
Which means two things:
1) We’re talking in code,
and no one outside
of The Inner Circle
has a clue
about what we are saying.
2) I’m not saying anything
you don’t already know,
and all you have to do
is hear it
to recognize the “Well, duh!” factor
in all that is being said.
Hearing what we already know
brings it into our conscious awareness,
but it “clicks” with something
that is just waiting to be heard
in order to come to life within us,
and bring us forth
by coming forth itself
into the light
of realization.
This is enlightenment–
not hearing something we don’t know,
but hearing something we already know,
so that now
we simply know
what we have always known,
but didn’t know we knew.
Seeing what we look at,
and knowing what we know,
is all there is to it–
“It” being seeing/knowing/living/
being alive in the moment of living.
That is all we are working toward–
that is all we are living for:
Being alive in the moment of our living.
Money can’t buy it.
Trying hard can’t achieve it.
Believing what we are told to believe
has nothing to do with it.
We either do it,
or do it not.
The Truth is a secret code
that those who don’t know
cannot comprehend.
And they cannot comprehend it,
because they are looking
for something that to be hard–
and nothing is harder
than simple
when you are expecting hard.
In AA parlance,
“Easy does it.” - 06/18/2019— Blue Grosbeak 2019-05 02 — Scenes from my hammock, Indian Land, South Carolina, May 13, 2019
Growing up is the sine qua non
of the spiritual journey.
It IS the spiritual journey.
Growing up is squaring up
to the contradictions
at the heart of being alive.
Paradox,
polarity,
dichotomy,
irreconcilable,
incompatible,
antithetical…
These things are the foundation of life.
“Life Eats Life.”
Things cannot be more at odds
than that.
In order for life to live,
something has to die.
Life lives on death.
And the living
have to make their peace
with the fact
that life is grounded upon death.
We don’t grow up
without coming to terms
with this contradiction
inherent in the process
of being alive.
Here is another:
We grow up against our will–
which means willing ourselves
to grow up against our will.
This is Jesus on the cross.
And it is everyone
who grows up.
We die to our idea of life,
of the way life ought to be.
We not only live on the death
of something else,
we also live by dying ourselves–
dying to our idea
of what is important,
to our idea
of what it means to be alive.
Everyone who grows up
walks with a limp,
and bears a terrible burden–
the burden of being alive
at the expense of life,
and at the expense
of our idea
of what it means
to be alive.
Living is dying.
Death is life.
To understand that
and embrace it
is to carry the cross
along the entire route
of the spiritual journey,
and to pay the price
of growing up,
again and again,
all the way.
06/18/2019 — We always have what it takes
to meet the present moment
on its terms
and do what can be done
with it
in light of what is good
for all concerned.
We can be who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
what we are,
how we are,
why we are,
for as long as we are.
We can give that up,
but no one can take it
from us.
We have what we need
to do what can be done.
When nothing can be done,
do that,
and wait for the circumstances
to change.
06/18/2019 — Our perspective
has the ability
to change the meaning
of external reality,
and that transforms
its impact upon us,
and that alters
our response to it.
And that changes everything–
just by the power
of a shift in perspective.
Perspective is a superpower
we rarely ever bring into play.
- 06/19/2019— Lower Falls 2011-06 06 HDR — Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Village, Wyoming, June 30, 2011
Our two most precious possessons
are our time
and our health–
and they are intimately connected
with each other
and with the life we are living.
What are we living for?
What are we living to do?
What are we living to do
with our time
and our health?
What do time and health mean
apart from a life
that is worth living?
What would it take
for our life to be worth living?
What interests would we serve?
What would be the source
of our enthusiasm?
Zest?
Joy of life?
*Elan Vital*?
Libido?
Life energy?
Time and health mean nothing
without things in place
which feed our interests
and our joy in being alive.
But.
Our interests and our joy
can be incubated,
cultivated,
cared for
and tended
in all situations
and circumstances.
*The Bird Man of Alcatraz*
and Victor Frankl’s work
on the survivors
of prisoner of war
and concentration camps
in Hitler Germany
are examples of people
finding ways of investing
themselves in their life
in extreme conditions
of deprivation
and hardship.
All it takes is intention
and awareness.
“So what?
Now what?”
“Here we are.
What now?”
If we live long enough,
we lose everything
that made life worth living.
What makes life worth living then?
Intention
and awareness.
Curiosity.
Compassion.
Grace.
Mindfulness.
Awareness of,
and interest in,
whatever is happening
here and now.
Homer lost his eyesight.
Beethoven lost his hearing.
Neither lost their enthusiasm for life.
Both made meaning
out of what they had to work with.
Both found meaning
in life as it was.
The path opens before those
who start walking
with eyes that see
(even if they are blind),
ears that hear
(even if they are deaf),
minds that are alert,
awake,
and aware,
and hearts that beat
with the love of being alive. - 06/20/2019— Smoky Mountain Stream 2013-11 01 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, November, 2013 — An iPhone Photo
We make things what they are
by responding to them
the way we do.
We react without thinking–
without pausing to reflect,
explore,
examine,
inquire,
inspect,
ask,
seek,
knock,
wonder…
We respond with our
customized,
stereotypical,
pattern
of behavior,
and create
the world we live in
over time.
If we want things
and people
to change
in relation to us,
we have to change
in relation to them.
The life we are living
is the life we have put in place
by the way we have lived it.
We did it,
as they say
in the Deep South,
to our own self.
Changing things
begins with sitting still,
being quiet,
and taking stock.
Taking inventory.
Watching ourselves in action.
Imagining different ways
of doing
the things we always do
the way we always do them.
What are we holding in place
by the way we respond to it?
Who does what to whom,
and then what happens?
We want things to be different.
How different can we be?
Starting when? - 06/20/2019— Sunflowers 2019-06 04 — Draper Wildlife Management Area, York County, South Carolina, June 20, 2019 — An iPhone Photo
10,000 (The primitive world’s way of saying “An infinite amount) things are wrong.
Racism is wrong.
Cruelty is wrong.
Discrimination is wrong.
Brutality is wrong.
Child abuse is wrong.
Abuse of any kind is wrong.
The list goes on and on…
The only “two sides”
to any of this
is the Right Side
and the Wrong Side.
These things are not matters of opinion.
People can agree or disagree,
but that won’t change anything.
Wrong is wrong.
White supremacy is wrong.
Thinking it is not wrong is wrong.
Homophobia,
Islamophobia,
Xenophobia,
Misogyny,
are all wrong.
And treating things that are wrong
as wrong
is right.
Be clear about that,
and step into each day. - 06/21/2019— Schwabacher Landing 2011-06 02 HDR — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming, June 24, 2011
How do you know when you are wrong?
How often are you wrong in a week?
What do you do about being wrong?
How do you deal with it?
I say, “Well, here I go again!”
And tuck it away in my memory bank
as a guide to How To Do It Well The Next Time
It Comes Around.
Wrong is just a step on the way to Right.
Today’s Right is rooted in yesterday’s Wrong.
The key to making good soup
is making a lot of bad soup
with your eyes open.
My photography,
and everything else about me,
is developing solely because
of the mistakes I make.
No mistakes,
no movement,
no correction,
no development,
no life.
Living well is moving
from wrong to right.
Wrong is where we have been.
Right is where we are going.
Receive your wrongs well.
Welcome them into the family.
Embrace what they have to teach you.
And move on!
Move on! - 06/21/2019— Botany Bay 2011-11 01 Panorama — Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area, Edisto Island, South Carolina, November, 2011 — an iPhone Photo
Apparent reality consists of a combination
of wave lengths
and frequency ranges,
which our eyes and ears receive
and pass along to our brain
for interpretation and classification.
The outcome of which
is “Tree” and “Beach” and “Ocean.”
Reality is always being
interpreted
and assigned “meanings”
based on our past experience.
Color-blind people “see”
a different world.
Dogs, cats and owls “see”
a different world.
Which world is the Real World?
The question presumes a reality
that doesn’t exist in the real world.
The real world is a multitude of realities–
interpretations of wave lengths
and frequency ranges.
What anything means
is what we say it means–
what it means to us.
We are the final authority
determining what something,
anything,
everything,
means.
Whatever “it” is,
it means what it means to individuals
who are reading the wave lenghts
and the frequency ranges
and interpreting them
in light of each individual’s experience.
A photograph is a photographer’s interpretation
of a scene,
and represents a range of of light wave lengths
available in the scene
at the time the photograph was taken.
The scene is different throughout the day
and time of year.
Light filters produce color combinations
and contrasts among light and shadow areas
that transform the appearance of the scene,
but only change the relationships
of elements within the scene
when the shutter opened/closed.
The length of time the shutter
remains open before it is closed
also alters the appearance of the scene,
and is another factor expanding
how the scene might be viewed.
What a scene looks like
depends upon who is looking,
and how,
at the time of day,
and the time of year,
they looked.
How a scene really appears
is dependent upon a number of factors.
Every scene is a combination
of wave lengths
and frequency levels
waiting to be interpreted
more than “seen.”
What we “see”
is our perception/interpretation
of the wave lengths
and frequency levels
available to us in the scene. - 06/21/2019— Sunflowers 2019 06-20 03 – Draper Wildlife Management Area, York County, South Carolina, June 20, 2019 – An iPhone Photo
There are developmental tasks
that must be honored,
and protocols that must be followed.
Growing up is a slippery slope,
a dangerous path,
like a razor’s edge.
‘Fritz’ Perls said, “Every individual,
every plant, every animal
has only one inborn goal–
to actualize itself as it is.”
To not do that
is to pay a price.
To not do that
is to violate internal norms
and codes
of crucial significance.
We are *meant* to be
a particular way!
We cannot deviate
from the path
and think, “No big deal.
Nothing will happen.”
It is a very big deal.
Something will happen.
And we won’t like it.
Look around.
Walk down a street.
Pay attention to the people
you meet.
Theirs is the demeanor
of those for whom
something has happened.
They missed their appointments
with destiny,
and are living out the fate
that befalls those
who are not being
who they are.
They were flip
and casual
with their life choices.
They didn’t even know
they were making choices.
They did not listen.
Did not look.
Did not know what
was going on.
They refused to grow up,
and are stalled in a holding pattern,
stuck in an eddy
out of the flow of life,
wandering in a wasteland
of their own making,
because they thought,
“No big deal.
Nothing will happen.”
We have to find our way
to our heart,
and align ourselves
with our heart’s true joy,
and do what we can do
with all our heart,
and soul,
and mind,
and strength–
and not kid ourselves
about what that is.
That is the path
that will take us
through the developmental tasks,
and lead us to abide
by the protocols–
the trials and ordeals–
of our own becoming.
We will be birthing ourselves
our whole life long.
Coming to ourselves at last.
Arriving at our own doorstep,
to the welcoming greeting
of “Well done! Well done!” - 06/22/2019— Smoky Mountain Stream 2013-11 02 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, November, 2013 — An iPhone Photo.
Enlightenment is not
a steady state of being.
There are no steady states of being.
We ebb and flow,
rise and fall,
come and go,
yes and no,
throughout our life.
Enlightenment is knowing
what’s what
in each moment
all along the way.
Enlightenment,
realization,
awareness
are all the same thing.
What we know
is what’s what,
when and where,
here and now,
and what to do about it–
how to live in response to it,
and how that leads
to the next moment
where we repeat
seeing,
knowing,
doing,
being
again,
moment-to-moment-to-moment.
There is no place to be
other than here/now.
If we cannot be here/now,
we cannot be anywhere ever.
The place to be
is right here right now.
Know what’s what here/now
and what to do about it,
in response to it.
Go where that leads
and repeat the process
forever.
One moment at a time.
That’s all there is to it. - 06/22/2019— The Ghost Trees of Boneyard Beach 2015-01 06 — Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area, Edisto Island, South Carolina, January 28, 2015
We live our life in search of The Magic,
looking for The Magic,
waiting for The Magic to happen,
wondering what’s happened
to The Magic.
The Magic can happen
any time,
anywhere.
But.
It does not happen all the time,
everywhere.
The Magic is a function
of The Way.
Any old way won’t do.
The path opens before those
who start walking–
WHEN they are walking
The Way that is right for them.
For instance,
we can’t marry just anybody,
I don’t care how much in love we are.
Being in love is no test
of the validity of a marriage.
Anybody can be in love with anybody,
But nobody can be married
to just anybody.
How do we determine
who is right for us?
First things first.
Who are we?
What is good for us,
and what is not good for us?
What serves our best interests,
and what is detrimental
to our well-being?
Where do we belong,
and where do we have
no business being?
How much of ourselves
do we have to deny
in order to be with somebody else?
We can’t know whom to marry
until we know who we are
and what we are about–
until we know what is right for us,
and what is wrong for us.
If we are living out of a
“What the hell, why not?”
orientation,
The Magic will be waiting for us
along a different path.
And we will keep running
into dead ends
and blind alleys,
missing turns
and running through stop signs,
wondering where The Magic is,
only finding where The Magic isn’t.
The Magic begins
when we start looking
in the right places.
Listen to your heart,
listen to your body,
listen to your belly,
listen to your bones,
listen to your nighttime dreams,
listen to your experience,
listen to how you respond
to what is happening
listen to what you feel,
to what you sense,
to what you intuit,
to what resonates with you,
to what calls your name,
to what is you
and what is not-you,
to what makes your little heart sing,
to what you love to do,
to how you love to spend your time,
to what you can do with all your heart
and see what that tells you
about who you are.
And don’t marry anybody
who interferes with these things.
And don’t spend your time
with anything that runs contrary
to these things.
The further you get from these things,
the further you will be from The Magic.
But.
The Magic will always be waiting
for you to start listening
your way back to the path
with your name on it,
and feeling your way toward
what is right for you.
It is never too late
to start doing
what is right for you. - 06/22/2019— Nursery Photos 2019-06 04 — Lotus Flower, Pike’s Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina, June 22, 2019, An iPhone Photo
We all are seeking a meaningful life–
or have given up on ever finding one.
The lack of a meaningful life
is the root of all of our problems.
We assume meaning is going to
just be there
once we can pay our bills
and settle into a comfortable routine.
Alcoholics assume once they achieve sobriety,
it will all come together for them,
fall into place,
and they will live happily ever after.
There needs to be a 13th step.
After sobriety, what?
What besides chopping wood
and carrying water,
and the doing the laundry?
When does meaning come into play?
Where is meaning to be found?
After we can pay the bills
and settle into a comfortable routine;
after we are sober
and living responsible lives–
where is the *meaning*?
A child with an ice cream cone
isn’t bothered by the meaning question.
What is the adult equivalent of an ice cream cone?
It isn’t another car,
or a larger TV set…
Where can we, as adults,
be as happy in the moment of our living
as a child with an ice cream cone?
What did we do as a child
that absorbed us completely?
So that, not only did we not worry
about meaning–
we didn’t worry about anything,
did not think about anything,
did not know what time it was,
did not care what day it was…
Where did we lose ourselves
in what we were doing
as children?
How long has it been since
we did that as adults?
We answer the meaning question
by doing what is meaningful.
I’m writing these words.
I took the photo attached to these words.
I make the best jalapeno-pimento-cheese
in the world.
I watch the birds while I’m photoing them…
Don’t talk to me about meaning
while I’m doing my thing!
What’s your thing?
How much time do you spend
doing it,
in a day?
In a week? - 06/23/2019— Sunflowers 2019-02 01/02 Panorama — Draper Wildlife Management Area, York County, South Carolina, June 20, 2019 — An iPhone Photo.
At the core,
there is no separation.
When we are living from our core,
we are One with everyone else
who is living from their core.
From the beginning,
all of those who have lived from their core
have known the same thing:
“All things are one.”
We are one at the core,
but on the periphery,
we are at war!
Jesus and the Buddha and Allah
are one.
Their disciples are at war.
How get people out of their ideology,
out of their theology,
out of their doctrine,
and creeds,
and credo,
and into their core–
now, that’s a problem!
Everybody wants to talk, talk, talk
about what they believe is Truth.
Nobody wants to BE the Truth
at the core of themselves!
To sink into the core
is to disappear from
the periphery.
It is to lose the face
that has been ours from birth,
and to wear the face that was ours
before we were born.
People identify with the wrong face.
And hate other people
who are apparently/obviously different from them.
This is a problem!
So much ambition!
So much hunger and thirst
for power!
So much greed!
So much the quest for wealth
and dominance,
for superiority
and separation!
At the core,
there is no separation!
And that’s a problem
for all of those who desire separation!
The way to deal with all of these problems
is to have nothing to do with them!
Seek your own core!
Live out of your own core!
Let that be your only problem!
That is the only problem
any of us are equipped to solve–
and we solve it by being still and quiet,
and living in accord
with that which arises/emerges
from the silence.
And allow everything
to fall into place
around that. - 06/24/2019— Nursery Photos 2019-05 07 — Gerber Daisies, Pike’s Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina, May 17, 2019
Somebody has to be the grown-up
in each situation.
That person is not necessarily
the oldest in the group.
Maturity is not age-dependent.
It has no association with age at all.
And the mature one
in this situation
may not be the mature one
in the next situation.
Our maturity level fluctuates
based on 10,000 factors,
but is enhanced
and augmented
by attention
and awareness.
The more aware we are–
and the more we are aware of–,
the more mature we will be
in any situation,
in all circumstances.
Our degree of awareness
is not a function of age.
It is entirely dependent
upon the mystery
at the heart
of life and being.
Why do we do what we do?
Like what we like?
Decide what we decide?
What guides our boat
on its way through the sea?
We are not in charge of ourselves.
And, if we listen
and align ourselves
with inclinations
and urges
arising within,
we will find ourselves
doing things
we cannot account for
or understand–
or begin to be able
to explain,
defend,
justify
or excuse.
The urgencies
directing our living
have an origin
beyond our ken.
We are being led
by gentle forces
along paths we cannot see,
toward destinations we cannot envision,
through experiences we would not have chosen,
to realizations we could not conceive
on our own.
We are not on our own.
Everything about us
is a gift,
not of our own devising.
So what is with
the willful determination
to have our way?
That is just another husk
we have to shed
on our way
to maturity and grace
and simply being. - 06/24/2019— Family Outing 2019-06 01 Panorama — Canada Geese, Catawba River, Landsfort Canal State Park, Catawba, South Carolina, May 28, 2019
Things happen to us all the time.
How we respond to them
makes all the difference.
We are the fulcrum,
the pivot point,
between past and future.
We shift past into future.
I don’t care what our past has been,
we determine what our future will be
by the way we respond
to what life has given us
in each moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
How we read the situation;
how aware we are
of all the factors inherent
in the situation;
how thoroughly
and objectively
we evaluate the situation;
how emotionally detached
we can be from the situation;
how disinvested in the outcome
we are in the situation;
how open and available
we are to the good of the situation;
how nonjudgementally
and compassionately
we can be in assessing the situation;
all goes into
how well we will be capable
of responding to the situation.
We have to live apart
from the life we are living
in order to live it
as well as we can.
We have to take it seriously enough,
we have to care about it enough,
we have to be engaged with it enough,
to do what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises.
But.
If we are too much attached to the outcome
we lose our leverage,
and our balance
on the slippery slope,
the dangerous path,
the razor’s edge
that is our life–
and have to pick ourselves up,
again,
and work to do better next time,
again,
all our life long. - 06/24/2019— Biedler Forest 2019-06 01 Panorama — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Biedler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019
Here’s what:
Find the path that is your path,
the way that is your way.
The one you *know* is your path,
your way,
the one nobody can knock you off of–
using the gifts that are your gifts,
the interests that are your interests,
the proclivities that are your proclivities,
the talents that are your talents,
the traits that are your traits,
the knacks that are your knacks–
and stay on that path!
Be true to the self that is yours to be
and the life that is yours to live
in whatever circumstances
the day delivers.
Day in and day out.
All your life long. - 06/24/2019— Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies 2019-06 18 Panorama — Catawba River, Landsford Canal State Park, Catawba, South Carolina, June 24, 2019
Of course, it’s all hopeless,
meaningless,
useless,
senseless,
futile
and absurd–
and coming to a very bad end
(We all are going to die!).
And, how we live in the meantime
makes all the difference.
So what if nothing matters
(And, if nothing matters,
why act like it matters
that nothing matters?
If it matters that nothing matters,
something else might also matter,
like wearing sunglasses
on a bright day!)
The fish are continuing to swim.
The birds are continuing to fly.
The rivers still flowing to the sea.
What’s the problem?
Hopelessness,
meaninglessness,
etc.
doesn’t change a thing.
And living as though it doesn’t matter
whether anything matters or not,
changes everything!
Give it your best
in each situation that arises!
No matter what!
All your life long! - 06/25/2019— Francis Biedler Forest 2019-09 21 Panorama — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Biedler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019
Our guidance
and direction
come to us
in one of three ways,
or as a combination of them:
Urgency,
Urge,
Realization.
And,
it is impossible
to distinguish
The Way
from The Way To The Way.
We are always on one
or the other.
The best advice
always applies
in every situation:
Sit still,
be quiet,
and see what emerges. - 06/25/2019— Nursery Photos 2019-06 03 — Frond, Pike’s Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina, June 22, 2019
Being aware
of what emerges,
arises,
occurs to us
is salvific awareness.
Acting on it,
living in light of it,
is salvation. - 06/25/2019— Cypress Swamp 2019-06 06 Panorama — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Cuddo Unit, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019
The visible, physical world
is concrete, literal, actual, tangible, real.
The invisible, spiritual–
“spiritual” meaning “of the spirit,”
“of the heart,”
“of the soul”–
is metaphorical, abstract, intangible
and also real.
Ancient peoples understood
the visible world
to proceed from,
and to be grounded upon,
the invisible world.
But, over time, “real” came to mean
that which can be counted,
weighed,
measured,
quantified,
fenced in,
walled up,
owned,
bought
and sold.
Our nighttime dreams
cannot even be ordered up
beforehand–
how can anyone
think they are real?
And, if we consider them at all,
we take them to be literal.
We dream we are flying
and think that supports
our conviction
that we are masters of our destiny,
captains of our ship–
that we can do anything,
and are bound by nothing.
We never consider
that the dream may be
making the observation
that our head is in the clouds,
and our feet don’t touch the ground. - 06/26/2019— Sunflowers 2019-06 08 — The Vine Place, Van Wyck, South Carolina, June 25, 2019, an iPhone photo.
Doing no harm
is the first step
in creating a well-lived life.
There has to be
more to it than that.
I was talking to an elderly gentleman
in a nursing home
in one of the parishes I served.
“What did you do with your life?”
I asked.
Without hesitating, he replied,
“I’ve been sober for 52 years!”
“What did being sober enable you to do?”
“It kept me from drinking!”
“I get it,” I said.
“And you didn’t do any of the things
you would have done
if you had been drunk.”
“You got it!” he said.
“Well,” I said,
“I didn’t do any of the things
I would have done
if I had been drunk, either.”
And we laughed into the night.
But.
We cannot build a life
on what we didn’t do,
or on what we are not doing.
A well-lived life does things,
as well as not-doing other things.
What are we *doing* with our life?
Joseph Campbell said,
“A mature person is a wheel
rolling out of its own center.”
Toward what?
“Toward its own realization and expression,”
I imagine him saying in reply.
Self-realization.
Self-expression.
Self-transparency.
Self-determination.
Self-examination.
Self-correction.
Self-redirection…
All in light of serving
that which *is* who we are
in our life.
We are servants of ourselves–
and we cannot live any old way at all
in doing the work
of being who we are.
We are *this way*
and not *that way.*
And we have to know
what *this* is
and what *that* is,
and not blur the line
between them,
and never, ever, cross it!
To live like that
is to live a well-lived life.
Let’s to it! - 06/26/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 16 — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo — In 1989, Hurricane Hugo devastated much of the south east, and Beidler Forest suffered significant damage, with huge Cypress trees falling, and many taking sections of the board walk down as they fell.
From the Guidebook (Which you can download from the Audubon Center & Sanctuary website): “Our philosophy was simple: Beidler Forest is a natural area and Hurricane Hugo was a natural force—not so much an instrument of destruction as a carrier of change. The swamp is still a swamp: downed trees rotted, thick brush has thinned out, and wildlife adjusted, just as it always has. Life goes on here; it simply looks different.”
+++
It should be self-apparent
that all people have an innate right
to their own lives–
as long as they do no harm
to the lives of others.
That needs to be the first article
in our Covenant of Agreement
with every person world-wide.
And the methods and practices
of finding our life and living it
ought to be a foundational aspect
of education from childhood to adult
in every country.
People begin taking our right
to our own life
away from us at birth,
and no one knows
how to find their life
and live it.
And that is the root
of all of our problems,
across the table,
around the board. - 06/26/2019— Landsford Canal State Park 2019-06 01 Panorama — Catawba, South Carolina, on the Catawba River, June 25, 2019, an iPhone photo.
There are people
who have given up on their life.
They haven’t learned the difference
between solitude and isolation.
They are isolated.
Cut-off.
Disenfranchised.
Relegated to the periphery of society.
Lost,
probably alone,
without hope in the world.
The faces of lifetime poverty
have the life drained
out of them.
Poverty will do that to you–
if you don’t have the resources
to develop an immunity
to the reality of your situation,
and to live grounded
in a different reality–
that of solitude
and inner vibrancy.
We are back to the Marianne More quote,
“The cure for loneliness is solitude.”
The cure for everything is solitude.
Solitude fosters a relationship
with our inner self,
with our core,
with The Core,
The Source,
The Grounding Foundation,
of life and being.
There are people who have never
had people in their life
who understood the important things
and talked with them
about what matters most
and how to draw on it
for all matters
great and small.
Everybody needs a Community of Innocence
that can talk to them about
the grounding realities.
AA is as close as it gets,
and AA generally stops
with keeping people sober.
The 13th Step
is getting people into their life,
into the life that has their name on it,
the life that no one but them can live.
We all need help taking
the 13th step.
Jungian Analysts are the only people
I know of who are doing this,
and they are doing it
one person at a time.
There aren’t enough Jungian Analysts. - 06/27/2019— Green River Canyon 2008-09 01 — Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah, September, 2008
“Anything can happen,
if you let it!”
(The Wisdom of Mary Poppins).
Mary Poppins is an apt metaphor
for our Psyche-Self within,
and we
(Who we mean when we say,
“I’m going to get a drink of water”)
are all of the characters in the play/movie,
from Burt to the bankers.
And.
We have to be at
a certain place in our life
before we can change our mind
about what is important.
And.
We have to change our mind
about what is important
at every transition point
along the way.
Along The Way.
And.
Along The Way To The Way.
Which means, of course,
at every shift-point in our life.
And.
How many shift-points are there?
How large is our awareness?
How big is our soul?
We are always capable
of more
than we can ask,
or think.
or imagine.
So.
What’s with the refusal
to change our mind
about what is important? - 06/27/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 17 — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo — More Hurricane Hugo (1989) damage.
Where does Mary Poppins go when she leaves?
What does she do while she is gone?
How does she spend her time
on her day off?
The questions abound.
The only thing really important
about Mary Poppins
is that she is always here/now with us
when we need her.
Where are we?
We have to be here/now
to be available to Mary Poppins
when she pops in.
If no one answers the door
when she knocks,
she may as well not knock,
not pop in,
not show up.
We have to show up
if we expect Mary Poppins to show up.
Psyche is only available to help us
if we are available to be helped.
No one can be helped
against their will.
And we all have to grow up
against our will.
So.
Who is going to help us with that?
We have to answer that question
for ourselves,
and open the door
for Mary Poppins. - 06/27/2019— Red Barn and White Fence 2019-06 01 — Chester County, South Carolina, June 25, 2019, an iPhone Photo
We have to find our own way
to The Way,
and The Way
is always trying to find us.
The Way is always calling our name,
winking and waving to us,
flashing across our path
and disappearing around corners
and down rabbit holes,
looking back to see
if we are following.
And we are always saying,
“What? Me? No way!”
Or,
“Maybe later.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe next week.
Maybe next time.”
And going our own way,
which, of course,
is the way to The Way,
but we drag out the time
of our awakening,
and do not cooperate
with That Which Is
Always Working
In Our Behalf
To Wake Us Up
And Transform Our Life.
We could speed the time
of our awakening
simply by being aware
of how we are delaying things forever. - 06/27/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 09 Panorama — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo
There are antecedents
to most things,
but not reasons
for everything.
Looking for “reasons why”
is a waste of time
and life energy,
and opportunities
to ask better questions
and to respond
in more appropriate ways
to our present situation.
“This is just how things are.
What are you going to do about it?
How are you going to respond to it?
How will you dance with how things are
in this situation,
in these circumstances?”
Every “Why?” question
eventually–
and sooner rather than later–
leads to
“I don’t know.”
Or to
“That’s just the way it is.”
Here we are,
now what?
So what?
Now what?
Our response to the situation
is always the most important thing
about the situation,
preventing a really terrible mess
from escalating
into a complete global catastrophe.
Keep that in mind
the next time something happens. - 06/28/2019— Blackberries 2019-06 03 — The Vine Place, Van Wyck, South Carolina, June 27, 2019, an iPhone Photo.
Carl Jung thought
that individuals
finding and living their own life
are the hope of the world.
The trick is
that individuals
finding and living their own life
require a support community.
Have you ever tried finding
one of those?
AA is the only legitimate
support community
I know of,
and even AA tends
to disappear the individual
into the “We”
of the particular group
and the AA Doctrine.
We need support communities
in which the “I”
is not absorbed
into the “We.”
My support communities
have never been more
than the two or three
Jesus mentioned,
and even then,
we all didn’t meet together.
Three people take on a different hue
than two people,
and five people quickly
become a mob.
“Group think”
and “going along with the group”
is the easiest way I know
of not listening to ourselves.
Listening to–
and hearing–
ourselves
is the path
to life everlasting.
And our support groups
have to enable us to hear ourselves,
or they replace ourselves
with the group image
of how we ought to be.
Nobody knows how we ought to be,
not even ourselves–
and, thus, we have to listen to ourselves!
We have to know what *we* know
at our heart,
core,
center.
And, we cannot get there
by being told.
We get there by being heard.
We need support groups
that listen us
into being able to hear ourselves
saying what we need to hear.
We need a support group
that has nothing at stake in us–
that doesn’t need us at all.
Not to contribute our money,
not to sing in its choir
or teach its Sunday schools,
not to set up beforehand
or take down and cut out the lights
at the end…
We need Communities of Innocence–
innocent of motive,
innocent of agendas,
innocent of having to further
its own existence…
with no reason to exist
beyond hearing one another
into listening to ourselves.
We are quickly back
to finding two or three others
who can provide the mutual support
we all need
to find and be who we are.
And, they have to be
the right kind of people.
Which means *we*
have to be the right kind of person.
In order to be the right kind of people,
we have to be the right kind of person.
It all starts with us.
We start with solitude.
And trust ourselves
to find others like us
to support us
in being who we are,
by being who we are.
In so doing,
we become
the hope of the world. - 06/28/2019— Nursery Photos 2019-06 06 — Ferns on Black, Pikes Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina, June 22, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Seeing things as they are
changes everything.
It takes a lot of looking
to be able to see.
Illusion is seeing
that fails to see itself seeing.
Letting someone else tell us what to see
is the root of all that ails us.
It starts with seeing for ourselves–
the foundation of enlightenment.
Seeing for ourselves grounds us
and stabilizes us.
Seeing for ourselves orients us,
guides and directs us.
As we orient and stabilize ourselves,
we disorient and destabilize structures and relationships.
Nothing threatens our structures/institutions
like seeing our structures/institutions.
Nothing threatens our relationships
like seeing our relationships.
What is good for us is bad for our social structures.
What is good for our social structures is bad for us.
Working it out means walking two paths at the same time.
And it means bearing the pain of our own becoming.
When we ground ourselves in our own seeing,
we threaten the way things are.
We have to bear the reaction of our surroundings
to the shift in our way of being engaged with them.
It is a time of testing–
a time of trial and ordeal.
We respond by seeing with awareness and compassion,
and living out of our own ground and foundation.
Gradually, the world shifts back into relationship with us–
with a different orientation and direction.
Our place is to see it through.
See? - 06/29/2019— Sunflowers 2019-06 12 — Draper Wildlife Management Area, Brattonsville Road, McConnells, South Carolina, June 28, 2019
Seeing things as they are
is the ultimate revolution.
Seeing things changes things.
Nothing can be what it was
once it is seen
for what it is.
Seeing is knowing.
Knowing is transforming.
Knowing transforms the knower.
A transformed knower
transforms their life
and their world
and all worlds
impacted by their world.
Resistance is generated,
backlash is automatic,
repercussion is encountered,
hatred is unleashed
and the game is on!
This is how things are.
Seeing how things are
changes how things are.
But.
Not easily.
Not quickly.
Not smoothly.
Not without disruption,
disorder
and chaos.
Things are as they are
because someone is benefiting
from things being that way–
and will do whatever it takes
to keep them that way,
including not-seeing
what they are doing.
Seers create not-seers by seeing.
So, don’t be surprised
if people take issue
with you for seeing,
and ask you to leave town,
or crucify you
for being a trouble-maker,
a rabble-rouser,
a blasphemer,
a heretic,
a fiend
and the anti-Christ.
Christ was a lot of people’s idea
of the anti-Christ.
That’s a potential side-effect
of seeing things as they are,
and keeps people from looking
at what’s there. - 06/29/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 10 Panorama — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo.
Seeing is knowing.
Knowing is doing.
Doing is becoming/being.
Being is seeing…
This is the process
of enlightenment.
Seeing is action
in the field of action,
which leads to reflection
which leads to seeing
which enlarges,
expands,
deepens,
being.
We become who we are
by seeing what’s what,
which includes what is to be done in response,
and doing it.
We do not become who we are
by thinking about it,
or by believing anything.
See. Know. Do. Be/Become.
If we do not act
upon what we know
needs to be done,
we forsake our calling,
betray ourselves,
and are all people
most to be pitied.
The most time spent
on the spiritual journey/quest
is in the service
of working up our courage
to do what needs us to do it.
If we do it,
that is time well-spent. - 06/29/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 06 — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo.
What is important changes over time,
but.
Always reflects what is important
at the bottom of it all
in each time and place of our living.
James Joyce (In *A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man*)
said: “Pity is the feeling which arrests the mind
in the presence
of whatsoever is grave and constant
in human sufferings
and unites it with the human sufferer.
Terror is the feeling which arrests the mind
in the presence
of whatsoever is grave and constant
in human sufferings
and unites it with the secret cause.”
The realities of “whatsoever is grave and constant
in human sufferings”
(Which I take to be the experience
of being alive as a human being),
and “the secret cause,”
are a part of every moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment–
and are quietly revealed to us
over the full course of our life,
transforming what we take to be important
at any point in our life.
What is important
is that we serve–
live aligned with,
and in accord with–
“the grave and constant”
and “the secret cause.”
Gaining a sense of,
a feel for,
what those things are
is a part of The Way,
The Path,
from the beginning,
and is described for us
by Aeschylus:
“He who learns must suffer.
And even in our sleep
pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom to us
by the awful grace of God.” - 06/29/2019— Resources for The Journey/Quest
In addition to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s
YouTube videos (The shortest ones first),
Ann Weiser Cornell offers
a wealth of sources focused on, well,
Focusing.
Focusing was developed by Gene Gendlin
of the University of Chicago in the 1970’s and 80’s.
Ann Weiser Cornell was one of his students,
and has developed her own approach to Gendlin’s methods.
If you do an internet search for her, you will have
a number of sites to peruse.
She offers free PDF downloads on one site, which
are excerpts from her writings and teaching.
Focusing is about listening to your body–
particularly attending your body when it responds
to something that strikes a cord, catches your eye,
calls your name, resonates with you, piques your interest, or otherwise gets your attention.
Where there is rapport, there is likely to be something
you can use for The Journey/Quest. - 06/30/2019— Neely’s Creek ARP Church, Rock Hill, South Carolina, June 28, 2019, an iPhone Photo
By now, we all ought to know
the questions to ask.
If we aren’t asking them,
there’s the reason
things are as they are
in our life.
We find the way forward
by asking all the questions
that beg to be asked
in each situation
as it arises
all our life long. - 06/30/2019— There should be a lot of people
who know more than we do
about finding our life
and living it,
who could serve as guides
and mentors to us
all along The Way.
But.
“They are few and far between,”
as the old saying goes.
They should be everywhere.
I know of Jon Kabat-Zinn
(His YouTube videos are free)’
and Ann Weiser Cornell
(She offers free PDF downloads
from her web site).
Some Yoga teachers
and acupuncturists
qualify.
Every Jungian Analyst is a candidate
(That’s what Jungian Analysts do best!)
What should come naturally
to everyone,
and what every parent
and social institution
should pass along
to each generation,
has been lost to most of us,
and has to be sought out
as another part of the process
of seeking our life
and the face that was ours
before we were born. - 07/01/2019— Cypress Swamp 2019-06-04 Panorama — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Cuddo Unit, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019
In finding our life
and living it,
we become servants
of something greater
than we are,
and are removed/delivered
from the daily struggle
for the advantage,
the gains,
the benefits,
the profits
and the perks–
and simply enjoy
the grace
of being able
to do our work
and step back.
We still have to pay the bills,
but.
We no longer have
to have it made.
We have it made.
Having it made has nothing to do
with having more than enough
to pay the bills,
and everything to do
with knowing what
we are paying the bills to do.
Striving to be better off,
seeking to exploit our prospects
while protecting our investments,
and avoiding any losses,
becoming proficient
in the art of thrust and parry,
maintaining constant vigil
and courting continual favors…
are replaced
with seeing what is happening
and knowing what to do in response
in light of the true good
of the whole
in every situation
and all circumstances,
with the genius,
gifts,
daemon
that are ours to employ
in the work of being who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are
for as long as we are
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
It is a different way of living,
and flows from the heart
of being alive.
May it be so
with us all! - 07/02/2019— Veins 2019-06 01 — Nursery Photos, Lowe’s Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina, June 30, 2019, an iPhone Photo.
I like,
admire,
am attracted to,
and impressed by
competence combined with confidence.
There are people who own
certain aspects of life,
and know it,
without fanfare–
who are good at
what they do,
and do it well–
gracing everyone
with their offerings
and righting
their three square feet
of the world.
They do their work
and step back,
letting nature
take its course.
There is a lot
they can’t do at all.
You might not want them
singing at your wedding,
for instance,
unless they own singing
at weddings,
and then,
you wouldn’t want
anyone else.
They don’t allow
what they can’t do
interfere with what they can do.
They know their place,
and laugh at the idea
of a Renaissance Man or Woman
with nothing they don’t know
or can’t do,
and nothing left to learn
or explore.
“They have their life,
and I have mine,”
they say,
“and we all need to do
what we can.” - 07/02/2019— July Sky 2019-07 01 Panorama — Union County, North Carolina, July 2, 2019
When those who make the law,
and those who enforce the law,
feel as though they don’t have to obey the law,
the center is failing to hold
and the foundations are cracking.
When that happens,
we have to be still and quiet,
reaffirm our own foundation,
find our own center,
and live out of our connection with both.
We have to be grounded
in our own integrity,
balanced by our own
sense of right and wrong,
responsibility,
duty
and obligation.
Our identity
sees us through
the chaos
of the heaving waves
on the wine-dark sea.
The blind poet Homer,
who knew something
about foundations
and balance,
and sanity,
had Odysseus say,
“I will stay with it and endure
through suffering hardship /
and once the heaving sea
has shaken my raft to pieces,
then I will swim.”
That is what knowing
your own identity,
being grounded on your own foundation,
and living out of your own center
will do for you.
Homer knew that,
and has passed it on to us.
It is up to us to remember it,
so that when “the heaving sea
has shaken (our) raft to pieces,”
we will do what needs to be done
by being who we are
no matter what. - 07/03/2019— Queen Anne’s Lace 2019-07 01 Panorama — Union County, North Carolina, July 2, 2019, an iPhone photo
Our individuality flows from our identity
and our identity is rooted in our ability
to say “This is me, and that is not me.”
“This attracts me, that repels me.”
“This interests me, that disinterests me.”
“This is where I belong,
and that is where I have no business being.”
We know who we are,
and who we are not.
Which leaves us with
knowing what we know.
How many of us are devoted
to knowing what we know,
and living out of that knowledge?
When we fail to honor the “I,”
refuse to heed the guidance
of The One Who Knows,
allow ourselves to be led
about by the whims
and interests of someone else,
where does that leave “us”?
Disconnected,
disoriented,
adrift,
aimless,
lost,
at the mercy
of events and circumstances,
waiting for someone
to tell us what to do,
what to think,
believe,
see,
hear…
What do “we” say?
What do “we” think?
What do “we” feel?
What do “we” see?
What do “we” hear?
What do “we” believe?
What do “we” know?
It starts with trusting ourselves
to know what we know.
Faith in ourselves,
in our judgment
and in our choices,
is fundamental,
foundational–
the grounding element
in being able
to find the way to The Way,
through the situations
and circumstances
of our life.
And, no one can give that to us.
We develop it on our own,
within the nurturing presence
of the right kind of others.
The wrong kind of others
are a blight upon the world. - 07/03/2019— Lake Andrew Jackson 2019-07 02 Panorama, Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina, July 2, 2019
“What’s the meaning of life?” is not the question.
“What does your life mean to you?” is the question.
In the grip of a meaningful urgency,
we can handle any set of circumstances.
Without a meaningful relationship
with anyone or anything,
we lose all sense of purpose,
and are undone by hangnails
and hot weather.
What does your life mean to you?
How we answer that question
tells the tale. - 07/03/2019— Blackberries 2019-06 04 — The Vine Place, Van Wyck, South Carolina, June 26, 2019
The contradictions which come upon us
out of nowhere,
giving us no time
to adjust ourselves
to the inescapable,
irreconcilable,
and mutually exclusive
nature of their alternatives.
force us to choose
an unchooseable choice–
and to spend the rest of our life
beneath the weight
of their burden.
We are going to do something
in response,
and it is going to be wrong,
and we are going
to have to live with that.
How well we do that–
how well we come to terms
with the unwinnable character
of the circumstances defining
all of our transition points(
(And, by that very fact,
creating the transition
from one attitude/orientation to another)–
determines how well we adjust
to life itself–
to the way things are–
and how well we live our life,
given the fact
that we do not get
to choose our choices,
and must make the best
of things as they come to us.
If we can square ourselves up with that,
we have it made,
as much as one can have it made,
given what faces us
when we step forth from the womb! - 07/04/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 14 — Water Moccasin, Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo.
Order is simply the rearrangement of chaos.
That’s where we come in.
We have the eye
to see things as they are,
and to see things as they need to be.
The problem is
that we also have the eye
to see things as we wish they were.
This is the story of the Garden of Eden.
It is the story of two people,
representing the species,
standing before how things need to be
and how they wish they were,
and going with how they wish they were.
We too often fail to exercise the discipline
to do things as they need us to do them
in favor of exploiting them
in light of our own idea
of how they ought to be–
generally with our personal gain in mind.
We bring order out of chaos,
but in the service of what?
How far from
viciousness,
hatred,
rage,
cruelty
and greed
do we live?
Given the power we crave,
who is safe in our company?
And who better run for their life?
With us in charge,
whose idea of the way things ought to be
is implemented?
Who listens beyond
“I want that to be like this right now!”?
Who cultivates stillness,
nurtures silence,
and lives to serve what emerges
spontaneously,
extemporaneously,
unprompted
and unbidden,
of its own accord
from the quiet source
of life and being?
Whose motive for living
is ever actually,
“Thy will, not mine, be done!”?
With no concept whatsoever of the “Thy”?
The “Thy” whose will we “do”
is always some god whose will
we are striving to bend
to serve our idea of our own good,
with prayers and votive offerings
to earn merit
and get what we want.
Just to sit still,
be quiet,
and serve what emerges–
without knowing why,
and where it’s going,
and what good it will do–
is absurd beyond measure,
and we are much too savvy for that.
Instead of order,
we stir the chaos,
and wonder what we have to do
to get things to go our way. - 07/04/2019— Mormon Row 2011-06 02 HDR — Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming, June 23, 2011
We are artists all,
arranging the elements in each scene
(That would be the circumstances
in each situation as it arises)
according to our felt-sense of what is right
within the limitations of what is fitting and proper
for the terms and conditions
of the moment at hand.
Negotiation and compromise, Kid,
negotiation and compromise.
And, the necessary symmetry,
balance,
harmony,
consonance,
resonance,
and accord
can be demolished in a flash
by imposing our will for the scene
upon the scene–
or our father’s will,
or our mother’s will,
or the will of Those Who Know Best…
We can destroy
easier than we can create.
We can live to serve discord,
dissonance,
cacophony,
dichotomy,
hostility,
antagonism
and incongruity
easier than we can be servants of peace
and stewards of the common good.
What is our motive
for doing what we do?
What are we trying to achieve?
Whose good is served
by the good we call good?
Whose good is reduced,
decimated,
obliterated by the good we call good?
How good is the good we call good?
In light of what do we live?
Who/what guides our boat
on its path through the sea?
All of this becomes clear in the silence.
Sit still.
Be quiet.
See what emerges.
Or, what causes you
to break off the engagement
with the source
of life, and light and being within.
It is all grist for the mill.
And we are milling ourselves
over the full course of our life.
“We are the sculptor,
and we are the stone”
(Alexis Carrel).
Artists or Anarchists?
What say we all? - 07/04/2019— Grand Prismatic Spring 2011-06 03 Panorama — Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, June, 2011
Knowing who we are
and what matters most to us,
and what is ours to do
is essential knowing.
Everything else falls into place
around that.
Those things constitute our bedrock.
Solidly grounded
in who we are,
what matters most
and what is ours to do–
so that nothing
and no one
can knock us off that foundation–
positions us
to withstand any situation
and all circumstances
that come upon us
in our life.
We secure the connection
through the silence
of mindful awareness,
so that returning to the silence
is returning to ourselves
and the truth of who we are,
what matters most
and what is ours to do,
in every situation
and all circumstances.
Return to the silence
and be who you are–
the response to all of your trials and ordeals
every day. - 07/05/2019— Blueberries 2019-06 06 — The Vine Place, Van Wyck, South Carolina, June 30, 2016, an iPhone Photo
Unconditional love is a toxic concept,
setting us up for abuse and neglect,
and an endless string of accusations
on the order of,
“If you loved me, you would/wouldn’t…
“I thought you loved me!
“I knew you didn’t love me!”
“You said you loved me!”
Love is conditional from the start.
It is conditional on seeing and being seen.
The idea that “love is blind”
has no idea of what love entails.
It entails seeing what you look at,
and being capable of being seen
for who you are.
There is no intimacy
without vulnerability.
There is no vulnerability
without transparency–
which is grounded upon
self-transparency,
self-reflection,
self-acceptance,
self-love,
self-confidence…
We cannot love and be loved
without first loving ourselves.
We spend our lives
looking for someone to love us,
but.
We have to go first.
Hoping someone else
will be able to do
what we are incapable of doing
is beyond reasonable and customary.
There is no kidding ourselves
in love and loving and being loved–
and no kidding the other person.
“Kidding” is another word for “lying.”
There is no lying in love.
Instead of spending our time
looking for love,
we would be better served
spending our time
developing lovable attributes.
Honesty.
Dependability.
Compassion.
Sensitivity.
Empathy.
Integrity (Being who we say we are),
Patience.
Good Faith.
Generosity.
Grace.
Awareness.
Kindness.
Etc.
We should be what we seek.
And allow things
to fall into place
around that.
And toss the idea
of unconditional love
into the bin
with delusion,
illusion
self-deception
and wishful thinking. - 07/05/2019— Nursery Photos 2019-06 05 — Pike’s Nursery, Charlotte, North Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo.
We all know what to do.
Doing it is not a matter
of knowing something we don’t know.
We could start with diet and exercise.
Then, there is
alcohol,
tobacco,
sugar
and salt.
The list is really long.
Mindful awareness,
meditation,
silence,
solitude…
Whose side are we on?
Who are we kidding?
Where would we be
if it weren’t for
lethargy
and self-deception? - 07/05/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 05 Panorama — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019
Our life is a collection
of people, events and circumstances.
How we deal with it
moment-by-moment-by-moment
makes all the difference.
I recommend dealing with it
mindfully,
compassionately,
non-judgmentally.
When the dog throws up on the carpet,
clean it up
without emotional involvement.
Recognize how you feel about it
on every level,
and add that
to the collection
of realizations
carried in your awareness–
without allowing any of it
to spill over
into the situation.
Your awareness has it.
You are conscious
of how you feel.
Clean it up
and take care of the dog
the way the dog needs
to be taken care of.
When you spill the milk,
or forget to buy it,
same process.
Note it.
Feel it.
Note your feelings.
Hold them in your awareness
and clean up the milk,
or go buy some
at your earliest opportunity.
Eat dry cereal,
or with yogurt and apple juice.
That’s dealing with it,
moment-by-moment-by-moment. - 07/06/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 12 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone photo.
*The Swan Lake Iris Gardens is home to all eight known species of swan and a large variety of Japanese Iris. It was a gift to the city of Sumter by Hamilton Carr Bland, who developed the Gardens, beginning in 1927, as a private sanctuary and fishing pond–with the stipulation that the Gardens remain open to the public free of charge.*
We are here to feed our soul,
to follow our heart,
and to offer our gifts to the moment
by responding to each situation as it arises
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
and in light of,
and service to,
the true good of all concerned.
In this work,
grace and compassion
lead the way.
And we give equal value
to our needs
and the needs of others.
Living well is simple enough
for a child to do it,
and for an old person to keep doing it.
Greed,
fear,
resentment,
jealousy,
selfishness,
laziness
and mindlessness
wreck the process
and destroy the framework
of life together–
and we owe it to ourselves,
and to each other,
to live out of the center
of silence and stillness,
with awareness
reflection,
and self-transparency
leading to realization,
direction,
and self-correction
all along the way. - 07/06/2019 — Field Corn 2019-07 01 — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells, South Carolina, July 6, 2019, an iPhone photo.
We cannot tell anyone anything
they are not prepared to hear.
Or, better,
we can tell them
but their eyes won’t light up.
Yet, in telling them
before they can hear it,
we prepare the way
for them to hear it,
“in the fullness of time.”
So, say whatever you have to say,
and let those who can hear it,
hear it.
And trust the rest to hear it
when the time is right.
Or, as Lao Tzu, would say,
“Do your work and step back.
And let nature take its course.” - 07/07/2019— Sunflowers 2019-07 06 Panorama — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells, South Carolina, July 6, 2019, an iPhone photo.
We are born
with the tools/weapons
we need
for living well
the life that is ours to live.
If we insist on a different life,
we will have to find different tools/weapons.
The tools/weapons
that are ours from the start
are:
Looking.
Listening.
Seeing.
Hearing.
Asking/inquiring.
Seeking.
Knocking.
Searching.
Feeling.
Sensing.
Intuiting.
Trusting the guides and guardians
that are with us
every step of the way.
And all those like these.
Not what we want our tools/weapons to be.
We want invincibility.
Invulnerability.
Indestructibility.
Immunity.
We want to be indomitable.
Unassailable.
Almighty.
All Powerful.
Unstoppable.
And we want the tools and weapons
that will give us what we want.
We have what we need, but.
We don’t want what we need.
And here we are. - 07/07/2019 — Swan Lake 2019-07 07 — Black (Australian) Swan, Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019
Silence and solitude
are the solutions
to all of our problems today
and every day.
And.
Silence and solitude
are the source
of all of our problems today
and every day.
We create our problems
because we cannot bear
the weight of silence and solitude.
Silence and solitude
bring to mind
all of the things
we hate and fear
about our life–
and we have to do something fast
to relieve ourselves
of the burden of being us.
Enter the problems
which add to the burden of being us.
It is such a wonderful conundrum!
The solution to our problems
is the source of our problems.
No.
Not really.
The source of our problems
is our inability to bear the pain
the solution to our problems
brings to mind.
The source of our problems
is our desire to escape,
avoid,
deny
what must be faced,
and felt,
and borne forever.
We cannot escape who we are.
We can only be who we are–
by embracing with compassion
and awareness
who we also are.
When the silence brings us
something we do not want to acknowledge,
we open the door,
and say,
“Come in, come in,
I’ve been waiting for you to show up.
It’s time I made my peace with you”
(After Rumi’s “The Guest House”).
Life begins
when we begin to bear the pain
of what our life has been–
and not been.
This is the cross Jesus was talking about
when he said,
“If you want to be with me,
you have to pick up your cross daily,
and come along for the journey.”
There is no living without dying.
No being alive without
doing what is hard beyond imagining.
The source of our pain
is the solution to our pain.
And it is never too late
to start being alive. - 07/08/2019— Sunflowers 2019-07 11 Panorama — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells, South Carolina, June 6, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Lao Tzu said, “Do your work
and step back.
Let nature take its course.”
Native Americans were known to say,
“It’s a good day to die.”
They are saying the same thing.
It is a good day to die
because we have done our work
through all the days
previous to this one,
and we can step back
and let nature take its course.
Doing our work–
the work that is ours to do–
the work that no one but us can do–
every day
makes any day
a good day to die.
If we have never done anything
that somebody didn’t tell us to do,
we have the time left for living
to start doing it.
There is nothing behond
finding our work and doing it–
finding our life and living it–
to have or to do.
If we haven’t done it up to this point,
today is a good day to begin.
It is a good day to be alive
at last. - 07/08/2019— Path to the Sunflower Field 2019-07 02 — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells, South Carolina, June 6, 2019, an iPhone Photo
We aren’t going anywhere.
Where do we think we are going?
What makes us think we are going anywhere?
Charles Schultz nailed it.
In the comic strip *Peanuts,*
he had Snoopy say,
“We had dreams of escape
at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm,
but once you are over the fence,
you are still in the world.”
So, sit down,
be still,
and quiet.
Square yourself up with who you are
and what is yours to do–
with what makes your little heart sing
and your little toes dance–
and do that right here,
right now.
And go on doing it,
being who you are
to the best of your ability
day in and day out,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
in every situation as it arises,
no matter what the circumstances are,
for as long as life lasts.
Be here, now.
Do your thing.
And let nature take its course. - 07/08/2019— Hay in the Field 2019-07 01 Panorama — Rembert, South Carolina, June 5, 2019
There is looking until we see,
listening until we hear,
knowing what we know
and living in light of it.
Moment-by-moment-by-moment.
That’s all there is to it.
If you are looking for more than that,
go get in the gold line
along with everyone else.
And, good luck with that. - 07/08/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 01 Panorama — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019
Ah, but.
If it were only so simple,
finding our life and living it.
Finding our work and doing it.
Finding our inner guides and guardians
and serving them
with fealty and devotion
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
Negotiation and compromise, Kid,
Negotiation and compromise!
What a slippery slope this is!
It is a dangerous path!
Like a razor’s edge!
The way before us is replete
with contradiction,
complexity,
complication,
polarity,
incompatibility,
dichotomy…
We are damned if we do
and damned if we don’t.
How can we proceed along this way?
Only by being damned and done with it!
We choose the unchooseable choice–
again and again.
We may be able to live our own life, but.
Living our own life while paying the bills
is the best trick in the Book of Tricks.
Living our own life,
doing our own work,
while being married with children
is out of the question.
Don’t be ridiculous.
The Orientals from long ago
recognized the absurdity
of living our own life,
while paying the bills,
and raising our children,
and having a family
and meting our social obligations and duties.
And reserved living our own life
for retirement and old age.
That was the time for spiritual practice
and devotion to the inward obligations and duties,
fulfillment and peace.
Before retirement
we practice awareness,
and work in small gestures
to our inner guides and guardians–
acknowledging as we are able
the source
and the bedrock
of our life and being, but.
We walk two paths at the same time
by keeping our eye always on the other path
while treading the one we are on,
and not kidding ourselves
about the difficulty
of managing two lives
with one body.
Negotiation and compromise, Kid,
Negotiation and compromise! - 07/08/2019— Sunflowers 2019-07 07 — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells South Carolina, July 6, 2019, an iPhone Photo.
The dialectic within which we live out our life
is between what Joseph Campbell called
the Primary Mask
and the Antithetical Mask.
The Primary Mask is the one
family, society and culture hand us
when we are born,
and comprises all of the roles
we are expected to play
in the first half of life–
paying the bills,
establishing our career,
having a family, etc.
The Antithetical Mask
is “the face that was ours before we were born.”
It is who we are built to be.
It is what makes our little heart sing
and our little toes dance.
It is who we are when no one else is around,
and we have complete liberty
to be and do exactly whatever arises within
and calls us into its service.
These are the roles innate to each of us,
which we are called to bring out
in the second half of life
when the requirements imposed on the first half
can be relaxed,
or set aside.
The problem is there is no clearly marked
demarcation point
between the first and second halves of life.
No one tells us,
“You are now free to live your own life.”
We have to decide for ourselves
how much for family, society, culture
and how much for us,
and when we are to begin
following the beat of our own heart
in the way we live our life.
How well we work things out
tells the tale. - 07/08/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 04 Panorama — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone photo
A Jungian Analyst would be a great help/guide/mentor
in learning the language of the soul
and reading the signals coming from your Body-Mind
to lead you along the path
of your own unfolding.
Trial-and-error will get you on the path,
and get you back on the path,
and get you back on the path,
but why not help yourself
in every way you can?
We have less time to live
than when we started.
The sooner we start collaborating
with That Which Knows within,
the more fully we will be able
to express/discover ourselves
in the time left for living.
Jungian Analysts are short cuts
to self-realization,
or “Individuation,” as they like to say.
And, while we are on the subject
of Jungian Analysts,
I’ll say that it is my vision of the future
of enlightenment
for 3 to 5,
or 5 to 7 like-minded people
coming together to form
a Community of Innocence,
with each one agreeing
to work with a Jungian Analyst individually–
maybe the same Analyst,
maybe different Analysts–
and meeting together to share their experience
and provide encouragement
for the work of being who they are
where they are,
when they are,
helping one another stay on the path
and keep to the way. - 07/09/2019— Igottago-Imgoing-Imgone 2012-12 01 — Charlotte, NC, December, 2012, an iPhone photo.
Self-reflection,
self-examination,
self-realization,
self-confidence,
self-transparency,
self-regulation,
self-discipline,
self-correction,
self-guidance,
self-trust,
self-direction,
self-acceptance,
self-protection,
self-defense,
self-help,
self-consolation,
self-development,
self-expression,
self-awareness,
self-admiration,
self-love…
We know what we need
and what we don’t need.
We know what is good for us
and what is not good for us.
We know what is right for us
and what is not right for us.
We are perfectly capable
of caring for ourselves,
of looking after ourselves,
of looking out for ourselves,
of finding our own way
to the way
that is our way
of living
our life.
How often do we enter the silence,
sit quietly,
receiving what meets us there,
with compassion
and without judgment,
or emotional reaction,
knowing what we know,
reflecting on what we know,
listening to what is speaking to us,
holding everything in our awareness,
asking the questions
that beg to be asked,
saying the things
that cry out to be said,
seeing what emerges?
Imagine the source
of infinite knowledge and wisdom
as being contained
in a black bowling ball,
or a rock,
or a piece of wood,
or anything that would serve
to connect you
with your own knowledge and wisdom.
Sit quietly in the presence
of your imagined source
of knowledge and wisdom,
and ask it anything,
or tell it anything,
and wait for its response
to come to you in reply.
Engage in a probing dialogue,
as you might with Yoda
or Obi-wan Kenobi,
or the Delphic Oracle,
talking,
listening,
wondering,
inquiring…
And see where it goes. - 07/09/2019— July Sky 2019-07 04 Panorama — Indian Land, South Carolina, July 7, 2019, an iPhone photo
If I were going to a costume party,
I would go as an animal,
not any of the varieties of human beings,
or of the superheros,
but a mammal,
because all animals are just what they are,
and I don’t like to swim,
or fly,
or live in the ground,
and of the mammals,
a raccoon seems to fit my personality.
They wear a mask
as if to say,
“There is more to me
than meets the eye,”
and they are clever,
and well-adapted to doing
whatever the situation requires,
and don’t appear
to take themselves too seriously.
And, they are always up to something.
If I were to have a totem animal,
of my own choosing,
it would be a raccoon.
What would yours be? - 07/10/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 11 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone photo
We can create moods
by the things we choose
to think about,
and the things we choose
to do.
We can change our mood
by thinking and doing differently,
consciously,
intentionally.
There are places,
and odors,
and sounds,
and sights
that foster moods,
that trigger moods,
that immerse us in moods,
that drown us in moods…
We have to know what they are
and avoid them when possible,
and, when impossible,
we have to put their impact
in our awareness,
and counter-act them
by grounding ourselves
in the here and now
through our breathing
and by attending the moment
with deliberate focus
and total presence.
Our moods can own us,
and we can own them back,
by sealing them off in our awareness,
and shutting them out of our life. - 07/10/2019— July Sky Panorama 2019-07 05 — Union County, North Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Taking stock,
that is,
taking all things into account,
at this point in my life,
my assets outweigh my liabilities.
As I get older,
the scales will begin to balance,
and then to tip toward the liabilities,
and then my assets
will increasingly disappear
until it’s time to go.
I am very much aware of the scale,
and very much aware of the implications,
and very much aware of living
with life in mind
while I can.
Carl Jung spent a lot of time
reflecting on, what he called, “individuation,”
becoming the individual
we are created with the potential of being.
Life, for him, was the arena
of our becoming who we are–
who we are capable of being.
For me, “really living,”
means really doing the things
that express who I am,
that reveal who I am,
that make me known to me
and to all who know me.
That is what we do with the last half of life,
if we are being true to ourselves
and aware of our obligation and responsibilities
to the potential
we steward
and carry within.
May we all live
so as to be alive
in the time left for living! - 07/10/2019— Ocracoke Lighthouse 2012-10 02 — Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, October 26, 2012
We come from the stillness,
and to the stillness we shall return.
We come from the silence,
and to the silence we shall return.
It is called the stillness,
yet it is moving with the rhythm of life.
It is called the silence,
yet its heart beats in time
with the music of the spheres,
and the AUM of life and being
reverberates through the endless Now of then.
And, if this sounds nonsensical,
mindless
and meaningless
to you,
you might try spending some time
with the stillness,
with the silence,
with the AUM,
with the Now–
and see where that leads. - 07/11/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 09 — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone photo
One person who is grounded
upon who they are,
and right about
what matters most,
can make all the difference
in every situation that arises.
Everybody says
they want to make a difference–
without understanding
that’s all it takes. - 07/11/2019— Lake Andrew Jackson 2019-06 01 — Andrew Jackson State Park, Lancaster County, South Carolina, June 30, 2019
The source of all good things
is the unknown stillness/silence
from which everything emerges/arises/appears
on its own
“out of the blue.”
Creators do not create so much as
look/listen
see/hear.
Creators create out of an interior awareness
that perceives the value
in attending the voice within,
and the sense of a compelling urgency
recognizing “This, right here, right now is IT!
Do what must be done about it!” - 07/11/2019— Swan Lake 2019-07 03 Panorama — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone photo
Self-deception is the original sin.
It is the only sin.
It is the Unforgivable Sin.
The life-shattering realization is
not that we are not who we say we are,
but that we are not who we think we are.
This is the great comeuppance
from which we arise
like some Phoenix out of its own ashes
to step with humility and self-effacement
toward an uncertain future
which we find our way to
by trusting ourselves
to the grace that brought us here
to this place
of believing there is more to us
than meets the eye,
and seeking to discover
who that might be
in the time left for living.
Who are we?
That is the question we live to discover
through compassionate,
non-judgmental
mindful
awareness
observing our actions,
wondering
in light of what do we live,
toward what do we live,
and deciding if that is the best we can do–
or if we might find a better grounding foundation
and serve that with fealty
and liege loyalty
all our life long. - 07/12/2019— July Sky 2019-07 06 — Union County, North Carolina, July 2, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Sit still.
Be quiet.
Wait for the way to emerge.
Listen in the stillness.
Watch in the silence.
Wait for the way to become apparent.
Like a white rabbit
winking at you from across the road
and disappearing behind the congestion
of rush hour traffic. - 07/13/2019— Cypress Swamp Panorama 2019-07 02 Panorama — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Cuddo Unit, Wildlife Drive, Summerton, South Carolina, July 12, 2019
“Keep looking until you see,”
is the best advice
I’ve ever had.
Seeing leads to a certain future,
not-seeing leads to a different future.
Both futures ask hard things of us, but.
Seeing is life.
Not-seeing is death.
Between the two,
choose life–
and live to be alive
in the time left for living!
Keep looking until you see–
and ask all of the questions
that beg to be asked
in each situation as it arises
all your life long. - 07/13/2019— Anhinga 2019-06 01 — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Cuddo Unit, Wildlife Drive, Summerton, South Carolina, June 14, 2019
Consciousness–
awareness–
realization–
enlightenment–
seeing what we look at–
knowing what’s what–
and what it implies–
what it means–
what is happening–
what needs to be done about it–
so that we might do it–
is the whole point.
It is important
because it furthers
the whole show.
There is an evolutionary advantage
to being conscious–
but, beyond that,
beyond improving our survive-ability,
consciousness transforms the nature
of the natural world.
Nature can only go so far
without becoming/being conscious,
and needs conscious awareness of itself
in order to transform itself,
and take evolution beyond
the same-old-same-old.
In order for evolution to be evolutionary,
nature evolved into consciousness
so that those who are conscious
might–by being conscious–
create new expressions of life
beyond anything that has been,
or could be,
without consciousness.
Consciousness is its own reason for being.
By being conscious,
we produce more than can be imagined,
or thought.
We live our way toward what,
we do not know,
by being conscious of our choices
and choosing consciously
what seems to draw us,
attract us,
resonate with us–
without understanding why it should.
We “realize” ourselves in this way.
We become who we are–
in light of all things considered,
negotiating and compromising
with our circumstances–
we express ourselves,
we unfold
and reach toward our innate potential
by growing toward that which calls us forth.
Sunflowers do the same thing.
Every living thing aspires to live toward
that which brings it forth.
Consciousness enables us to better become
who we are
by knowingly seeking and serving
that which brings us forth.
And it is all such an individual matter.
What works to bring me forth
will not be the same thing
that works to bring you forth.
All sunflowers are the same over time.
Lions can only do what lions do.
Human beings can follow different routes
to self-realization,
and expand the meaning–
and the possibilities–
of being human thereby.
So, wake up!
Wake up!
Wake up!
Pay Attention!
Be Aware!
The future of the species requires us
to see and know we are seeing–
and to do what must be done in response! - 07/13/2019— Sunflowers 2019-07 09 — Draper Wildlife Management Area, McConnells, South Carolina, July 06, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Everything about us is geared to bringing us forth.
We live to be who we are capable of being.
The focus of our entire invisible world
is assisting,
enabling,
abetting
us in the process of our own development,
self-expression,
self-realization
in the time we have available to us,
in response to,
and in spite of,
the circumstances within which we live.
Our worst decisions/choices
work to wake us up to the work of becoming who we are,
just as our best decisions/choices do–
except that our worst ones take more time
to bring us back to the path
and put us back on track,
and that is less time we have overall to work with,
and time is the crucial element
limiting our growth into who we may yet be.
It is to our advantage
to cooperate with that which is calling our name.
To do that,
we have to learn to listen,
intuit,
sense,
feel,
reflect,
examine
and realize
how our invisible, unconscious, side
is striving to get our attention
and keep us on the way to being/becoming
who we have the potential of being.
Our dreams are daily reports
of how it is with us in our life
and how we need to self-correct
and adjust our aims and methods
to better be ourselves.
Information comes at us from all sides,
begging to be seen, heard, appraised, interpreted, applied.
How receptive we are to the guidance
that is being offered
tells the tale. - 07/13/2019— The House and the Barn 2019-07 01 — Lancaster County, South Carolina, July 10, 2019
What does what’s happening have to do
with who we are,
with who we show ourselves to be?
What do our circumstances have to do
with who we are,
with who we show ourselves to be?
Why don’t we spend more time
living in light of what is truly important:
Being who we are!
Living in ways which express and make plain
who we are!
We try to shape ourselves in ways
we hope
will result in rewards
and glory beyond measure.
We dismiss ourselves
in hopes of bending events in our favor.
We sacrifice our virgin daughters
and our firstborn sons
to secure the benefits,
gain the advantage,
earn merit
and have it made.
As though having it made is more important
than ourselves,
our daughters
and our sons!
We have lost our minds,
and our foundation,
and are awash in nonsense
and absurdity.
We have to ground ourselves
in our own center,
and live in ways that declare
what is truly valuable
and the only thing
that can right the world
and put things in accord with the Tao
of life and being.
Living out of our own center
is the missing element
in a world searching for purpose
and direction,
grace
and hope.
Put that in place,
and everything else
falls into place around it. - 07/13/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 00 — Water Moccasin, Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019
How we live in the present
strongly influences
what happens in our future.
If you want to be a photographer,
you better be taking pictures.
If you want to be a writer,
you better be writing–
and reading.
Trying to do it like the people
you admire do it.
Whether photographs,
or poems,
or prose,
copying the styles
of your idols
improves your chances
of becoming someone else’s idol,
or at least,
successful in the field.
But.
Don’t just be talking
about being a photographer
or a writer.
That’s one thing photographers
and writers don’t do much of.
Jesus never talked about
being Jesus,
or Moses,
or King David.
Jesus never talked about
being anyone other than himself.
Jesus did Jesus the way he would do Jesus.
You do you the way you would do you.
How well you do that in your present,
sets you up for doing it very well in your future.
Practice being you.
Knock their eyes out. - 07/14/2019— Day Lily 2019-06 03 — Indian Land, South Carolina, June 2, 2019
The purpose/function of Psyche/Soul in our life
is to enable our development
as fully-functioning human beings.
Our unconscious is present
to set us upon the path
that is our path
and help us remain there
throughout our life.
The path is that of our own unfolding,
coming forth,
for the good of each other
and the entire world.
Carl Jung thought that “individuation is the process
by which every living thing becomes itself–
what it was designed to be by the unique configuration
of its inherited qualities and capabilities
from the very beginning.”
We are here to be the self
we are capable of being.
And have the internal equipment
we need
for the task of finding our life
and living it.
All it takes
is the commitment
to collaborate with our unconscious
in constructing the life
that only we can live.
This is the adventure
of being alive. - 07/14/2019— Wildlife Drive 2019-07 01 Panorama, Cuddo Unit, Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Summerton, South Carolina, July 12, 2019, an iPhone Photo
I once asked a physician friend
how he bore the stress
of a steady flow of people
who had no grip on their life.
He laughed and said,
“If they ever get a grip on their life,
I’ll be out of a job!
For me, it’s job security!”
I joined in the laughter,
and said, “It’s the same for me!”
(I was a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA
for 40.5 years)
Getting a grip on our life
isn’t about being in command and control
of our life,
ordering it around,
making sure it does exactly
what we want it to do
when we want it done.
It is about stepping aside
and allowing our life to live us,
to direct us,
to show us the way
and lead us along it.
Having a grip on our life
is understanding how things work
with us and our life–
knowing our part,
our role,
and playing it to the hilt.
We are here to collaborate
with our life,
to read the signals/directions
coming to us from our unconscious,
and align ourselves
with the drift of our soul,
so that we are one with our life,
dancing with our circumstances
to the music of the spheres.
If you understand that,
you won’t need much doctoring,
and no preaching at all. - 07/14/2019— Cypress Swamp 2019-07 01 Panorama — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Cuddo Unit, Wildlife Drive, Summerton, South Carolina, July 12, 2019, an iPhone photo
People like to talk about other people.
Some like to talk about themselves
in terms of their trials and ordeals
(But never want to consider
the messages that may be contained therein).
I break up the game by asking,
“What do you love about your life?”
“What are you here do do with your life?”
“What makes your little heart sing
and your little toes dance?”
I’m generally put off and dismissed,
so I go in search of someone else
to play with.
Finding the right company
is an essential part
of finding the right life. - 07/14/2019— MC Escher Does Waxhaw, North Carolina 2019-07 01 Panorama — July 14, 2019
I feel as though MC Escher
has been doing
life in the United States
for the past going on three years.
This is what is happening
to Waxhaw, NC.
Actually, I gave Photoshop
two perfectly normal picts of downtown Waxhaw
and told it to give me a panorama.
The magic happened,
and here we are.
This and last month’s waterfall
on the Catawba River
are making me think about
taking up cross-word puzzles.
Sometimes, the world is like that.
Can we dance with it
is the question.
All of the transition points
are this way.
We are expecting life to be one way,
and whamitsnot.
We have to sit with the shock
and sort things out.
Get our feet under us.
Find our center,
and feel our way along
for a while,
until things settle back
into a dependable configuration,
which sets us up
for the next time
things go upsidedown
with no warning.
When you find yourself
free-falling again,
take it as a sign
that you just stepped
into a transition zone,
and settle into the Adjustment Period.
Things will come back
into focus momentarily. - 07/15/2019— Cypress Swamp 2019-07 04 Panorama — Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Cuddo Unit, Wildlife Drive, Summerton, South Carolina, July 12, 2019, an iPhone photo
Jesus said,
“Love your neighbor as you
Love yourself.
Love your enemies.
Love one another.
Do unto others
as you would have them
do unto you.”
There can be no question
about where Jesus stood
on the matter
of our relationships
with other people.
Donald Trump does not stand with Jesus.
Jesus does not stand with Donald Trump.
Jesus said,
“Let the children come to me!”
Donald Trump said,
“Put the children in cages!
Treat them like dogs!
No! Treat them worse than dogs!
That will show them who is Boss!”
Donald Trump does not stand with Jesus.
Jesus does not stand with Donald Trump.
Where do we stand?
You cannot be a Republican
and stand with Jesus.
Where do you stand? - 07/15/2019— Mama Ricota’s 2019-07 01 — Charlotte, North Carolina, July 15, 2019, an iPhone photo
Our loves
and our hates
open us,
as we open them,
to the secret depths
of our soul
where reside
the qualities we seek,
and the ones we seek to grow beyond
in the work
to become who we are
in the land of life and death
before night comes.
What attracts you?
What repels you?
Sit with individual members
of each category
and get to the bottom
of love
and hate.
What do you love
about what you love?
What do you hate
about what you hate?
What are the characteristics you admire
and those you detest?
What was the path by which
you came to admire and detest?
What are your early memories
of each traitc
and what they represent?
How did your opinion/judgment
develop over time?
Stand before each as though it were a mirror.
What do they reflect of you–
your deficits and excesses over time?
What does your emotional response to each
say about your lived experience–
and about what is asking you to bring to life
in the life you are living?
Our loves
and our hates,
and the emotional reaction
they trigger
are pathways of reflection
leading to new realizations,
new behavior,
new life.
Don’t let them pass
without mining them for their gold. - 07/16/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 04 Panorama — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo.
The way opens before those
who dedicate themselves to it
and start walking.
But, there is a catch.
The catch is
we have to dedicate ourselves to it
in a “Thy will, not mine, be done”
kind of way.
The “Thy” in that phrase
is the way itself.
The way has a will for us
that is often contrary
to our will for ourselves.
“It is MY life
and I can do whatever I want!”
is not how it is.
It is only my life
in the sense
that I am uniquely suited for it,
and it for me,
and I belong to it
as surely as a Canada Goose
has to fly south for the winter,
and north for the summer.
But, just as bird feeders
and loss of habitat
are interfering with migration patterns
world-wide,
so “the dust of the world”
can interfere with the ingrained,
archetypal, patterns
calling us to align ourselves with them
in making the choices and decisions
that determine our life.
“Whose side are we on?”
Is the question that pins us to the wall.
Adam and Even answered it one way
in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus answered it another way
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Way is a harsh taskmaster.
“Straight is The Way
and narrow is the gate
that leads to life,
and those who walk it are few,
while broad is the way
and wide is the gate
that leads to death
and those who walk it are many.”
“What a slippery slope this is!
It is a dangerous path!
Like a razor’s edge!”
That’s our life they are talking about,
and the way that opens before us
in each moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
leads us to it
or away from it
depending on whose side we are on,
and the clarity and mindful attentiveness
with which we choose our choices
and decide our decisions
that determine the life we live. - 07/16/2019— Beidler Forest 2019-06 07 Panorama — Four Hole Swamp, Francis Beidler Forest Audubon Center & Sanctuary, Harleyville, South Carolina, June 23, 2019, an iPhone photo.
We have to be seeking
our own center,
core,
base,
bedrock.
foundation,
ground
in order to hear
or see
the pointers
guiding the way.
The old alchemist’s dictum applies:
“One book opens another.”
But.
We have to be reading.
We walk past white rabbits
all the time
with our thoughts on other things.
The jump out in front of us,
waving their little hands,
whistling,
blowing horns…
We never glance their way,
lost as it were
in our affairs and concerns
that have nothing to do with soul.
Life without soul
is what we see being lived out
all around us.
The culture is soulless.
Society is soulless.
Churches are soulless.
Alcoholics Anonymous is the only place I know
where soul may yet be found.
The sober drunks who gather there
were drinking themselves to death
because their soul was dying
and they were without a bulwark for their life.
They come together to seek their way
to more than money can buy.
Jungian Analysts deal daily with a similar population.
People at the end of their rope,
at the bottom of another wall,
come one-at-a-time
to learn the language of soul,
become attuned to its symbols
and learn the secrets of searching with purpose
for that which is reaching out for them
and for us all.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about,
I’m surprised you are reading this at all.
But, since you are here,
you may as well take a moment
to sit quietly
and see if something is stirring within,
or perhaps waving a flag,
blowing a whistle,
calling your name. - 07/17/2019— Wildlife Drive 2019-07 01 Panorama — Cuddo Unit, Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Summerton, South Carolina, July 12, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Consciousness is a function of brain,
but.
How much brain can we lose
and still be mindful?
I feel as though mind
is before brain,
operating as a directing,
knowing,
force prior to thinking,
reasoning.
I feel as though mind
is old,
ancient-old,
and got us to the point
in evolution
of being brain-centered.
Mind has more to do
with heart
and soul,
intuition
and insight,
and guides us in areas
brain knows-not of.
Dr. Spock could be logical
but not savvy,
and his emotional intelligence
was sadly lacking.
Mindfulness takes us beyond thinking,
carries us into mystery-and-wonder-knowing.
We feel our way to what.
We think our way to how.
If you have been putting off
Jon Kabat-Zinn
and Ann Weiser Cornell,
they are experts
in body-mind-knowing,
and time is short. - 07/17/2019— Hay in the Field 2019-07 02 Panorama — Rembert, South Carolina, July 5, 2019, an iPhone photo.
If talking could do it,
it would have been done by now.
If thinking could do it,
it would have been done by now.
That leaves us
with seeing/hearing,
Which takes us
to looking/listening.
Beyond words and appearances.
To the stillness beyond silence.
And the realizations that emerge
to bless patient waiting.
How much looking
does it take to see?
How much listening
does it take to hear?
We owe it to ourselves,
and to one another,
to find out.
Jim Dollar's Published Works 