December 23, 2019 — January 29, 2020
- 12/23/2019—
It is easy to feel as though
nothing we do matters.
This is called,
being in the trough,
which is the low point
of a wave.
When we are in the trough,
we have to recognize it,
and wait it out.
The trough is the turn-a-round
between crests.
The tide comes in
and the tide goes out,
and, in between,
the tide turns around;
The wave goes up
and the wave goes down.
The point between up and down
(Crest and Trough)
is called “Sea Level.”
Waves are in constant motion.
There is no steady state
to a wave.
A trough is just a trough.
A crest is just a crest.
Sea level is just a point
between the two.
What a wave does
at every point
is the work of being a wave.
The next time we find ourselves
thinking that nothing we do matters,
that it is all useless,
pointless,
hopeless,
futile
and there is not reason to go on,
we have to say,
“Aha! These are the signs
of being in a trough!”
And keep on doing the work
of being who we are
even in a trough.
The work of being a wave
is what a wave does,
without thinking it is
a wondrous wave at the crest,
and ought to end it all
in the trough.
A wave doesn’t give
stuff like that a second thought.
It just goes on doing the work
of being a wave.
Take a lesson from the wave,
and go on doing the work
of being you,
without giving how you feel
about your work
a second thought.
Our work is why we are here.
Our work is who we are.
We do our work best
when we aren’t stepping away
from it to grade it,
judge it,
opine about it,
grouse and whine,
moan and complain.
We have to believe in our work
even in the trough,
and do it through all the stages,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
As though it makes all the difference,
even when the evidence
seems to suggest otherwise.
We are to do our work
the way it ought to be done,
no matter how we feel about it,
because it is our work,
and where would it be with out us?
What would the ocean be
without waves? - 12/24/2019— McAlpine Creek 12/23/2019 01 Panorama — McAlpine Creek Greenway, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 23, 2019, after 2.5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. There is a foot bridge somewhere under there. Maybe. Still.
We all operate under
the illusion/delusion/conviction
(And where *does* that line lie?)
that we know what’s best for us,
and that we would be better off
somewhere else,
with something else.
The United States had its beginning
with a small group of immigrants
thinking they would be better off
not being economic slaves
to their British “owners.”
Members of every caste system worldwide
feel this way.
Our ancestors went from
being better off not being slaves
to being better off having slaves
in no time at all–
not bothered a bit
by the incongruous nature
of that shift in logic.
“There is nothing incongruous about it!”
our ancestors–
and many of their descendants–
would say,
“It isn’t slavery that is bad.
It is *being* a slave that is bad.
*Owning* slaves is great!”
This “blind spot,”
reflects a basic motivating principle
operating within the species
(Which all people sufficiently sensitive
and aware
are increasingly ashamed of–
the species,
I’m talking about–
over the course of their life),
namely:
We don’t care if what is better for us
is worse for someone else.
We know what is better for us,
and we are going to die in its service!
And sex slavery
(AKA “Human Trafficking”)
and the drug business
(Legal and illegal)
are booming businesses
these days.
As a species,
we never reach a place
or a stage in life
where we wouldn’t be better off
somewhere else,
with something we don’t have
and without something we do have.
The quest to have this
and be rid of that
keeps us going.
And we are certain
we know what we are doing.
Say what you will,
you will never talk us out of it.
Striving to get
and to get rid of
is the fundamental thrust of life.
And we think we are going to be,
not only serenely happy,
but also completely satisfied and content,
in heaven
for all eternity.
There are two chances of that happening,
as the old saying goes,
“fat and slim.” - 12/24/2019— December Shoreline 12/14/2012 — Lake Brandt from the Lake Brandt Greenway, Bur-Mill Park access, Greensboro, NC — December 14, 2012
We have gotten away from
relishing our food,
liking our clothes,
being comfortable in our ways,
and enjoying our work
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching).
And the way back
is lost in the dust of the world
and the noise of the 10,000 things.
Cultivate silence.
Keep faith with yourself
and with one another.
Wait for right action to arise
and follow where it leads,
without trying to guide things
to serve your ends,
or to impose your agenda
upon any situation.
12/25/2019— Lake Haigler 11/24/2019 08 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, November 24, 2019
In each situation,
there is
how things are,
how we think things are,
how we pretend things are,
how we want things to be,
how things ought to be,
how things can be.
How we respond to it
tells the tale.
- 12/25/2019— Peaks of Otter 10/29/2019 03 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Lake Abbot, MP 86, near Bedford, Virginia, October 29, 2019
Everybody should spend one day annually
being totally dead,
from Midnight to 6 PM.
Then come back to life.
Let go completely
of all the things you tend to in a day,
that keep you wrapped up in the drama of life,
that demand your attention
and your care.
When you are actually dead,
you will not tend those things,
or anything else.
All of your obligations,
duties,
responsibilities
will disappear then,
so disappear them now
for 18 hours.
Once a year.
What you do about
eating and drinking
is up to you.
Let your family and friends
know what you are doing.
Invite them to join you.
Spend 18 hours in silence,
paying attention to everything
in each moment.
Write down your thoughts,
describe what you experience,
record all of the questions that occur to you,
note all of the things that arise in your imagination,
that come to mind,
that emerge,
arise.
Reflect on these things
and note what occurs to you
in your reflections.
Take walks.
Silent walking meditations.
Notice everything.
Notice your responses to everything.
Attend what is happening
and what you do in response.
Come to life in your death.
See what being dead
has to teach you
about being alive.
Be dead for 18 hours
once a year. - 12/26/2019— Parkway Overlooks 10/28/2019 04 — Blue Ridge Parkway near Roanoke, Virginia, October 28, 2019
Insight is the child of conflict,
contradiction,
paradox,
anomaly,
pain,
agony,
anguish,
opposition,
limits,
boundaries,
dead ends,
grief,
loss,
sorrow…
We don’t just sit quietly
in the comfort
of soft reflection
and gather insight.
Insight is pounded into us
by circumstances beyond
our control,
or our imagining.
We wrestle with demonic powers,
struggling for life against unseen forces
and rise up
with only realization
to show for our effort.
Nothing changes but our perspective,
and that transforms everything.
But not without extracting
a terrible price.
Every new way of seeing
eats our old way of seeing alive.
12/27/2019— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 06 — Lake Haigler Falls (Spillway), Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
Helping people find what they need
to do what needs to be done
is keeping faith with ourselves
and with one another.
Using anyone to get what we want
at the expense of troth,
truthfulness,
transparency,
goodwill,
and common decency
is breaking faith with ourselves
and with one another.
Treating anyone in ways that demean,
disregard,
disrespect,
dishonor them
is a betrayal of trust
and a failure of our inherent duty
to do right by all people.
And our refusal to call each other out
in this matter
and demand the best we have to offer
to all others
in each situation as it arises
is why we are where we are
as a nation
and a planet.
Demand the best of yourself
and each other,
and don’t let anyone get by
with less than that,
under any circumstances,
ever.
- 12/28/2019— Boat House 12/26/2019 01 Panorama — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
Jesus pissed people off.
Not only that,
but also, Jesus pissed the right people off.
At one point,
or another,
in his life,
Jesus pissed everybody off.
The moral of this story
is that if you call yourself a Christian,
and are not living in a way
that pisses people,
especially the right people,
and occasionally all the people,
off,
you have no business calling yourself a Christian.
Of course, it follows here
that being the church
and paying the bills
is more than a little bit iffy.
Throughout my 40.5 years
of ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA)
I could never figure out
how to be the church
and pay the bills.
Jesus paid very few bills.
He did not pay his disciples,
he had no administrative expenses,
he never paved a parking lot,
or repaired a roof,
or painted a building,
either inside or out,
he never bought an organ,
or a baby grand piano,
or any piano…
The list is long of expenses
Jesus never incurred.
Jesus could afford to piss people off.
Pissing people off is the sine qua non
of being in the business
of being the church.
The church is in the business of growing people up.
Of squaring people up
to the reality of what needs to be done,
and of what they will have to give up
to do it.
No one ever–
you could Googleit–
grows up
without growing up
against their will.
It is forced on all of us
by our circumstances
and our values.
The people who choose to please
their circumstances
over their values
never grow up.
The people who choose to please
their values
over their circumstances
grow up through the agony
of their choices
over the full course
of their life.
You can’t be the church
as the church needs to be the church
without growing up.
And that means pissing people off.
So if you are a member of some church,
no matter how large,
that is paying the bills,
you aren’t doing it correctly.
You cannot be the church–
as Jesus was the church–
and pay the bills.
You are already splitting hairs aren’t you?
“Jesus didn’t have a CHURCH!”
A little accommodation here.
Jesus didn’t do it the way it needed to be done
and pay the bills.
How’s that?
If you are going to do it like Jesus did it,
you are going to piss people off.
If you aren’t pissing people off,
you aren’t doing it like Jesus did it.
How many people,
particularly the right kind of people,
have you pissed off today?
Or even, recently?
Try growing yourself up
and see if you can’t improve your numbers. - 12/28/2019— Boat House 12/26/2019 02 Panorama — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
What can we legitimately expect from God–
or from That Which Has Always Been Called “God”?
The answer is not going to sit well with you:
“Exactly what we need
to do what needs us to do it
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.”
No more.
No less.
What we get from God,
or from TWHABCG,
is the ability to rise to the occasion
on every occasion,
and offer there
what needs to be offered
for the good of the occasion.
For the good of the Whole.
PERIOD!
Who is going to be content with that?
Only those of us who recognize what’s what
and make their peace with it,
taking it on faith
that they will be able to make out
with no more than that
all their life long.
The rest of us are strictly on their own. - 12/29/2019— McMullen Creek 12/28/2019 01 Panorama — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Flood Plain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
*Don’t build houses, offices, shops and deli’s in a flood plane! Build Greenways!*
–0–
The right to self-determination
shall not be infringed!
This is the foundational ground
to all democracies.
Our liberty is limited only
by the Constitutional rights of others
(Barack Obama).
Until we all get behind this fundamental premise,
we struggle with how to be free and bound
at the same time.
Freedom is binding.
The right kind of bondage is freeing.
We bind ourselves to one another
by our pledge to serve the true good
of the situation as a whole.
It all rides on good faith–
on our keeping faith with ourselves
and with one another.
The bondage of freedom
is knowing where the lines lie,
and living within the limits
imposed on us
by the rights of others.
The single most important commandment
in the Old Testament is:
“Thou Shalt Not Remove Thy Neighbor’s Landmark!”
In the New Testament it is:
“Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself.”
Stay on your side of the line!
It is as simple as that. - 12/29/2019— Cascades 04/22/2011 Panorama — The Cascades, E.B. Jeffress Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 272.5, Wilkes County, North Carolina, April 22, 2011
There is how things are,
and there is what we can do about it,
and that is how things are.
Coming to terms with how things are
is called growing up.
Growing up is all that is left to us
more often than we want to admit.
Carl Jung said
“None of the important problems of life can be solved.
They can only be out-grown”
(Or words to that effect).
Part of growing up
is waiting for the shift to happen
that allows us to do more
about our circumstances
than the present situation
allows us to do.
We bide our time,
sit in the stillness,
wait in the silence,
watching/listening,
for the Way to arise,
emerge,
occur to us
and call us to action.
What needs to happen
to allow us to do what needs to happen
about the circumstances
we are facing?
Too often, we have no idea,
and have to wait to see even that,
trusting ourselves to know
the right idea when it comes,
and act spontaneously in its service
when the time for action arrives.
Waiting,
watching,
listening,
is doing what can be done
in situations that allow nothing more.
“When the flower opens,
the bees appear.”
“When the student is ready,
the teacher appears.”
“When the tide turns,
the water rises or recedes.”
Until then, we wait.
Watching.
Listening.
When the door opens,
we walk through. - 12/29/2019— Earth Shadow 12/18/2012 01 — Lake Brandt, Bur-Mil Park, Greensboro, NC — December 18, 2012
It is no accident
that Donald Trump
is the architect
of hatred,
ruthlessness,
violence,
brutality
and inhumanity.
He is perfect for the role.
Insecure,
impotent,
ignorant,
terrified,
alone,
unloved
and unlovable,
he must lash out
at everyone
he perceives to be threatening.
Trump must demean and attack,
or better,
torment and kill,
the media,
his political opponents,
the helpless,
the marginalized,
the disenfranchised,
the destitute
and depleted–
in order to experience
the thrill of potency and power–
the power of vindictiveness and destruction.
He is at the mercy of his own vulnerabilities,
and cannot bear the truth
of his inability to face the just-so-ness
of who he is.
And he speaks to,
and attracts,
and is attracted to,
those like him.
He was elected by those
who feel what he feels,
who fear what he fears,
who hates what he hates,
and want nothing more
than to kill what he wants killed.
Which leaves the rest of us
to devise strategies
and implement them
in the service of defending
and protecting
the victims of his rage–
by taking up their cause,
speaking out in their behalf,
denouncing and condemning
his intolerance
and his inflammatory tweets
and orations.
And working against his re-election
and that of Republicans.
in all levels of public office,
to bring an end to the insanity–
the inhumanity–
and restore the institutions
devoted to effecting and enhancing
liberty and justice for all. - 12/30/2019— McMullen Creek Slough 12/28/2019 07 Panorama — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Flood Plain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
Truth is always right there,
waiting to be seen
by those open to its presence
and ready to do its bidding
no matter what.
That’s the catch.
“Eyes to see,
ears hear,
hearts to understand”
depend on
not having to have things
a certain way.
Seeing how things are
and knowing what’s what
ask hard things of us,
and require us to do what needs to be done.
In each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
Everything that can be known
is right there waiting to be known.
There are no secrets.
The information is quite available
“to the mortal man,”
and woman,
and anyone else who cares to look.
With their eyes open to what’s there,
unafraid of what that might mean,
or ask of them,
in every situation that arises,
every day of their life.
We all access to the same data.
All of the time.
Step into a moment,
look around.
It is all right there.
Where do you get your news?
You are choosing to not-know
what is going on
by not getting your news
from multiple sources.
You are closing yourself off
from what’s to be seen,
heard,
known,
understood,
comprehended,
assimilated,
used as grist for the mill.
We are milling ourselves here.
Bringing ourselves to life
to meet the situation,
and handle the circumstances,
of our living
all our life long.
We need to know all there is to know,
and know what to do with it,
about it,
and know what needs us to do it,
and know how to go about doing it,
in each moment
of every day.
But we want to glide along
Smooth And Easy Street,
following the cows
from the barn
to the pasture
back to the barn.
So, we are careful
to not ask the questions
that beg to be asked,
and to not say the things
that cry out to be said,
and to not know the truth
that sets us free,
and breaks our heart,
and binds us to the service of truth
in every moment
of every day
forever.
What kind of freedom is that?
We want to be free
to not do a damn thing
we don’t want to do.
Ever.
And that keeps us
from seeing how things are,
and knowing what’s what,
and living in light of that,
with all it implies
every day
for the rest of our life.
What are we not seeing
that is right there
waiting to be seen?
Right here.
Right now. - 12/30/2019— High Falls 04/12/2011 01 Panorama — DuPont State Forest, Transylvania County, near Brevard, NC — April 12, 2011
Let’s start with this fundamental premise:
I love you.
I take that to mean
I have no interest in you
beyond connecting you with your life
and getting out of your way.
Anything more than that,
other than that,
is messing with your life.
Is sabotaging your life.
Is destroying your life.
The most loving thing
anyone can do for us
is to enable us to live our own life.
Everything we need is right there
in our life–
the life we are responsible for living.
Whatever bumps us off that track
interferes with our ability
to follow our own hunches,
rely on our own intuition,
listen to our own guide,
and live our own life.
It is appalling how easily distracted we are,
how easily un-tracked we are,
how easily we drift off the path,
lose the way,
and wander through the wilderness
wondering how we got there
and what do we do now.
We are responsible to ourselves,
for ourselves,
and have to listen intently
for what we have to say,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
We cannot do that
with someone else talking to us,
directing us,
telling us what to do and not do,
or just offering us options
that are not compatible
with the interests
and directions
we need to be following.
Here is the best advice
you are ever going to receive:
Listen to what resonates with you
without thinking it is forever and always.
Be alert to the way
“One book opens another,”
and dance with the music
only you can hear.
I love you, but.
What your life needs of you,
I do not know,
and I have to get out of your way
so that you will know–
and trust yourself to the guidance
tuned to the frequency of your particular life. - 12/30/2019— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 01 Panorama — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
The tide comes in and goes out,
and the world is just as it is
And if we were who we say we are
over the generations,
instead of saying one thing
and doing another,
pretending,
posing,
posturing,
playing games,
and serving a hidden agenda,
we could add a measure of stability
and balance to the wild swings
of extremes over time.
Harmony and equilibrium
are evidence of
virtue and integrity.
Has anyone seen either of those of late?
We do what we can
to restore lost peace
by returning to the silence/stillness
and putting ourselves in accord
with the source of life and being,
one person at a time.
Peace is not imposed from without,
from above,
but arises from within.
Who can be at peace in these times?
Be that person!
Each of us–
be that person! - 12/31/2019— McMullen Creek 12/282019 02 — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Flood Plain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
“Oz never did give nothing
to the Tin Man
that he didn’t,
didn’t already have…”
(America, lyrics)
And we can’t be looking
for somebody else
to give us what is ours
to do and to be.
There is no one
to deliver us.
We have only ourselves
to call upon
to get us out of the messes
we make
and allow to be made
by failing/refusing
to be what the situation
is calling us to be
in the time and place
of our living,
in ways appropriate
to the occasion.
It takes practice,
and believing in ourselves.
Having faith in anything but ourselves
is delusional
and a failure of nerve.
But that doesn’t mean
I could sing at your wedding,
or dance in even a poor
rendition of the Nutcracker.
The Renaissance Man/Woman
is a fiction.
There is what we can do,
and what we have no business doing.
Ours is to play the roles
assigned to us
wearing the face that was ours
before we were born.
Donald Trump is no President.
And I couldn’t play
centerfield for the Yankees
or the Mudville 9.
When we try to rise above
our rightful place,
and live beyond our means,
we create a disturbance in the flow
that takes years to abate.
History is the story of the world
trying to right itself
from the impact of roles gone wrong,
with singers trying to be golfers,
and doctors wanting to be lawyers,
and mechanics pretending to be CEO’s.
It goes back to seeing and being who we are,
and resisting the attraction
to be who we are not.
Living aligned with ourselves,
in accord with the gifts
and genius
that are ours to serve,
in harmony with the frequency
that resonates with our soul,
is a blessing and a grace
upon our life and the world.
Being out of tune
is the discordant chaos
of an orchestra in warm-up mode. - 12/31/2019— Scrapping Fall 12/10/2019 04 — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Caroling, December 10, 2019
If kindness,
compassion
and integrity
are your guiding principles,
you will be able to trust yourself
to respond spontaneously
to the situation as it arises
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
without having to delay your response
in order to think carefully
through your checklist
of should/shouldn’t,
ought/oughtn’t
must/mustn’t
and be able to defend your action
based on what is normal,
prudent
and expected
within the circumstances,
while missing the door that opened
and closed
while you were being distracted
by your work to be pleasing.
Be improvisational!
Take your chances
with doing right by the moment
even if what you do
has never been done before,
or may never be done again.
Life is improv,
dead is safe. - 12/31/2019— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 03 — Spillway Falls, Anne Spring Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
What needs you to do it?
How long have you been avoiding it?
What is at work here?
There is nothing but your life to live
as it needs to be lived–
not as someone else thinks it needs to be lived,
but as your life knows it needs to be lived.
Our life is not ours to do with as we please.
We belong to our life to do its bidding.
When I write these words,
or any words,
or all words,
I am only endeavoring to write
what needs to be written.
When I live my life,
I am only striving to live what needs to be lived,
what needs me to live it.
I go where I am led,
I do as I am directed–
as I intuit,
feel,
perceive where I am being led,
how I am being directed.
It is like the “Hot/Cold Game”
we played as children.
“Now I’m getting warmer,
now I’m getting colder…”
I wait for an impulse,
for something to catch my eye,
for something to draw my interest,
to announce my next mission–
which could be nothing more
than what to have for lunch.
I wait for clarity,
direction,
inspiration,
motivation–
for the next thing to call my name.
How do you do it?
Pay attention to how you determine
what is next.
How do you know what you need to do?
How do you know your life needs to be lived? - 01/01/2020— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 10 Panorama — Anne Spring Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
If we do not do what can be done
about any situation that arises,
we deserve exactly what we get
from the fallout
and aftermath.
If we are failing to oppose Donald Trump,
Stephen Miller,
Mitch McConnell
and the rest of the Republican/Fascist coalition
that is in charge of Congress
and the country,
and refusing to vote Trump
and all Republicans
out of office in 2020–
and to never vote for another Republican ever,
we are sitting tight
with our fingers crossed
and our eyes closed
hoping for the best
while the very worst is happening
all around us
and is quickly becoming
long past turning around–
and we are likely telling ourselves
the GOP mantra
over and over,
“No matter how bad it gets under Trump,
it would be unimaginably worse
under the Democrats.”
That is Fascist propaganda jargon!
You have been deafened and blinded
to the reality that is destroying the world,
and if you do not wake up
and get to work
opposing what must be opposed
and voting it out of control of the country,
you bear full responsibility
for the destruction of the climate,
the destruction of democracy,
and the end of life as we know it
in this country
and around the world. - 01/01/2020— Fort Buhlow 01/25/2017 13 Panorama B&W — Fort Buhlow Spanish Moss 2017 13 B&W — Alexandria, Louisiana, January 25, 2017
We are seeking ourselves.
What attracts us in others
are aspects/reflections of ourselves.
What repels us in others
is what must be recognized,
resisted,
and integrated within ourselves.
Our reaction to others
is a doorway to meditation
on who we are
and what we are to be about.
Other people
are mirrors reflecting
our own soul
back to us.
When we look at them
we see ourselves.
They show us who we are
and what is ours to do.
Without them,
where would we be?
Without understanding this,
where would we be?
Seeing this is seeing all we need to see.
Knowing this is all we need to know.
From this point on,
everything is up to us.
What we do about it/with it
tells the tale
we are composing
with the life we are living.
Where we go from here
makes all the difference. - 01/01/2020— Tree Tops 12/10/2019 03 B&W — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, December 23, 2019
My work as a servant
of hermeneutics
(From Hermes,
the Messenger of the Gods,
the God of Meaning and Interpretation)
is to get to the bottom of things,
to see what’s what
and what that means,
and what it calls for for us
in terms of an appropriate response,
one proper and fitting the circumstances,
in rising to the occasion,
doing what needs to be done
with the skills, talents, gifts, genius, etc.
that we bring to the moment
in each situation as it arises
all our life long.
I did not set this as a goal,
or pick this out as what I wanted to do
with my life,
it has been my life from the beginning.
It is who I am,
what I do,
in Gerad Manley Hopkins sense of,
“What I do is me,
for that I came.”
Our work shines though.
Our work is what we find our selves doing
without intending to,
without trying to,
just automatically,
spontaneously,
responding to our circumstances.
Our work is what we can be counted on to do,
what people expect us to do,
what people make fun of us for doing,
what people see as characterizing us
and our life,
what they mean when they say,
“That is so like you,” or,
“That sounds just like you.”
Thinking about these things,
and looking back over your life,
what stands out for you about you
that could be classified as “Your work”? - 01/01/2020— Woods Stream 12/26/2019 — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 28, 2019
My bedrock principle of interpretation,
assessing/ascribing/understanding/declaring/stating
meaning is this:
“Do not ever think you have said anything–
and never, ever, under any circumstances
think you have said the last word about anything–
and always, always, remember
there is always more to say about anything
that has been said,
or can ever be said!
Taking this as your own bedrock principle
will put the Bible
“as the absolute word of God,
never to be questioned,
certainly never to be expanded,
or questioned in any way ever”
in its place.
And, it will put those who proclaim
the absolute truth of the Bible,
and claim that designation
for all they say about the Bible,
and anything else,
in its place.
And free you to make your own determination
about the Bible,
and those who talk about the Bible,
and all other aspects of reality as it is,
or may ever be,
perceived to be.
You are free to think your own thoughts,
and think about your thinking,
to see what you see,
and think about your seeing,
and decide for yourself
what you think is right,
and re-evaluate that in light of
what else you think is right,
or will, in time, think is right…
Always, always, working to say
what needs to be said
about all aspects of experience.
And to ask the questions that beg to be asked
about all aspects of experience.
And never, ever, thinking you have said anything,
certainly not the last word,
about anything.
This is the most wonderful,
and tantalizing,
aspect of life,
living,
and being alive
that I know of–
and I relish it with all my heart,
and mind,
and body,
and soul.
This is the path that never ends!
The stream that always flows!
The song that goes on and on! - 01/02/2020— Springer’s Woods 10/28/2011 02 — Springer’s Point, Ocracoke Island, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Outer Banks, North Carolina
Trial and error, Kid. Trial and error.
Shirley, by now,
you have had plenty of time
to watch the Jon Kabat-Zinn
YouTube videos
(the shortest ones first)
on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
(MBSR),
and are practicing being intentionally
present in and aware of the current moment,
here and now
without being engaged with,
or kidnapped/hijacked by,
anything that is there,
just noticing everything
and holding it in your awareness,
breathing slowly and deeply,
and when your mind wanders
into some area of memory or imagination,
you simply become aware of that,
and bring your focus back to the moment
without judgment or opinion,
and continue to be aware
of what is here, now.
And all the rest of you have surely
joined Shirley in her watching the videos
and practicing being present in this moment
right now.
And all of you know that patience
and compassion are the keys
to being present with the present
and what is happening there
without involvement or engagement,
just watching,
just listening,
just seeing,
just hearing,
just knowing,
just being,
at the pivot point of perceiving
what is happening
and what needs to be done about it
and being called spontaneously to action
at the right time in the right way
when your intervention is most necessary
to the unfolding of events
within the circumstances you are observing
for the good of the situation as a whole.
And that all of this is an eternally continuing
matter of trial and error,
learning as we go
in the dance with the circumstances
of our living
in the time and place of our life.
Shirley (etc.), I am right about that.
Right? - 01/02/2020— McMullen Creek Slough 12/28/2019 06 Panorama — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Flood Plain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
The old Taoist and Zen masters
understood enlightenment to be
realizing “the face that was ours
before we were born,”
and living in ways that aligned
ourselves with it,
exhibiting our “original nature”
and being in accord with who
we are built to be.
Carl Jung saw “individuation”
as the process of aligning
ourselves with ourselves
over the full course of our life,
and said the goal
was to live so that
“who we are is who we always have been
and who we will be.”
Jung and the Taoist/Zen masters
would agree that the Way
to who we are/have been/will be
consists of “stopping and seeing”
throughout each day.
Being aware of the moment
to the fullest possible extent,
transparent to ourselves
and clear about what is happening,
within and without,
and what needs to happen,
and offering what is ours to give
to the work that needs to be done,
moment-by-moment-by-moment–
without concern for,
or interest in,
our advantage,
our gain,
our good,
but solely for the good of the whole
of which we are a part.
Bringing ourselves forth,
birthing ourselves,
and being who we are
is what’s in it for us.
There is nothing beyond
knowing and being ourselves
to want,
or have,
or be.
Enlightenment is knowing that,
and doing it. - 01/03/2020— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 07 — Spillway Falls, Anne Spring Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
We are only safe with ourselves,
and we are not safe at all with ourselves,
and therein lies the problem.
We want to be safe.
In order to be safe,
we have to change our mind about safety.
And security.
And learn to love living on the edge.
Free-falling.
Not knowing what is going to happen next
or what we are going to do.
We have to trust ourselves
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in rising to the occasion
on every occasion
and dancing with
our circumstances
no matter what they are.
It’s like this.
Look around.
You cannot deny the fact
that here you are–
here we all are!
We came from nowhere
with nothing,
not one thing,
and through the years,
over time,
we have violins
and grand pianos.
Hiking boots
and cellphones.
How did that happen?
We did it.
Everything you see
came right out of our own imagination.
We have nothing to be afraid of.
We are afraid
because we do not trust ourselves.
And because we are lazy.
And want Mamma
or some Mamma substitute
to take care of us forever.
We are on our own.
It is up to us.
Our life is our responsibility.
The way we do it
is the way
of establishing Right Relationship
with ourselves.
We have all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done.
It only takes believing it is so
to know that it is so.
It only takes faith in ourselves
to know that we can deal successfully,
appropriately,
with whatever comes our way.
My proposal is that
we stop and look into
the proposition
that we have what we need
and are what we seek.
And all this time
we have been riding the donkey
looking for the donkey.
Holding the keys,
searching for the keys.
Wearing our glasses
wondering where our glasses are. - 01/03/2020— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 07 — Spillway Falls, Anne Spring Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
We are only safe with ourselves,
and we are not safe at all with ourselves,
and therein lies the problem.
We want to be safe.
In order to be safe,
we have to change our mind about safety.
And security.
And learn to love living on the edge.
Free-falling.
Not knowing what is going to happen next
or what we are going to do.
We have to trust ourselves
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in rising to the occasion
on every occasion
and dancing with
our circumstances
no matter what they are.
It’s like this.
Look around.
You cannot deny the fact
that here you are–
here we all are!
We came from nowhere
with nothing,
not one thing,
and through the years,
over time,
we have violins
and grand pianos.
Hiking boots
and cellphones.
How did that happen?
We did it.
Everything you see
came right out of our own imagination.
We have nothing to be afraid of.
We are afraid
because we do not trust ourselves.
And because we are lazy.
And want Mamma
or some Mamma substitute
to take care of us forever.
We are on our own.
It is up to us.
Our life is our responsibility.
The way we do it
is the way
of establishing Right Relationship
with ourselves.
We have all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done.
It only takes believing it is so
to know that it is so.
It only takes faith in ourselves
to know that we can deal successfully,
appropriately,
with whatever comes our way.
My proposal is that
we stop and look into
the proposition
that there is more to us
than meets the eye,
our eye,
any eye,
and we have what we need,
and are what we seek.
And all this time
we have been riding the donkey
looking for the donkey.
Holding the keys,
searching for the keys.
Wearing our glasses
wondering where our glasses are. - 01/04/2020— Four-mile Creek Greenway 12/23/2019 01 Panorama — Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 23, 2019
Democrats are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Republicans are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Black people are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Gay people are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Mexicans are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Muslims are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Evangelicals are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Liberals are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Fascists are _______(fill in the blank)_______
White Nationalists are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Rich people are _______(fill in the blank)_______
Poor people are _______(fill in the blank)_______
… And so on, like that,
with everything.
Every. Thing.
Now, look deeply into everything on the list.
Every. Thing.
See all of the things you did not see
about everything.
See everything completely,
just as it is.
See all of the things about everything.
Every. Thing.
Look into everything
until you can see all things
about Every. Thing.
Do not talk about anything
until you can say all things
about Every Thing.
Look into
everything,
everybody,
you look at.
Do not say anything
about anybody
until you have looked into everything
about everybody.
If you are not going to see everything
about anybody,
why look at all?
Look into why you look
without seeing all there is to see
about what you look at.
Look into why you talk
without being able to say
what else there is to say
about the things you talk about.
If you aren’t seeing everything,
you aren’t seeing what you look at.
You are only seeing what you want to see.
You are not even looking at
what you don’t want to see.
Your seeing is partial.
Minute.
You don’t see half of all there is to see
about anything.
Yet, you sound off like you are an authority
about everything.
Look into that.
What do you see? - 01/04/2020— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 02 — Spillway Falls, Anne Spring Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
If you aren’t going to say everything
about anything,
why say anything at all?
Why stop with what you have to say about it?
Why say only what you have to say?
Why say what you have to say?
Why say that what you have to say
is all you need to say about it?
What makes what you have to say about it
the only thing that needs to be said about it?
What are you up to?
What are you doing?
What are your motives?
What moves you to say what you have to say,
and only what you have to say?
What ends are you serving?
Who are you trying to please?
Who would be happy to hear what you have to say?
Who would be happy with you for saying it?
Whose favor are you courting?
Who are you afraid of displeasing?
What possesses you?
Controls you?
Limits you?
Restricts you?
Insists, demands, that you only say “this”
and not “that”?
Look into it.
Explore it.
Examine it.
Make inquiries.
Ask the questions that beg to be asked.
Say the things that cry out to be said.
About why you see what you see
and only what you see
about the things you look at
and refuse to see anything else.
Look into it. - 01/04/2020— Tree Tops 12/10/2019 02 B&W — 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, December 10, 2019
Enlightenment is simply
seeing what we see,
hearing what we hear,
knowing what we know
and being transparent to ourselves.
What are we looking at and not seeing?
What are we blocking out and not hearing?
What are we knowing but not knowing that we know?
Where are we kidding ourselves?
Where are we not paying attention
to all that is going on?
When we wake up,
we wake up to all of that. - 01/04/2020— Helping Hand 07/03/2009 — Crabtree Falls, Blue Ridge Parkway, near Little Switzerland, North Carolina, July 03, 2009
Our favorite way of dealing with the truth
is by distracting ourselves
from having to deal with it.
Reality is not where
we want to spend our time.
The 10,000 addictions exist
to take our minds off reality.
We think about the things we think about
in order to keep from thinking about the things
we don’t want to think about.
We fill our time with attractive diversions
to avoid the dreadful realities.
Opioids “save” their users
from lives they cannot bear to consider,
only to wallop them with a “fix”
that is worse than the horror
they were trying to escape.
The truth of reality
is that we all have to pay up eventually.
“We meet what we cannot face
on the road we take to avoid it.”
Bearing the pain
and doing what must be done
is the two-pronged strategy
for dealing with the unwanted.
Make reality your best friend.
Run to meet it
as it makes its rounds.
Learn to look forward
to its daily deliveries
and what they can show you
about yourself,
and the skills you can develop
in letting come what’s coming
and letting go what’s going.
We grow up against our will,
in the work of coming to terms
with the conflicts and contradictions,
the adversity and opposition,
the grief, loss and sorrow
that shatter our world
and break our hearts.
Joseph Campbell said,
“Where you stumble and fall,
there lies the treasure.”
Learn what he means
by standing your ground,
welcoming the moment
and opening yourself
to all it brings with it.
Campbell also said,
“It took the Cyclops
to bring out the hero in Ulysses.”
Invite the unwanted into your life–
it is going to be a part of your life anyway,
be glad to have it
and receive it as a gracious host,
looking forward to seeing
what it brings forth in you,
what it has to show you about yourself,
and to discover what you are made of.
And, if it overwhelms your coping ability,
forget the lonesome hero approach,
and see what help is available–
ask for it!
Be thankful for it!
And see where it takes you.
And take your time with recovery.
Spend your time seeing everything,
asking the questions that beg to be asked,
and saying the things that cry out to be said.
Notice what emerges from the silence,
and take note of what occurs to you unbidden.
We are often led by unseen hands
to where we most need to be,
and find help where we wouldn’t expect
anything helpful to be.
You are learning to trust yourself
to find what you need
to do what needs to be done.
You are growing up,
against your will,
and joining the great body
of those who have walked
the path you are waking.
And they have all
walked with a limp. - 01/04/2020— Fall on Little River 11/10/2006 01 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tremont, Tennessee, November 11, 2006
Carl Jung said,
“The reason for evil in the world
is that people
are not able
to tell their stories.”
The reason this results
in evil being in the world
is that in telling our stories,
we hear them ourselves
for the first time.
In saying what is so,
we hear what is so,
we realize what is so,
we recognize the truth
of how it was with us,
of how it is with us,
we know what’s what
and how things got to be
the way they are.
We wake up to the truth
of the life we lived,
the truth of what we have done
and the truth of what was done to us,
and come to terms
with the nature
of what we have had to work with.
Telling our story is redemptive,
and cathartic,
and enlightening.
We see how we have lived,
how we might have lived,
how we might yet live,
and may,
with the right kind of audience,
find the courage
to live toward the best we can imagine
in the time left for living.
Without being able to tell our stories,
we are alone with the weight
of unexamined experiences,
with only moods and emotions
we do not understand
to direct our actions
and shape our lives
in the service of seeking release
and acting out any way we can. - 01/05/2020— McMullen Creek Slough 12/28/2019 05 — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Floodplain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
All we need is a sounding board.
Someone to tell our story to.
Someone to listen us to what’s what,
what it takes
and what to do about it.
Once we are clear about what’s what,
what it takes
and what to do about it,
we are free to live,
or to not live,
the life that is ours to live
in the time left for living.
Jim Hollis says there are two things
keeping us from doing that:
fear and lethargy.
We are afraid of what might happen,
and we are lazy–
and our situation is not quite bad enough
to motivate us past knowing what’s what
into doing what needs to be done about it.
Finding excuses is what we do best.
No! Telling ourselves what we want to hear
is what we do best!
No! Kidding ourselves is what we do best!
No! Shooting ourselves in the foot
is what we do best!
No! Letting ourselves off the hook
is what we do best!
No! Changing the subject
is what we do best!
No! Looking the other way
is what we do best!
No! Doing what it takes to feel better
about not doing what it takes to get better
is what we do best!
No! . . .
It is “a long and winding road,”
a “slippery slope,”
a “dangerous path,”
“like a razor’s edge”
from knowing to doing.
Just because we see the way
is no guarantee that we will
actually take it.
And pay the price
of growing up
some more
again
all the way along the way
to being who we are
where we are
when we are
how we are
no matter what.
It’s called the Hero’s Journey,
after all. - 01/05/2020— Yellowstone Falls 09/06/2001 — Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Village, Wyoming, September 6, 2001
Today is the first day of my 76th year.
Since we can never be sure
of how many of those
we have left,
we cannot afford to be flip
and casual
and careless
about how we live any day ever.
No matter how many may remain,
there aren’t enough,
and our place is to make the most of–
by doing right by–
each one that dawns
and invites us to step into it
and do what we do best throughout it.
So, we begin each day
listening for what needs to be said
the way only we can say it,
looking for what needs to be done,
the way only we can do it,
facing what needs to be faced,
the way only we can face it,
and being who we need to be,
the way only we can be it–
moment-by-moment-by-moment
throughout it.
Creating karma,
serving dharma,
in accord with the Tao,
at one with Kairos,
wearing our original face,
expressing our original nature,
looking into everything along the way,
awash with the wonder of it all
every day.
May it be so with us all
all the way! - 01/05/2020— Trail to Triple Falls 10/14/2011 01 — DuPont State Forest near Brevard, North Carolina, October 14, 2011
There is more to everything
than meets the eye,
and so the need
to look into
whatever we look at
in order to see what’s what,
what’s there,
and what else is there,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
every day
for the rest of our life.
And then,
the matter of doing what needs to be done
about it
with the gifts,
genius,
daemon,
spirit
of our original face
and our original nature
no matter what.
When we get that down,
we have it made,
not that that matters
to those who know what’s what
and are doing what needs to be done
about it
(Having it made
just means we keep doing
what we are doing–
seeing and doing–
forever,
being brought forth
by our circumstances,
and growing up
some more,
again,
all the time). - 01/05/2020— The Swimming Hole 11/06/2006 — Midnight Hole, Big Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Big Creek Campground, North Carolina/Tennessee, November 06, 2006
There is no time to lose!
Not a second to waste!
So.
Do we hurry up
in order to not miss anything,
or,
do we slow down
in order to not miss anything?
Sometimes one,
sometimes the other.
We make the call
across all times and places.
What we say, goes.
Oh, we have to be right about it.
Try threading that needle!
Try walking that slippery slope,
that dangerous path,
that razor’s edge,
all the way.
That is where we are,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
Damned if we do,
and damned of we don’t,
at all points along the way.
What to do?
Be damned and be done with it!
Listen in the stillness
and watch for what arises
in the silence
to point,
however faintly,
out the way,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
And, if it becomes apparent
that you chose poorly,
listen in the stillness
and watch for what arises
in the silence,
to point,
however faintly,
out the way,
moment-by-moment-by-moment. - 01/05/2020— The Pond 10/28/2006 — Cypress trees, “down east” North Carolina, October 28, 2006
We are not in charge
of the way we see things,
and cannot change how we see
by an act of will,
reason,
logic
or determination.
Yet, the way we see
is subject to change
over time.
We grow into seeing differently,
or not.
We can remain immature indefinitely,
immune to the impact of time,
stuck in a worldview impervious
to circumstance
or experience,
believing,
thinking
and doing
what has always been believed,
thought
and done
by everyone we know
forever.
Growing up,
some more,
again
means seeing things differently
over time.
If the way we see things
isn’t changing,
we may be 98.6 and breathing,
but we are dead to the world,
waiting on some undertaker
to make it official. - 01/06/2020— The Watchman 09/22/2006 — Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah, September 22, 2006
What’s wrong?
What would it take
for things to be right?
What do you care about?
Who cares about you?
Where do you belong
on the list
of those who care about you?
In what ways do you make clearly evident
the fact that you care about you?
What do you care about about you?
What’s wrong with you?
What would it take for things to be right
with you?
How is money a distraction
helping you avoid
coming to terms
with your relationship
with yourself?
Helping you take your mind off
what is wrong?
Off what it would take for things to be right?
With your life?
And with you?
What would it take
for you to like yourself?
For you to be able to like yourself?
Look into these things over time.
Keep an eye on them.
Study them.
Be aware of them
as you go through your life.
See what comes to mind.
See what memories you stir up.
How did things get to be the way they are?
How does the way they are need to be changed?
These aren’t questions to be answered
and put aside,
but questions to be wondered about,
observed.
Lived.
Catch yourself in the act
of answering them
by the way you live,
and look into that.
No judging.
No fault-finding.
Just observing.
Just noting.
Just noticing.
How “this” is related to “that.”
It is all grist for the mill.
We are milling ourselves,
over the long course of our life.
“We are the sculptor,
and we are the stone”
(Alexis Carrel). - 01/06/2020— McMullen Creek Slough 12/28/2019 04 — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Floodplain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
Look at any photograph I take,
have taken,
will take,
and you will see
harmony,
symmetry,
balance,
beauty.
I live in the service of these things.
I am always balancing,
harmonizing,
situations and circumstances.
I soften things.
Take the edge off things.
Help things fit,
blend,
merge,
belong.
I work to smooth
your relationship with yourself
and other people
by helping you be aware
of your relationship with yourself
and other people.
I think awareness smooths things out,
fills things in,
reduces disparity,
and discord,
and chaos.
I think if we see how things are,
we will spontaneously
shift our relationship with things
toward reconciliation,
peace
and harmony.
I think we are not naturally belligerent,
hostile,
mean
and ornery.
And, when we are those things,
it is because we are more interested
in having our way
than in having harmonious relationships
with ourselves and others.
It is because we have lost sight
of what is important.
We are out of harmony,
out of flow,
out of sync,
out of accord with the Tao.
And that impacts all of life
in ways that do not support
the fundamental requirements of life.
And that means,
“The harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few,”
and I will always have work to do. - 01/06/2020— Lake Haigler 12/26/2019 12 Panorama — Anne Springs Close Greenway, Lake Haigler Access, Fort Mill, South Carolina, December 26, 2019
We do not come into the world
automatically knowing what to do
with our life.
And when we are born
into a society and culture
that doesn’t know any more than we do,
we have a problem:
What to do with our life?
In an ideal environment
we would have what we need
to nurture and nourish us
into the life that is ours to live.
There would be Yodas
and Obi-wan Kenobis everywhere,
talking to us about the Force,
about the Source,
about the Flow,
about being in accord with the Tao,
with the Dharma,
with Kairos
and Grace.
We don’t get any of that.
We get, “What do you want to be
when you grow up?”
No one ever tells us
that no one ever grows up,
but that we are all
always growing up–
into the face that was ours
before we were born,
into our Original Face,
into our Original Nature–
the ones that were taken from us
shortly after birth
by a society/culture that thinks
we come into the world
as a blank slate
and have to be taught right from wrong.
We know what is right for us
and what is wrong for us
from the start.
We need to be taught
how to listen to ourselves,
how to trust ourselves,
and how to walk two paths at the same time,
honoring ourselves
and our own bedrock,
our own North Star,
while fitting into the structure
of society and culture–
how to stand out,
and how to fit in–
how to be an individual
within the group.
The right kind of group
would make that possible,
even joyful.
We are born into
the wrong kind of group.
And do not receive the guidance
we need to consciously
connect with who we are
and what is ours to do
from the beginning,
but have to find our way there–
if we are lucky–
through trial and error
over long stretches of time.
And here we are–
growing ourselves up together,
at last.
Welcome to the Delivery Room! - 01/06/2020— The Fire Pit 10/12/2019 01 — Union County, South Carolina, October 12, 2019
Our Original Face
and Original Nature
come with us into the world
as 100 proof potential,
able to bring us forth
within the context
and circumstances
of our life
as authentic,
genuine,
real
human beings,
creating karma,
serving dharma,
in accord with the Tao,
at one with Kairos,
and agents of Grace.
But.
We are separated from all of that
soon after birth,
and pressed into the mold
prepared for us by the culture
which received us from the womb.
The entire society is arrayed
to tell us who we are
and what life is ours to live.
We get our marching orders
from parents, priests, ministers,
teachers, friends, commercials,
movies and media.
This is who we are supposed to be.
This is what we are supposed to look like.
This is what we are supposed to do…
So much for our Original Nature
and our Original Face.
And yet.
They never go away.
They never give up.
They wait in the silence
for our eventual return.
Just as a tree
is just what it is.
Just as a lion
is just what it is.
Just as a hummingbird
is just what it is
so each of us
is just who we are.
Nature’s advantage
is that no one is telling an oak tree
to be a pine,
or a washing machine.
Our advantage
is that we have a brain
and can think for ourselves.
We all know what is right for us
and what is wrong.
We only have to know what we know,
and what we don’t know–
see our seeing,
think about our thinking,
and teach ourselves to be aware
of the present moment
and all that meets us there,
paying attention,
on purpose,
to this moment right now,
without opinion,
or judgment,
holding everything
in compassionate awareness,
and receiving what arises
in the stillness
as something to look into
for its connection
with the face that was ours
before we were born,
and the life that goes with it,
even now,
even yet,
even still. - 01/07/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 07 Detail — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019
Carl Jung said,
“There lives in each of us another,
whom we do not know.”
It is up to us to make acquaintances.
To open ourselves to the presence
of The Other.
To make ourselves available to The Other.
To make room for The Other.
To establish,
nurture,
nourish,
and maintain
a vital relationship with The Other.
To consult
and collaborate with The Other–
as best friends would–
throughout our time together
in the life we are conjointly living.
The Other comes to us in dreams,
in jolts of recognition
and realization,
in nudges,
urges,
whims,
chance occurrences,
premonitions,
experiences of harmony,
balance,
serenity
and peace–
and their polar opposites.
One way of realizing the reality
of The Other
is through The Animal Projection Exercise,
which I call “Your Totem Animal”
in a blog post on my WordPress site
(https://jimwdollar.com/2019/07/10/your-totem-animal/).
We are not alone.
Yoda lives within us all
as The Other within.
It only takes believing it
to know it is so. - 01/07/2020— McMullen Creek Slough 12/28/2019 03 Panorama — McMullen Creek Greenway, McMullen Creek Flood Plain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, December 28, 2019
My idea of having it made
is Tevya in *The Fiddler on the Roof.*
Then, circumstances inserted themselves
into his life situation
and Tevya joined the rest of us
in the work to have it made.
That is how it is
with having it made.
We work to have it made
for longer periods of time
than we have it made.
How did Tevya put things back together?
My hunch is that
he ran out of time.
And if he didn’t run out of time,
his circumstances would have flipped again,
and he would be back
working to put things together again.
That is the rhythm of life.
We no sooner get things in place
than we have to
get things in place again.
And, sometimes,
we never get things in place.
And, have to make our peace with that.
Having it made is completely out of the question
with most of the world’s population.
Most of us don’t have a chance.
How many opioid addicts have a chance?
How many children in the grip
of poverty and hopelessness
have a chance?
How many people in nursing homes
have a chance?
A chance at what?
A chance of life lived fully to the end.
My idea of the end
is as idealistic
as my idea of having it made–
dying with cookies in the oven
and crumbs on the plate.
What are the chances?
And the catch here is
that we cannot let our chances stop us.
Tevya never considered his chances.
He simply did what was his to do
in the time and place of his living,
and let his circumstances change
with the times.
That’s the way to do it.
Our circumstances give us choices,
and our primary choice
is to not let our chances
impact our choices.
We make the best of each situation
that comes up in a day,
doing here and now
what needs to be done here and now,
and letting nature take its course.
Aligning ourselves as best we can
with our life as it needs us to live it,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
and letting our chances be our chances–
in light of the over-riding fact of life
for every living thing:
Our circumstances
are out of our control.
And our chances depend on our circumstances.
I’m living as well as I can imagine living,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
hoping for crumbs and cookies,
and not allowing my chances
to show me down. - 01/07/2020— McAlpine Creek Greenway 01/05/2020 01 Panorama — Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 5, 2020
Having it made
cannot be dependent
on our circumstances.
Let that sink in.
Having it made transcends circumstances.
Is immune to circumstances.
Is beyond the reach of circumstances.
Independent of circumstances,
we are free to live our life
moment-to-moment-to-moment
on the basis of our relationship
with our Original Face,
our Original Nature,
and what is available to us
in each here-and-now
of every day.
We are capable of living beyond
our circumstances,
no matter what they are.
If they are favorable,
they are just favorable.
If they are unfavorable,
they are just unfavorable.
We are capable of responding
to all of our circumstances
in ways that are appropriate
to the occasion–
in ways that serve virtue,
harmony,
balance,
integrity,
compassion
and the true good of the whole.
Nothing can happen to us
that destroys our ability
to respond by asking,
“What are these times
calling for?
What is being asked of me,
here and now?”
Kairos,
Tao,
Dharma,
and Grace
are present in every moment
(Carl Jung quoted the Delphic Oracle,
saying, “Invoked or not invoked,
the God is always present”)
to call us into their service,
and to guide us in the way.
Our work is not to despair
because things are happening
that we do not want to happen,
but to align ourselves
with what is happening
and what needs to happen in response
that we can initiate
our of the gifts,
daemon,
genius,
spirit
that are ours to bestow
upon the time and place
of our living.
And we can do that much
in any time and place.
Being true to ourselves
in response to our circumstances
is having it made in that
being who we are,
where we are,
when we are,
how we are,
in light of what
is being asked of us–
no matter what–
is all that is ever asked of us,
and no one could do better than that. - 01/07/2020— McAlpine Creek Greenway 01/05/2020 03 — McAlpine Creek Floodplain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 5, 2020
Each situation demands a response
fitting to its needs.
If we spill the milk,
we clean up the milk.
If the dog needs to go outside,
we take the dog outside.
The situation does not wait for a time
convenient to us
to impose its will.
It doesn’t wait until we are in the mood.
Until we feel like it.
Until we want to.
And we aren’t allowed to negotiate
a different response,
or the proper response
at a different time.
We get to say yes or no.
We rise to the occasion
or we walk away.
We do what is asked of us,
or we fail to be
who we are asked to be.
We grow up one situation at a time.
If we grow up at all. - 01/08/2020— McAlpine Creek Greenway 01/05/2020 02 Panorama — McAlpine Creek Floodplain, Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 5, 2020
Rachel weeps for her children
with shrieks of loud lamentation,
and will not be consoled or comforted
for she has lost them
and is beyond consolation.
So are we all.
The consolation of Israel
is said to ride with the Messiah,
because,
where else could it come from?
We certainly are incapable
of generating it among ourselves!
So we long for the one
who will bear our griefs
and carry our sorrows,
and take on himself
the chastisement
that makes us whole.
Look into that.
What does that tell you
about our inability,
our refusal,
to bear our own pain–
to grow up?
And our rejection
of the very idea,
of bearing our pain
and growing up?
There is no growing up
without bearing the pain
of being alive.
You will look in vain
among the pages of the Bible
for anything remotely reminiscent
of Odysseus’ declaration:
“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!”
In the Bible,
we get waiting for Godot.
For somebody to do it for us.
For somebody who has to be appeased,
and placated,
bought off
and mollified,
soothed
and won over.
You can’t read the Bible
without concluding,
“These people have to grow up!”
It is tough everywhere we look.
Where do we get the idea
that we should be consoled?
We have to bear our own pain,
and stop adding to the cumulative pain of life.
The most brutal people I know
are the people seeking some form
of consolation,
and taking it out on everyone else
when they don’t find
what they are looking for.
Enough, already!
We have everything we need
to find what we need
to do what needs us to do it.
Pick yourself up
and step into the day,
every day,
and do there what needs
to be done there.
And when the heaving sea
has shaken your raft to pieces,
swim! - 01/08/2020— Curves 10/28/2019 02 — Puckett Cabin, Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 189.9, Hillsville, Virginia, October 28, 2019
We dream of being presidents and princes,
but.
What do presidents and princes dream of?
Apparently, tripping to Jeffery Epstein’s private island
and passing a good time or two.
Everybody, it seems,
would be happier somewhere else.
What is with escaping this
to get/have that–
which soon becomes this,
and really needs to be that?
What does life have to offer?
Where is fulfillment to be found?
Who are we kidding?
Why do we settle so often
for drugs, sex and alcohol?
And settle so rarely
for settling down with this,
just as it is,
forever?
What is it about us
that keeps us casting about
for something more?
What are we seeking?
And how is where we are
different from being adrift
on the high seas,
or wandering through
the trackless wasteland?
What is at the bottom of our lostness?
Why do so many suffer
“from the general aimlessness of life”?
Look into it.
Probe about in your own dissatisfaction
and disenchantment.
Why is happiness always somewhere else?
See what you come up with. - 01/08/2020— Otter Lake 10/29/2019 05 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 60.9, Virginia, October 29, 2019
The summation of nearly 5,000 years
of Taoist and Zen instruction in the art
of enlightened living
can be summed up as so:
See clearly.
Respond appropriately.
That is all there is to it.
But.
That begs the question:
What prevents us from seeing clearly?
What keeps us from responding appropriately?
Enter the world of 10,000 things
(10,000 is the Taoist/Zen equivalent of infinity).
The work of enlightened living
is the work
of seeing past,
over,
under,
around
and through
all of the things that interfere
with seeing clearly,
responding appropriately.
One of the source books
of Taoism/Zen
(Zen is what happened
when Buddhism met Taoism)
is the I Ching.
The translation I am most familiar with
is by Thomas Cleary.
There, we find these comments:
“Receptivity to reality
is achieved through emptying the mind
of its conditioned subjectivity,
stilling personal predispositions
so that unbiased understanding and action
may take place.”
“Application of the I Ching is accomplished
simply by openness and tranquility.
When open, one takes in all;
when tranquil, one perceives all.”
Seeing clearly
is knowing what’s what
and what needs to be done
about it.
Appropriate action follows spontaneously.
It takes a lifetime of looking
to be able to see. - 01/09/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 17 Panorama — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019
I have a strong hunch
that the autobiography
of every human being
who ever lived
could be titled,
“Betrayal, Deceit and Abandonment.”
Who doesn’t have to fight
their way through those experiences
to a life worth living?
Every living thing
has to live
in the service
of what it thinks
is worth having.
The percentage is not high
of those who have
all the help they need
in that work.
Too many are thrown back
on their own devices–
and too many of those
are not told or shown
what their own devices are,
or how to access them
and help themselves.
How have you experienced
betrayal, deceit and abandonment
in your own life?
How have you dealt with it
all along the way?
In what ways have you been
guilty of it along the way?
What do we owe ourselves
and one another
from this point forward
in dealing with what has been done to us
and what we have done to others?
What inner resources
do we not know we have?
How might we begin to find out?
Here is my favorite way
of finding the way forward
in any here and now:
1) Begin with looking into the situation.
Here, that would mean
looking into the matter
of betrayal, deceit and abandonment
as you have experienced it,
perpetrated it.
2) Ask all of the questions that beg to be asked
about it–including the questions
that beg to be asked by the questions
that beg to be asked.
3) Say all of the things that cry out to be said
about it–including the things
that cry out to be said in light
of the things that cry out to be said.
You might find it helpful
to begin a journal
and write all this down.
You will be accessing inner resources
you don’t know you have,
and learning to find your way
along the way
by listening to the guides
who reside within.
We are not as alone as we think we are.
We are not as helpless as it would seem.
We would be wise
to consult the guides
all along the way. - 01/10/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 18 — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019, an iPhone Photo
We are born without knowing
good from bad,
right from wrong,
yes from know.
Morality has no meaning for us.
We cannot tell one thing
from another.
We only know what we want
and what we don’t want.
You wouldn’t want us running the world
in that state of being.
Though, a lot of people *do* run the world
in that state of being,
or try to.
What they want is good.
What they don’t want is bad.
What they want is right.
What they don’t want is wrong.
What they want is YES!
What they don’t want is NO!
Never mind what any other concerns
or considerations
may be impacted.
From their point of view
there are no other concerns
or considerations
to take into account.
What they want is all that matters.
We call that immaturity.
With enough wealth and power,
you can get away with it.
Otherwise, you end up dead
or in jail.
Reality is set up to force us
to take other people into account.
Morality is civilization’s way
of creating stability,
security
and predictability
in a natural world run based
on “The Law of the Fishes”
(“The big fish eat the little fish,
and the little fish hide”).
The Rule of Law
is humanity’s contribution
to the process of life,
and a welcome improvement
to the natural order.
But.
Wealth and power
are always at work
to nullify,
ignore,
dispense with,
transcend
The Rule of Law.
And that is one of the dialectics
that shape our life:
Who is governed
by the Rule of Law,
and who is not?
Another dialectic is also at work here:
Morality vs. Individuality.
We are personally responsible
to one another
and to the culture which receives us
from the womb and shapes our life.
And we are bound to the inner drives
and urges which direct us
beyond what we want to have
and to do,
to what we MUST have
and do.
And Fraser Snowden chimes in
at this point
to remind us,
“The only true philosophical question
is ‘Where do you draw the line?’”
It is the task of maturity
to answer the question
in each situation as it arises
and draw the line,
assuming full responsibility
for the outcome
(Which, of course, creates
another situation in which
we are responsible
for drawing the line,
and being right about
where it is to be drawn.
Etc. Forever).
The task of maturity
is to grow up
against our will
forever. - 01/10/2020— Beidler Forest 11/22/2019 13 — Francis Beidler Forest, Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Four Holes Swamp, Harleyville, South Carolina, November 22, 2019
We walk two paths at the same time
all of the time.
We are the peacemakers,
reconciling opposites,
integrating polarities,
dancing with contradictions,
making peace,
every step of the way.
We honor the way of our soul
with the way of Tao,
Kairos,
Dharma,
and Grace,
and balance that with the way of the world,
the way of the culture,
the way things are
in the context
and circumstances
of our life,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
It is easier to say,
“To hell with it,”
and do what we feel like doing.
The obesity rate
and the popularity
of alcohol,
tobacco/vaping,
opioids
and pot
indicate that we do
what we feel like doing a lot.
Bearing the weight of our conflicts
in light of what needs to be done
in each situation as it arises,
is a necessary aspect of growing up
that we neglect
at every opportunity.
Not doing what needs to be done
is what we do best.
How we move from here to there–
to doing what needs to be done?
Awareness, awareness, awareness.
The first thing to be aware of
is how strongly opposed we are
to being aware of anything. - 01/10/2020— Otter Creek 10/29/2019 03 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Big Island, Virginia, October 29, 2019
One of my core beliefs
is that of the crucial importance
of the developmental tasks
in our work to grow up
into being who we are,
doing what is ours to do.
We cannot skip a task.
We cannot decide
we have had it with growing up,
and will not submit to another transition,
will not run through another gauntlet,
will not rise to meet another occasion,
will not pay the price of doing
what needs to be done one more time.
Every stage of our life
comes replete with tasks
appropriate to that stage.
And they are hell.
They ask things of us
we don’t know we have to give.
They ask us to do things
we cannot imagine doing.
“I’m not ready!”
“That isn’t ‘me’!”
“I can’t do it!”
We walk into each stage of life
with excuses at the ready
for not progressing into it
or any of the remaining stages.
Buck up
and buckle down.
Life is a mean horse
and the ride lasts all the way
to the end.
Adjustment and adaptation, Kid.
Adjustment and adaptation. - 01/11/2020— Peaks of Otter 10/28/2019 14 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Abbot Lake, MP 86, near Bedford, Virginia, October 29, 2019
How good is the good you call good?
Whose good is served
by the good you call good?
Whose good is not served
by the good you call good?
Who does your idea of the good
allow you to dismiss as undeserving
of the good?
How good is the good you call good
in light of the Sermon on the Mount,
the Parable of the Prodigal Son,
the Parable of the Good Samaritan?
How good is the good you call good
in light of the Eightfold Path?
How good is the good you call good
in light of the Dalai Lama’s teachings?
Who stands in agreement with you
about your idea of the good?
Who disagrees with you
about your idea of the good?
How do you determine
the goodness of the good
you call good? - 01/11/2020— Peaks of Otter 10/29/2019 25 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Abbot Lake, MP 86, near Bedford, Virginia, October 29, 2019
Although our original face,
and our original nature
can appear to be “lost and gone forever,”
they are never far away.
The Hero’s Journey is the quest
for who we are,
and it is exactly the distance
from our head to our heart,
or from the left side of our brain
to the right side.
From logic, thinking and reason
to intuition, sensing and feeling.
We are led along the way
by our imagination,
not by deduction and analysis.
We catch a glimpse of the white rabbit
and “the game’s afoot!”
The catch is that we cannot think up
the white rabbit.
It appears of its own volition
when the time is right.
In the meantime,
we practice
being still and quiet,
centering on our breathing,
counting breaths,
completing body scans,
being aware of,
and attentive to,
the present moment,
moment-by-moment-by-moment…
Preparing ourselves to see what we look at,
to hear what we are listening to,
and to know what’s what
here and now.
And, when a door opens,
we walk through
into the wonder,
marvel,
and mystery
of the rest of our life. - 01/12/2020— Road Through Fall 10/28/2019 04 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, October 28, 2019
We want to be able to
sit back
and enjoy the ride
through fall,
and winter
and spring
and summer
and all the way through life.
We don’t want anything
getting in our way.
Smooth and easy
is our idea of how things
need to play out.
Nothing out of its time.
No surprises.
Certainly no shocks.
And definitely no calamities ever.
Just one beautiful landscape after another.
All our life long.
Our life has other ideas.
Our life has a mind of its own.
Our life wants us to live it
the way only we can live it.
Our life wants us to be fully
present and engaged
in the present moment
every step along the way.
Alive to the moment.
Engaged by the moment.
Invested in the moment.
None of this,
“Not now!
I don’t feel like it!
I’m not in the mood for it!
Maybe later,
when I’m ready.
Maybe tomorrow.
We’ll see.”
Our life knows us better
than we know ourselves.
Our life knows we will never be ready
for what it has in store for us.
So it is always throwing things at us
to get us ready
for all that is coming
ready or not.
Our life needs us to be ready for anything.
At any time.
Sharp.
Alert.
Attentive.
Aware.
Our life doesn’t want us missing anything,
because everything matters.
“Everything is grist for the mill,”
and we are milling ourselves.
We are growing ourselves up.
We are learning to trust ourselves,
to rely on ourselves,
to discover ourselves,
to find ourselves,
to be ourselves
by becoming who we are,
and also are.
And every single thing
is a step on that journey.
Particularly the things we hate.
Especially the pain
and agony.
We grow up against our will,
and that means doing
what we do not want anything
to do with.
The right way.
Time after time after time.
Bearing the pain.
The way it needs to be borne.
Learning to separate who we are
from what we want.
Knowing that wanting doesn’t know a thing
about what needs to be,
about what needs to happen,
about what needs us to do it
like we can do it.
Our life is bringing us into focus,
sharpening our edges,
our boundaries,
separating us from not-us,
revealing us to ourselves,
showing us who we are
and what we are capable of,
one step at a time.
We could never get that out of a book.
No one could ever tell us that.
We live our way to who we are,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
Situation-by-situation-by-situation.
Growing us up
against our will
one day at a time. - 01/12/2020— James River 10/29/2019 05 — Big Island, Virginia, October 29, 2019
It doesn’t matter what we do.
It matters that we find ourselves
through doing it.
Finding ourselves
by being who we are,
knowing ourselves
by consciously,
deliberately,
intentionally
being who we are
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation-by-situation,
day-by-day-by-day
is all there is to it.
There is nothing more than that
to ask, or seek, or imagine.
We can start anywhere,
do anything–
as long as our eyes are open
to seeing,
to finding,
where WE are in it.
What are WE doing here, now?
How did WE get here, now?
What does this have to show us
about who WE are?
Is this more ME,
or more NOT-ME?
Where am I in this?
What am I going to do about this?
What does this say about ME?
What am I trying to show me
about ME?
We are all on the path to who we are.
And we all can expect to meet ourselves
along the way.
The question is whether
we will recognize who we are meeting
and let everything else fall away
in becoming who we are
and living in full accord with ourselves–
consciously,
deliberately,
intentionally–
more and more
the rest of the way.
01/12/2020— Curves 10/29/2019 04 — Blue Ridge Parkway, MP 88, Virginia, October 29, 2019
Oneness with our life,
being in accord with “the other” within,
expressing our original face
and our original nature
in all that we do,
living in sync with the Tao,
with Kairos,
with Dharma,
with Grace,
is a matter of not thinking about what we are doing,
and listening only
to what needs to be done,
to what needs us to do it,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
situation-by-situation-by-situation,
day-by-day-by-day.
That kind of listening
is characterized by
being present in the time and place
of our living,
being wholly here, now,
being attuned to,
aware of,
fully attending
the context
and circumstances
of our life
as we are experiencing them
in the umwelt of “the eternal now.”
It takes practice.
Jon Kabat-Zinn’s YouTube Videos
and Ann Weiser Cornel’s
PDF downloads from her web site
offer excellent practice material.
If we just know what needs to be done
without applying ourselves
to the work of doing it,
we are only lying on our backs,
watching the clouds
as our life runs out of time
and we think “Maybe tomorrow
we will get started.”
- 01/12/2020— Eastern Bluebird 01/12/2020 01 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Zen Glen, 22-acre Woods, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 12, 2020
Things I desire include:
Silence.
Seeing what I look at.
Seeing things as they are.
Hearing what is being said,
verbally and behaviorally,
in all situations
and circumstances.
Knowing what’s what,
and what needs to be done about it,
and what can be done about it.
Getting to the heart of the matter.
All matters.
Not being fooled by appearances.
Not being led,
or swayed,
by my opinions,
judgment,
interpretation,
evaluation,
or what I stand
to gain or lose
in any situation
or circumstance.
It’s a great wish list.
If the Grantor of Wishes
ever drops by,
I’m ready.
How about you? - 01/13/2020— Beidler Forest 11/22/2019 07 — Francis Beidler Forest, Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Four Holes Swamp, Harleyville, South Carolina, November 22, 2019
I think the old Taoists would say
that it all comes down to
timing,
virtue (Which they understood to be
alignment with our original nature/face)
energy
and spirit.
And all of that is contingent
on our engaging regularly
in the right kind of silence
with the right kind of appreciation
for movement and rest.
Everything is either moving or resting.
The tide comes and goes and turns.
The turning is when the tide is resting.
Our life is always moving or resting.
When we refuse to rest
and are always going
in pursuit of,
or service to,
whatever it is that we think
we have to have NOW!,
we deplete our energy and spirit,
trade virtue for achievement
and acquisition,
and ignore the importance of timing
in constant quest of *Victory Now!*
We have to balance activity
and consideration,
replace striving/forcing
with perceiving/sensing,
and allow things to happen
in their own time,
at their own pace,
in their own way.
Which means replacing
wanting/desiring/having-to-have
with seeing/hearing/knowing
in order to do what needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done
in light of all things considered.
In each situation as it arises
all our life long.
It means acting only when it is time to act,
in the service of what needs to be done–
and being right about when-and-what that is.
If we are going to practice anything,
we should practice that. - 01/13/2020— Eastern Bluebird 01/12/2020 01 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 12, 2020
We are all sailing solo on a pathless sea.
All directions are equally possible
and plausible.
All are different,
none are better or worse
than others,
each is capable of bringing us forth
to meet the challenges and disappointments,
triumphs and glories
unique to each.
Good and bad,
better and worse,
are preferences,
opinions,
judgments,
evaluations
in light of what we think we know–
in light of what we think we want–
in light or what we think is good and bad,
better and worse
In light of the end of the journey
that we have in mind for ourselves.
We invent/image the end,
and judge the path from the standpoint
of how soon we want to arrive
and how easy we want the trip to be.
The sea is not only pathless.
It is also endless.
There is only the adventure of the journey.
The unfolding of who we are
over the full course of our life.
We are always becoming who we are.
We are always growing up.
Our view of what is good and bad,
important and unimportant,
is always in flux,
is always being put to the test
by new realizations
brought forth by changing circumstances
and different situations.
What is good here
is bad there.
What is important now
is unimportant then.
What is right and what is wrong
depends on what works
when and where.
A strategy that fits our youth
is laughable in our old age,
and vice-versa.
We are becoming different
all along the way.
And “there is only the dance”
(T.S. Eliot).
There is only the sea.
Sail on!
Sail on! - 01/13/2020— Last Days of Fall 11/03/2019 Panorama — Boone Fork, Boone Fork Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina, November 03, 2019
Only you know what you need to hear,
see,
know,
realize,
comprehend,
embrace,
integrate into your life
and live in the service of
all the days remaining
in your time
upon the earth.
If you are not listening,
why not?
If what you hear
has to be pushed on you
in a hard-sell kind of way,
it is not what you need to hear.
What you need to hear
resonates immediately,
automatically,
spontaneously,
with you.
If it doesn’t,
you either don’t need to hear it,
or it isn’t time for you to hear it.
It will cycle back around
when you have grown up some more (again).
It is waiting
for you to be ready
for what you need to hear.
You can hurry things up
buy watching the Jon Kabat-Zinn
YouTube videos (The shortest ones first),
and familiarizing yourself
with Ann Weiser Cornell’s writing
and videos on her web site.
If that doesn’t resonate with you,
you will have to wait
for it to cycle around again.
Maybe for several cycles.
But, its recommendation
will never go out of date. - 01/14/2020— Otter Creek 10/29/2019 07 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Big Island, Virginia, October 29, 2019
We have to get out of our heads
and into our lives.
We think we have our life
all mapped out in our heads.
Our life is thinking,
if we would stop thinking
it could show us all we need to know
about being alive.
Being alive is living with Integrity,
aligned with Kairos,
in accord with Tao,
in light of Dharma,
under the care of Grace.
We don’t know
what any of those words
with capital letters mean.
That is because
we have been thinking
about what we want
out of life
instead of thinking
about what our life
wants out of us.
Integrity is living with
outside in sync with inside–
living to serve inside with outside.
Living to be who we are
instead of living to do what we want.
Wants trump everything.
When what we want directs
what we do,
we jerk ourselves around
from one apparently
wonderful thing
to another
throughout our life–
with no guiding sense of direction
keeping us on the path
in the service of our life’s
true meaning
through all contexts
and circumstances
no matter what.
Speaking of “what,”
what does wanting know?
Wanting knows what is desirable
here and now
period.
Wanting mostly knows
it wants out of here, NOW!
Wanting is no help what-
so-ever.
Living with integrity
saves us from the
“What do we want to do now?” trap.
With our integrity at stake,
our doing takes its guidance
from what is right for us as a whole
regardless of the price we have to pay
to do it.
What is right for us as a whole
is not something we think
our way into knowing.
We feel our way there.
Look our way there.
Listen our way there.
Trust our way there.
If you are ever going to have faith
in something,
let it be faith in your ability
to know what is right for you.
And trust yourself to it
with filial devotion
and allegiance,
following it everywhere you go.
This is living with Integrity. - 01/14/2020— Eastern Bluebird 01/12/2020 04 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 12, 2020
Kairos was the Greek God of Luck and Opportunity,
signifying the right time,
the appropriate time,
the appointed time,
the time to act,
the time for birth
and the time for death,
the time for things to happen
the time for things to stop happening…
Chronos was the Greek God of Time
signifying clock time,
calendar time,
What day is it?
What time is it?
Aion was the Greek God of Time
signifying eternity,
eternal time,
the God of the Ages,
the Spirit of the Times…
When we ask,
“Do you know what time it is?”
We are talking about Chronos.
When we wonder,
“Is it time for a nap
or a walk around the block?”
We are talking about Kairos.
When we say,
“Those were the days!”
We are talking about Aion.
Being alive in the moment of our living
is living with Integrity,
aligned with Kairos.
The old Taoists knew the Way
is the way of knowing
what the time right now is ripe for,
and acting in ways that are at one
with the time that is ready
for our action.
We have to read the times (Aion)
and know what is being called for now (Kairos)
no matter what the day, or hour, is (Chronos).
Knowing what Kairos is calling for,
is ready for,
and acting in ways that are felicitous,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
is to be centered in the path
and offering what the occasion calls for
with the gifts/genius/daemon
we are here to serve.
Perfection doesn’t get any better than this. - 01/15/2020— Mabry Mill 10/30/2019 03 — Blue Ridge Parkway, MP 176.2, near Meadows of Dan, in Floyd County, Virginia, October 30, 2019
Being alive in the moment of our living
is living with Integrity,
aligned with Kairos,
in accord with Tao.
Tao is you.
Tao is what is right for you
(Not to be confused
with what you want for you.
What we want is always
keeping us from doing
what is right for us,
which is why it is said
that we always grow up
against our will.
We are separated from
ourselves at birth,
and spend our lifetime
trying to find our way back
to who we are–
fighting it all the way.
Which means we want
nothing to do with Tao.
You see the problem).
Tao is your true,
authentic,
genuine,
natural self.
“The face that was yours
before you were born.”
Your original nature.
The essential truth of who you are.
Carl Jung said,
“We are who we have always been,
and who we will be.”
When we are in accord with Tao,
we are in accord with that aspect
of who we are.
And Tao is more than that.
Tao is how everything is
in its essential nature.
Tao is the entire universe
working together in one harmonious whole.
It is how things are
when they are smoothly functioning
as themselves
in relation to all other things and beings.
When we break troth with ourselves,
with one another,
with other things,
we are out of accord with Tao
and out of tune,
out of harmony,
with all of life.
And all the money,
drugs,
alcohol,
and sex
in the world
will not compensate us
for what we have lost.
The way out of the mess we are in
is the way back to who we are,
to what is right for us
even though it is the last thing we want.
We cannot get there
without growing up.
Some more.
Again.
Forever.
It’s like dying.
That’s the price of being alive. - 01/15/2020— Last Days of Fall 11/03/2019 03 Panorama — Blue Ridge Parkway, Linville River Bridge, Linville Falls Picnic Area, Linville Falls, North Carolina, November 3, 2019
Jesus said,
“Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?”
I say,
“What would you go to hell for?”
We are asking the same question.
Deciding for ourselves what is right
is saying we will go to hell for it.
For our decision about what is right.
How right can it be
if we aren’t willing to go to hell for it?
How authentically can we live
if we hedge our bets,
tiptoe on egg shells,
carefully refuse to make waves,
or rock boats,
or turn over apple carts,
or the tables of money changers,
for fear of going to hell if we do?
How can hell threaten
anyone who is hellbent on being who they are
and doing what they know to be right–
not because someone else said so,
but because they say so–
no matter what?
No one can judge for us what is right.
That is ours to determine for ourselves.
We say what is right,
and we live as though it is,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
What is right
is what is right here and now.
Who says so?
We do.
And if we are wrong about it?
We will learn from it,
and do better next time.
And if we go to hell for it?
If there is nothing worth going to hell for
in our life,
what kind of life is that?
That kind of life is worse than hell
because we never lived it.
We were too afraid of going to hell.
Which is the moral of the guy
who buried his talent
in a mayonnaise jar
and took no chances with being wrong.
Champ Wilson said,
“Columbus took a chance.”
Are you going to live your life or not? - 01/05/2020— Eastern Bluebird 01/12/2020 05 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 12, 2020
It takes being in the right place
at the right time,
being around the right people,
knowing what is right for you
and what is wrong for you,
looking and listening
for what the right thing is to do
in each situation as it arises,
without trying to be smart,
and wily,
and crafty,
and sly,
conniving and contriving
ways to bring about
the agenda you are serving,
attempting to arrange
the future you want for yourself,
no matter what.
Can you do that?
Can you serve a good
at a variance with what
you consider to be your own good?
Can you see and do what is right for you
no matter how much it is contrary
to what you want for you?
Can you sacrifice yourself
for the sake of what needs you to do it?
This is Jesus on the cross.
This is Jesus saying,
“If you would walk with me,
you have to deny yourself
and take up your cross daily
and come with me.”
It takes growing up
some more
again
every day.
It takes seeing what you look at.
It takes looking into what you look at.
Everything you need to see
is always right before you.
Right there waiting
for you to develop eyes that see.
Everything we do is a mirror showing us
who we are
and who we need to be.
Nobody can tell us that.
We have to see it for ourselves.
I’ve told you that every photograph I take
is a picture of harmony,
serenity,
balance,
peace,
beauty,
calm,
symmetry,
synthesis,
oneness,
congruity,
etc.
I am showing myself
who I am to be,
who I am to work toward becoming,
and the degree to which
discord,
disharmony,
chaos,
fear,
uncertainty,
imbalance,
confusion,
insecurity,
instability,
insanity,
meaninglessness
and absurdity,
etc.
dog my heels
and threaten my existence.
I work within what is true with me
to become what is true with me
and all of that is plainly visible
in the things I do
that are most important to me.
We know who we are
and who we also are
by looking at what we are doing
and what that has to say/show us
about who we are
and who we also are.
Mirrors are everywhere
for those who know how to see
what to look for. - 01/16/2020— Thunder Ridge 10/29/2019 06 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 74.7, Virginia, October 29, 2019
Being alive is living with Integrity,
aligned with Kairos,
in accord with Tao,
in light of Dharma.
Dharma is “the eternal and inherent,”
“uncontrived and inerrant,”
“constant and unalterable”
“nature of reality,”
“cosmic law,”
“universal truth”
running through
and binding
all things,
seen and unseen,
in “the way things are together
and apart.”
It is the way things are in themselves
past all appearances,
wants,
wishes,
desires,
illusions,
delusions,
representations,
pretensions,
etc.
It is who we are at the source,
at the heart,
at the bedrock,
at the foundation stone.
It is who I am
when you say,
“Isn’t that just like Jim?”
It is water seeking its own level.
It is gravity producing,
and produced by,
mass.
Mass producing and produced by
gravity.
It is who we are
and what we do
when we are being
true to ourselves.
The problem is that lions
and great white whales,
gophers and asteroids
have to be true to themselves–
and you and I do not.
We can be whatever we think
will get us what we want,
will work out best for us,
will produce the end we have in mind.
We can create disruption in the flow.
We introduce disharmony
and discord
into “the fabric of the universe.”
We can ignore Kairos,
distort the Tao,
deform Dharma,
lose connection with our original face
and wander through the endless wasteland
cutoff from the guiding pulsation
of our original nature.
We can spend our life
seeking who we are,
instead of being who we are.
Finding the tools,
the path,
the way to The Way
of Being Our Natural Self
is the work of becoming
what we seek.
The keys are awareness,
compassion,
patience,
persistence
and practice, practice, practice. - 01/16/2020— November 4 11/04/2019 01 — Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, North Carolina, November 4, 2019
Playing the best game of our life
may, or may not, result in victory,
but.
We played the best game of our life.
If we consistently play at the level
we are capable of playing,
wins and losses will balance out,
but.
Wins and losses are minor details.
Consistently playing/living at the level
we are capable of playing/living
in each situation as it arises
is the source of satisfaction,
bliss,
peace,
well-being,
harmony,
serenity,
fulfillment,
completion
and the best
we can imagine,
hope for,
expect,
experience,
have,
enjoy–
and cannot be bought,
or contrived,
or connived,
or conned,
or manipulated into being.
What is keeping us
from playing/living at the level
we are capable of playing/living?
What do we think is better,
or more important,
than that? - 01/17/2020— Parkway Overlooks 10/29/2019 02 Panorama — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, October 29, 2019
Being alive is living with Integrity,
aligned with Kairos,
in accord with Tao,
in light of Dharma,
under the care of Grace.
Grace says it all.
“By Grace we are saved.”
Not “by God” from “Hell,”
but “by Grace” from “Chaos,
Apostasy,
and the Desolating Sacrilege”
(Or whatever words
describe for you
the wasted emptiness
of the Void).
By Grace we are saved
from having to live a life
we have no idea how to live.
Grace saves us in the sense
of restoring us to a life worth living–
to the life that is our life to live,
the life that only we can live,
the life that makes us “us,”
who we are,
reunited with our original nature
and the face that was ours
before we were born.
Grace is Irrational Benevolence.
Irrational in that it is
completely unexpected,
undeserved,
shocking to the point
of stunning us into silence
and disbelief,
sitting us down,
shutting us up
and forcing upon us
the work of making sense
of wonder,
amazement
and awe
beyond words–
beyond imagining,
beyond believing.
Grace is serendipity,
synchronicity,
miracle.
“I once was lost,
but now am found,
was blind,
but now I see!”
Enlightenment.
Awakening.
Nirvana.
Deliverance.
Kairos,
Tao,
Dharma,
coming together,
coinciding,
revealing themselves as One,
to create Integrity
and introduce us to US!
It is all Grace.
All the way down.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about,
keep walking around in the dark,
looking for a light switch.
When the light comes on,
that’s Grace
at work in your life,
and you will look back at the darkness
and realize that, too,
was Grace at work in your life.
Realized,
or not realized,
Grace is all there is. - 01/17/2020— Last Days of Fall 11/03/2019 14 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Linville Falls Picnic Area, Linville Falls, North Carolina, November 3, 2019
Throw away your doctrine,
your theology,
your faith in what
somebody has told you is so,
and step into your own life
with your eyes wide open,
looking at everything,
looking into everything,
afraid of nothing
curious about it all,
asking all of the questions
that beg to be asked,
saying all of the things
that cry out to be said,
holding nothing back,
holding yourself back from nothing,
bearing the pain,
seeing clearly,
responding appropriately
in each situation that arises,
all your life long.
That is all there is to it. - 01/17/2020— Eastern Bluebird 01/12/2020 06 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 12, 2020
Sarah Kendzior said
“All we need to do is care about one another”
(Or words to that effect).
We have allowed the internet
and social media
to take caring away from us.
Hostility and anger
quickly become rage,
and here we are.
Don’t act out of anger.
That’s the first rule of caring.
And if it isn’t the first,
it’s high on the list. - 01/18/2020— Parkway Overlooks 10/29/2019 07 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, October 29, 2019
The profit motive is the essence of sin.
Sin is being off the path,
away from The Way,
lost without hope,
guidance
or direction.
Sin is as far from enlightened living
as we can be.
Sin is being wrong about what is important.
Enlightenment,
deliverance,
realization,
salvation is being restored
to ends worthy of us,
and being right about what is important.
“What’s in it for me?”
is irrelevant
in the grip of what we must do
no matter what.
How many of us live out of a sense
of what we must do,
out of an ever-deepening relationship
with what calls our name,
with the face that was ours before we were born,
with our original nature,
with who we are
and what we are here to do,
serve,
become,
be?
Real Life is about these things.
Physical Life is about
being 98.6 and breathing.
When we are 98.6 and breathing,
our biggest concern
is how to fill up the time
without being bored out of our mind.
Physical Life is driven by a fear of boredom
and a desire for profit,
adoration,
fame
and followers.
“Fortune and glory, Kid!
Fortune and glory!”
Real Life is about living in the service
of that which grounds us,
centers us,
focuses us
in that which we came to do
and for which we live
and move
and have our being–
for that which is life
and imbues us with life
through our association with it,
our relationship with it–
guiding,
directing,
comforting,
calling us
through all situations
and circumstances
in the work that is ours to do
and the life that is ours to live.
Physical Life looks for what is important,
for what matters most.
Real Life flows from what is important
and brings us to life
in the service of what matters most. - 01/18/2020— Mabry Mill 10/28/2019 03 — Blue Ridge Parkway, MP 176.2, near Meadows of Dan, in Floyd County, Virginia, October 28, 2019
Democracy is not automatic.
The Constitution is an ideal for self-government
that offers the best imaginable atmosphere
for personal liberty, freedom and rights
for all citizens,
across the board,
with no exceptions or exemptions
that has ever been instituted
in the history of the world.
Some people don’t like that
because it interferes with their ability
to make the highest possible profit
at the expense of their fellow citizens’
liberty, freedom and rights.
The wealthy are always wealthy
at somebody’s expense.
And the wealthy can never be wealthy enough.
The Founders of Democracy
could not envision the kind of wealth
the wealthy have created for themselves
by buying politicians
to create loopholes,
granting them exceptions and exemptions,
and allowing them special consideration
in making laws that undercut the foundation
of “government of the people,
by the people,
for the people,”
and making corporations “people”
at the expense of actual people.
They get by with their subterfuge and deceit
by managing the perceptions of actual people,
and making actual people think
that they, the wealthy, have their, the actual people,
best interest at heart,
and are protecting them, the actual people,
from the terrible threat to democracy
the true defenders of democracy are
to the interests of the wealthy
but not the interests of the actual people.
It is a scam and a con all the way.
Actual people are surrendering
their liberty, freedom and rights
in the service of the wealthy,
and becoming the toadies and servant/slaves
of the wealthy
because the power of money
is the power of perception,
and those who control perception
control the world.
And destroy democracy. - 01/18/2020— November 4 11/04/2019 03 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Goshen Creek, near Boone, North Carolina, November 4, 2019
We drink ourselves to oblivion.
Or smoke pot,
chew peyote,
sniff coke,
shoot heroin…
“Bread and circuses” do it for some.
Distraction,
diversion,
denial…
Escape comes in many forms.
Addiction to something
(Religion, perhaps),
is our favorite alternative
to being here, now.
Suicide is a close second.
What?
Physical Life has nothing to commend it!
Life is not automatic.
Physical Life is just like being dead,
except for being 98.6 and breathing.
Physical Life is just a step on the way
to Real Life,
but.
We have to keep walking.
Seeking.
Searching.
Looking.
Listening.
Seeing.
Hearing.
And always,
always,
bearing the pain of being alive
in the service of coming to life,
waking up to life,
birthing ourselves
into Real Life
by living our way
into the realization
of what’s what,
and knowing the power
of the shift in perspective
that transforms everything
without changing anything,
which changes everything.
The shift from Physical Life
to Real Life
is the shift from looking for a reason
to go on with it,
to being gripped by a power so compelling
that we cannot get enough
of life just as it is here, now.
This is the power of Real Life.
The power to will and to do,
to know and to be,
to see and to hear,
to realize and to imagine,
to create and to enjoy,
to wonder and to perceive
and to live in the service
of the life that is ours to live
in each situation as it arises,
moment-by-moment-by-moment
all our life long.
Real Life pouring over,
spilling out,
flowing through us
and around us
is there for the living
for each of us.
We get there by looking into
what we are doing.
Stop!
Look!
Listen!
Into what you are doing!
Ask all of the questions that beg to be asked!
Say all of the things that cry out to be said!
Bear the pain of knowing what’s what
into knowing more than you know you know
simply by knowing fully what you know,
and what questions that begs to be asked
until you go over into “I don’t know,”
and continuing to ask about what you don’t know,
and allowing the quest to know
more than you know you know
carry you from Physical Life
into the infinite possibilities of Real Life.
We get from here to there
by living our way there
one moment at a time.
Bearing the pain of the journey
is the key to making the trip. - 01/19/2020— Eastern Bluebird 01/12/2020 03 — Scenes From My Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 12, 2020
If I were your physician
and you came to me once a year
for a physical/wellness exam
I would ask you,
“What keeps you going?”
And,
“What do you love to do
that doesn’t involve the participation
of anyone else?”
And,
“How often do you do it?”
My best advice would be,
year after year,
“See what you look at.”
“Ask the questions that beg to be asked.”
“Say the things that cry out to be said.”
“Know what’s what.”
“Do what needs you to do it
with the gifts you bring to the table
in each situation as it arises
all your life long.”
No physician I’ve ever had
has said any of this to me.
And, I expect not to you.
Which has as much to do
with where we are
here and now
as anything else
that we have done,
or that has been done,
or not done,
to us. - 01/19/2020— Beidler Forest 11/22/2019 15 Panorama — Francis Beidler Forest, Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Four Holes Swamp, Harleyville, South Carolina, November 22, 2019
We enter the river of life at birth,
with what comes with us from the womb
and what meets us upon arrival
to work with.
And here we are.
This has been going on for at least 200,000 years.
Nothing has changed about the process
in that length of time.
We can’t say it doesn’t work.
It could work better
if the umwelt that receives us
were more conscious,
more compassionately aware,
of what it was doing with us.
As it is,
we plop out of the womb
and are thrown into life
with practically nothing
in the way of an instruction manual,
or any up-to-date
and trustworthy
guidance
regarding what’s what
and what to do about it,
how to deal with it,
manage it and/or our response to it,
handle it
and be better off for it.
The advice we get
is partisan to the core,
and not well-considered
or adequately evaluated
by those doing the advising.
Who can we trust with our life?
Who wouldn’t be better off
with better parenting?
It is an absolute miracle
that we are doing as well as we are!
There is no validity at all
to much/most of the stuff we are told.
We spend as much of our life unlearning what isn’t so
as we spend learning what is so.
We do not get the kind of help we need.
And it is all up to us to figure that out
and find what is helpful
and ignore what is not.
With nothing more to go on
than our own personal experience.
This is wild.
Who can we trust?
Upon what can we rely?
It begins with ourselves.
What can we trust about ourselves?
What can we rely on about ourselves?
The more consciously–
the more mindfully,
compassionately,
aware–
we are of creating/building/maintaining
a relationship with ourselves,
the better of we will be
in finding what we need
to do what we need to do
with what is ours to work with
throughout our life.
And nobody tells us this.
We have to figure it out on our own.
Knowing that much
puts it squarely up to us.
We start with ourselves,
and look for people who are looking for us,
and band together,
drawing comfort and consolation
from each other,
pooling our knowledge,
sharing our insight,
offering encouragement,
support
and caring presence
all the way along the way.
The right kind of company
makes all the difference.
And, in order to find
the right kind of company,
it helps to be the right kind of company.
That is the work
that is incumbent upon us all.
And no one tells us this at the start.
And very few tell us this at all.
Be sure to pass the word. - 01/19/2020— Parkway Overlooks 10/28/2019 02 Panorama– Blue Ridge Parkway, The Saddle Overlook, Floyd, Virginia, October 28, 2019
Neither whiskey,
beer
nor cheap red wine
nor drugs,
legal
or illicit,
nor religion
as it is presently constituted,
can restore
our stability
and harmony,
our peace
and balance,
our serenity,
our foundation,
our ground
and center.
Putting ourselves
in right relationship
with ourselves
and our life
is the work
of integrity–
of integrating ourselves
with ourselves
and with Kairos,
Tao,
Dharma
and Grace.
It is the work
of seeing what we look at
and looking into it
so that we see
all there is to see
about it.
It is the work
of asking the questions
that beg to be asked,
and that beg to be asked
about the questions.
It is the work of trusting questions
more than answers,
and asking all of the questions
our answers generate.
It is the work of saying the things
that cry out to be said,
and asking all of the questions
raised by saying them.
And looking into everything.
And seeing what’s what,
and doing what needs to be done about it
with the gifts that came with us
into the world.
Doing this the way it needs to be done
restores harmony,
puts things back on track,
realigns the mechanisms of life,
reestablishes order,
allows things to naturally
find their place,
brings spontaneity to life,
along with good faith,
kindness,
tenderness
and mercy,
and everything hums along
in tune with the music of the spheres. - 01/20/2020— Brown Creeper 01/16/2020 01 — Scenes From My Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 16, 2020
I wish things were as they should be,
as we expect them to be,
as we say they are.
I wish equality were real,
actual,
tangible,
true
and experienced it as such
everywhere,
all the time.
I wish corporations weren’t people.
I wish people knew
when they had enough money,
and stopped trying to make
more than they need.
And that people who didn’t
have enough money
had legitimate means
of making what they need.
I wish people who hated people
would change their perception
and their attitude
and give everybody a break.
I wish people cared for all people
they way they care for themselves,
and I wish all people cared for themselves
the way they need to
to be who they are.
I wish we all respected
and honored one another.
I wish we all were straight up
and flat out
who we are,
and content to be exactly that
without airs and aspirations
for more than we need to be.
I wish everybody had what they needed
to be who they are.
And that that was enough.
I do so wish
there were lines we all
could agree were lines
and could honor
and respect
and draw
with full confidence
that they would be honored
and respected by all people.
And that no one lived
to destroy valid lines. - 01/20/2020— Curves 10/29/2019 06 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, October 29, 2019
“Looking into it” means
“Getting to the bottom of it.”
It means looking until you see all of it.
Do not stop with the surface!
Do not stop with the assumptions!
Do not stop with the presumptions!
Do not stop with the inferences!
Do not stop with the conjectures,
the surmises,
the suppositions,
the uncritical embrace
of “What we all know to be so.”
Do not stop with what
is too shallow to splash!
Look into it!
Ask the questions that are not allowed.
Inquire past good manners
and polite examination,
and social affirmation
of common opinions
long held to be sacrosanct
and beyond through inspection.
Go for the heart of the matter!
Dig for the full reality
of “What everyone knows is true.”
“What is the evidence
that everyone knows
what they are talking about?”
Separate hearsay from the facts.
The world is awash in uninformed opinions.
“What makes you believe
that what you believe
is so?”
“Where do you get your information?”
“What are the assumptions
that form the basis
of your ideas, beliefs, opinions?”
“What makes you think
that what you say is so is so?
“Who says so?
What is their basis for saying so?
How do we know they know
what they are talking about?
What do they have at stake
in seeing as they do?”
“What do we have at stake
in seeing as we do?”
Ask the questions until there are no more questions!
About everything that matters! - 01/20/2020— Last Days of Fall 11/03/2019 10 Panorama — Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, November 3, 2019
There is nothing to have,
or acquire,
or attain,
or grasp.
There is only to will,
and to do,
and to be
In each situation as it arises,
moment-by-moment-by-moment.
There is no steady state of being:
saved or lost,
deserving or undeserving,
blessed or cursed,
safe or in peril…
There is only one thing after another,
through circumstances that change,
and times that are always moving,
like a river through the days.
We move with the currents
and dance with the time,
sometimes like this,
and sometimes like that,
but always, always,
in ways appropriate to the occasion.
Here we are–
now what?
What is happening?
What is called for?
What is being asked of us?
Be still!
Listen!
Look!
Be like the echo
in response to the shout!
Live with everything on the line
in every moment.
Why hold anything back?
Why hedge your bets?
There are a lot of opinions
about what happens when we die.
There is no doubt about this
being our one shot at life.
Why waste a minute
with something that
does not resonate
with something deep within?
We are not here to kill time.
We are here to seek ourselves
and live out who we are
in the time left for living.
“The game is a-foot!”
Be awake!
Be aware!
Something is calling your name! - 01/21/2020— Last Days of Fall 11/03/2019 15 — Linville Falls Picnic Area, Blue Ridge Parkway, Linville Falls, North Carolina, November 3, 2019
We all have a Vital Core
that we must live
to honor,
serve,
explore,
express,
steward,
protect,
and defend.
It is our place
to develop our relationship
with our Vital Core
and to live with it
in ways that bring us and it
to life in our life.
The degree to which we
are able to do this
is reflected
in our vitality,
spirit,
energy
and life.
People who have failed,
and are failing,
in their stewardship
of their Vital Core
are evident on all sides–
as are those who are excelling
in the task.
Our relationship with our Vital Core
is apparent in our eyes,
in our demeanor,
in our behavior,
in our step,
in our tone of voice
and in our relationships
with other people.
We begin the work of tending
our Vital Core
by recognizing its existence
and looking into the reality,
of its presence
and its place in our life.
This is meditative awareness
and introspection
at its best–
and is a process
we can carry out anywhere,
everywhere,
throughout our life.
I call it “Checking In
With The Heart Of Life And Being.”
“Hello!
What’s up?
Are you there?”
Ask it for a sign of its authenticity.
Perhaps a dream verifying its existence,
or an urge pointing direction
or calling for action.
You have to learn how to sense
the stirring of your Vital Core to life.
How to read its signals,
know what its needs are
and what actions on your part
will bring it more fully to life in your life.
Moods might be a place to look
for a connection with your Vital Core.
Explore your moods
for what they might be saying
about the needs of your Vital Core.
Our moods often reflect our response
to what is happening in our life,
but they can as easily reflect
our Vital Core’s response
to how we are responding
to what is happening in our life.
What might it be asking us to do
in responding to what is going on
within our present situation
or circumstances?
What guidance might it be offering?
As we learn how to led our Vital Core
take the lead in guiding our response
to the affairs of our life,
we find a partner in the work
to manage our life
moment-to-moment-to-moment–
and are no longer “up against it alone,”
but have a Consultant Within
with whom to confer
in finding the best response to make
to the here-and-now’s of the day-to-day.
And that is like having all we need
to find what we need
to do what needs to be done
in each situation that arises.
What a source of vitality
and life
that would be! - 01/21/2020— Carolina Wren 01/18/2020 06 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 18, 2020
It isn’t about thinking or believing.
It isn’t about having or acquiring.
It isn’t about achieving or accomplishing.
It isn’t about wanting or willing.
It isn’t about forcing or striving.
It isn’t about contriving and arranging.
It is solely about being and doing.
Right being and Right doing.
In each situation as it arises.
Moment-by-moment-by-moment.
All our life long.
Whether we are in the mood for it or not.
Whether we feel like it or not.
Whether we want to or not.
Whether we need some time off or not.
Through all circumstances,
regardless of the weather conditions.
24/7/12/Forever.
Being who we need to be,
doing what needs to be done,
the way it needs to be done,
when it needs to be done,
for as long as it needs to be done.
All the talk about faith
and theology,
doctrine and dogma,
comes down to this:
Do we have what it takes
to be who we need to be
and do what needs us to do it,
every moment
of every day
no matter what
forever? - 01/21/2020— Otter Creek 10/29/2019 06 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Big Island, Virginia, October 29, 2019
The Buddha died from eating bad pork.
How enlightened was that?
What did the Buddha get
out of being the Buddha?
The Christ died charged
with being a messianic pretender.
What did the Christ get
out of being the Christ?
What do you hope to get
out of being you?
What are you in this for?
If you are looking for a payoff,
what is it?
If you are not looking for a payoff,
what motivates your life?
What are you living for?
What was the Buddha living for?
What was the Christ living for?
What is a good-enough reason
for dealing with the day–
day-after-day-after-day?
What’s in it for you?
What do you expect to receive
for your trouble?
Look into it.
What grounds you?
Shapes you?
Directs you?
What are you centered on?
Focused on?
Enchanted by?
What is your purpose?
Your goal?
Your intention?
What makes your little heart sing?
What are you doing here?
What are you doing with your days?
Look into it. - 01/22/2020— November 4 11/04/2019 02 Panorama — Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, North Carolina, November 4, 2019
Here is the solution
to making life as good as it can be
for all of us:
Want less.
Love More.
Share the wealth.
Starting with a livable minimum wage.
That’s it.
That is where the rest of this is going.
Save yourself the pain of the trip
by stopping now.
Taoism and Buddhism and Zen,
and Hinduism and Islam and Christianity,
and all religion ever
are elaborate systems of denial.
Alcoholics Anonymous is as truthful as it gets.
But even A.A. stumbles with what to be
beyond sober.
Sober alcoholics don’t have a better life
than anybody else.
They are still stuck in some elaborate system of denial.
Because the curse of Col. Nathan R. Jessup rules the world:
“You Can’t Handle The Truth!”
Truer words have never been spoken,
nor will be.
Our need to hide from the truth
is the source of all of our problems today,
and tomorrow and every day forever.
Let’s take mindfulness for an example.
Mindfulness is grounded upon
looking truth in its ugly red eye.
Two things flow from this.
Here is the first.
Mindfulness in one dispensation
is equivalent to and inseparable from
happiness, love, joy, peace, gratitude and bright smiling faces.
You cannot be mindful and depressed,
or sad, angry, guilty, hate-filled, gloomy, moody or real.
Mindfulness is mindless about its own failure
to be reality based.
Mindfulness is in denial,
and is yet another system of denial.
Mindfulness in another dispensation
attempts to get around this dead-end
by telling us to put all of our negative feelings
“in awareness” without being sidetracked
by them and go on attending the present moment.
But we never get back to dealing with
all that we tuck away “in awareness.”
What do we do with all of the negative
realizations and emotions arising
from the realizations?
Our situation is hopeless!
What do we do with that?
And what is with the refusal to face
the hopelessness of our situation?
Why must we all deny hopelessness?
And pretend it is not so?
The truth is that all of us are going nowhere fast.
That is easier for some of us to deny
than others of us,
but it applies to all of us.
Let’s take a person working a minimum wage job,
making, say, $20,000 a year
(but it may be more like $16,000).
Nobody can live on $20,000 a year.
Minimum wage jobs are built for teenagers
working after school with a mom and dad
to take care of food, clothing, shelter and medical expenses.
Military veterans come home from our endless wars
with PTSD, substance abuse addiction
and no marketable skills,
and are killing themselves at a rate
of about 6,000 per year.
Telling them to deposit their feelings in their awareness
is not changing their lived experience.
Feeling better can be a step on the way to getting better
IF the resources are available
for a self-sustaining life with appropriate goals
and the means of achieving them.
For an increasing number of people world-wide
that is not a possibility.
After we put things in awareness, what?
After alcoholics and substance abusers become sober, what?
How do we change the systems that create hopelessness
for more people every year?
No matter where you go with this question,
you will be circling around the inescapable conclusion
that it all hinges on the excessively and super wealthy
sharing the wealth.
And the best way of doing that is an equitable tax system.
Farmers are subsidized.
Corporations are subsidized.
The unemployed and underemployed have to be subsidized.
And we all have to come to terms with the undeniable fact
that we all have to have appropriate life goals
and the means of achieving them.
We cannot “have it all,” or even half of it all.
We cannot sustain an ever-increasing standard of living.
Nobody’s wealth can grow exponentially forever.
Every one of us has to live within limits
in order for all of us to live at all.
Want less.
Love more.
Share the wealth.
Starting with a livable minimum wage. - 01/22/2020— Parkway Overlooks 10/29/2019 22 Panorama — Blue Ridge Parkway near Roanoke, Virginia, October 29, 2029
The deeper we go into any religion,
or philosophy,
or spiritual discipline/persuasion/point-of-view,
the more ridiculous,
absurd,
conflicted,
paradoxical,
outlandish,
insane
it becomes.
I love Zen because it doesn’t
take itself seriously,
it doesn’t try to make disciples,
and it doesn’t care what anyone thinks about it.
The heart of Zen is preposterous,
nonsense,
non sequiturs,
non-answers,
farcical,
idiotic
and laughable.
As are all other religions (etc.),
but they have been known
to kill people
who said that about them.
Zen just says,
“You are right!”
and joins in on the fun.
That’s the best way to be religious (etc.).
That, and inviting everyone
to be a part of the joke,
with no entry fees required
or obligations imposed. - 01/22/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 08 — Spillway, Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019, an iPhone photo taken with the Spectre slow shutter app
We live best out of a state of equilibrium,
homeostasis,
balance,
harmony,
calm,
peace,
serenity,
stability,
composure,
tranquility,
equanimity,
etc.
All commercials/advertisements/scams/cons/etc.
are geared to unbalance us in some way.
The easiest way is to play with our
wanting/wanting-not mechanism.
The people who are out to get us
know we cannot be gotten
if we are solidly grounded in the moment,
at one with who we are.
They have to destabilize us somehow
to have a chance at “making the sale.”
Everything that preys on us
has to destabilize us
in order to get to us.
They do that by getting our attention
and then distracting us
into their agenda for us.
“Distraction and Pounce”
is the process of “Owning the Mark.”
Owning your Center keeps the parasites at bay.
Make equilibrium your living quarters.
Learn to recognize when you are “home”
and when you are “away from home,”
and note just how far “away from home” you are
at various points throughout your day.
Home represents invulnerability.
Away From Home represents vulnerability.
The more off balance, out of balance, unbalanced,
we are,
the more vulnerable we are.
When you find yourself Away From Home,
stop and see
how you got there
and what you need to do
to find your way back Home.
And do it.
You will make better decisions
and have a better life
when you live
and work
from Home. - 01/22/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 16 Panorama — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019
There are a lot of things
we cannot do anything about.
Important things.
Essential things.
When we come upon those things,
we have to re-think our options.
Having our way is not one of them.
We have to readjust our goals,
revise our priorities,
and make-do with what we have.
This requires maturity on our part.
The immature among us will develop symptoms,
flail about,
scream, moan, whine and shout,
take refuge in substance abuse
or suicide,
and their story will end with a flame-out.
Carl Jung observed that the Big Problems in life
have no solution,
but can only be out-lived.
Perspective changes over time.
We have to wait it out.
Sometimes, we run out of time.
Well, we all do eventually.
Enjoying what remains of our time
begins right now,
in the midst of terrible circumstances
and little hope of better days ahead.
Enjoyment is a perspective shift.
When we cannot do anything else,
we can shift our perspective.
That is an option available to all of us
in all circumstances.
Detachment.
Perception.
Perspective.
The special powers of mind.
Play around with how you see things,
with the words you use to describe
your situation.
Pay attention to how what you say
impacts how you see
and what you feel–
and change the narrative,
the internal dialogue,
you use to say what’s what
and your reaction to it.
The special powers of mind
govern our reaction to what is going on
in our life.
Changing our reaction even a little,
changes our response,
and opens doors to coping and adjustment
that would remain shut without it.
We have to use everything at our disposal
in making our way through a world
like our world.
There may be dark times ahead for us all.
How we perceive them will enable us
to help one another along the path we share. - 01/23/2020— Carolina Wren 01/18/2020 02 — Scenes from my Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 18, 2020
Anything that stops us,
requires us to take stock
of our situation,
forces reflection and consideration
upon us,
shocks us out of automatic living mode,
makes us orient ourselves
in space and time,
leaves us wondering,
“Now what?”,
invites us to sit down
while we catch our breath,
leaves us pondering
our next move,
and where we go from here,
is the kind of thing
we need to practice
from time to time
in order to be ready for it
when it does happen.
We need to practice
getting our feet under us,
squaring up to the moment,
reorienting ourselves
in time and space,
reacquainting ourselves
with the Bedrock,
regaining our equilibrium,
our homeostasis,
our balance,
and realigning ourselves
with the Source,
the Goal,
and the Vitality of Life.
We live too insulated
from the heart of life.
We are too automatic
and unthinking
in our responses to life.
We are fundamentally mindless
of our way with life.
And rarely pay attention
to what we are doing
or why we are doing it,
and how we might do it better,
or whether we need to be doing it at all,
and what we might be doing instead.
We might pretend,
from time to time,
that we just had a heart attack.
And see how that changes
what we do next. - 01/23/2020— Beidler Forest 11/22/2019 05 — Francis Beidler Forest, Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Four Holes Swamp, Harleyville, South Carolina, November 22, 2019
Our problem is living in ways appropriate to the occasion
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long.
Anything that helps us with that is to be received
with gratitude and appreciation.
Anything else is a distraction at best
and toxic or deadly at worst.
We have to determine
whether we are being helped
or hurt,
and take action appropriate
to the occasion.
In each situation as it arises,
all our life long. - 01/24/2020— Carolina Wren 01/18/2020 04 — Scenes From My Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 18, 2020
Oblivion and distraction are the twin demons
disrupting the flow,
upsetting the balance
and destroying the harmony
of our lives–
according to the old Taoist and Zen masters.
Substance abuse
and the 10,000 addictions
of the modern world
bring the validity
of the old observation
to life in our lived experience.
We have lost the ground,
the foundation,
the bedrock
of life,
and live searching
for a reason to be alive,
settling for ways
to escape the pain of not-knowing
and the fear that there is nothing
at the bottom of it all,
only free-falling
all the way down.
It is time we stop
and see what’s what.
And know three things:
1) “Where you stumble and fall,
there lies the treasure”
(Joseph Campbell).
2) “What you seek
lies far back in the darkest corner
of the cave you most
don’t want to enter”
(Joseph Campbell).
3) “What you seek
is found within”
(Multiple sources).
Within is the last place
we want to look.
We attend lectures and seminars,
read books and articles,
watch videos and take courses.
We will do anything
but the one thing required
to find the path
and take up the journey.
The path is under our feet.
We only have to look and listen,
see and hear,
to know that it is so.
We have to trust ourselves
and our own sense
of what is right for us
and what is wrong.
And, when we prove to be untrustworthy,
we have to keep trusting ourselves
to make the necessary adjustments
to refine our sense
of what is right for us
and what is wrong.
When trusting ourselves leads us into trouble,
we keep trusting ourselves
to find our way out of trouble,
and trouble becomes our teacher.
Living the lesson
and life is the teacher.
And “We are the sculptor
and we are the stone”
(Alexis Carrel). - 01/24/2020— James River 10/29/2019 07 — Blue Ridge Parkway, Big Island, Virginia, October 29, 2019
Jon Kabat-Zinn said, “What happens now
can influence what happens next.”
He also said, “No one else can wake us up.”
That responsibility is ours alone to bear.
How many now’s will we pass through
without influencing what happens next
in the direction of waking up?
Now is when/where we take the step toward waking up.
By simply being aware
of what is happening here, now.
Now has an internal aspect
and an external aspect
which are interrelated
and capable of modifying
each other in significant ways.
And things are happening
on both levels simultaneously.
Some things are happening unconsciously,
beyond our range of conscious awareness.
And, some things are happening
within our range of awareness,
but outside of our zone of attention.
We do not see things we look at.
We do not hear things that are within hearing distance,
but out of mind.
Now is mostly happening without us.
We live without being alive to the time and place of our living
too much of the time.
Engaging the present moment
influences the next moment.
Not engaging the present moment
also influences the next moment.
How we live now influences how we will live then.
What kind of influence do you want to have?
Conscious/mindful?
Unconscious/mindless?
If we are not mindfully engaged with our life,
we are not so much living our life
as we are being lived by it.
We are “just along for the ride.”
Socrates is said to have said,
“The examined life is not worth living,”
leading Sheldon Kopp to quip,
“The unlived life is not worth examining.”
The place of mindful awareness
is front and center
in both the living and the examining.
If we are not aware of what we are doing,
we are being swept along by the winds,
tides and currents of time and chance.
Which is one way to do it,
but we are pushing our luck
more than trusting it.
We become an active participant
in choosing the tone and direction
of our life–in the living of our life–
by being present in
and aware of
what is happening here/now,
and thereby influencing
what happens next.
Take a ten minute break.
Sit quietly, eyes open or closed,
focus on the moment
and be aware of all that is in the moment with you,
internally and externally,
for ten minutes.
Your attention will drift–
that becomes one more thing to be aware of.
Simply bring it back to here, now
and continue to be aware of the moment.
Take a break for the present
once or twice a day
for the rest of your life.
That’s all there is to it. - 01/25/2020— Last Days of Fall 11/03/2019 30 — Bass Lake, Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, November 3, 2019
Grounding ourselves in our original nature
and living out of our vital core,
positions us to look into who we are
at our center–
and that means stopping and seeing,
listening,
reflecting
on who we have shown ourselves to be
time and again
through all of the situations and circumstances
of our life.
What shines through
all that we have done
and all that has been done to us?
What is the kernel that keeps coming to light?
What have we been able to count on
from ourselves?
What got us to this point?
We could have quit a thousand times,
yet, here we are.
We could have done better, of course,
and we all wish we had,
but, we also could have done worse,
easily.
Yet, here we are.
We owe being here, now, to ourselves.
What got us through all of that
to here, now?
That is a core strength.
Explore all aspects of the qualities
and characteristics
that got us here, now.
Honor them with the recognition
that they are reflections
of your original nature,
of what you can count on,
rely on,
depend on,
believe in
about you.
Live to be aware of all of that
working in your present
to buoy you up,
keep you going,
bounce you back,
call you to life–
and work to develop
your relationship with those aspects
of you
with conscious appreciation of them
and reliance on them.
Sink into them
and live out of them
amid “the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea.”
And spend time with people
who bring out the best in you
by reflecting you to yourself,
and showing you who you are
by reflecting your core qualities to you
and by recognizing them in you.
We have made it this far unconsciously,
almost accidentally,
without our intentional participation
and cooperation.
Let’s live to see what we can do
as a full partner with our ground
and center
in the time left for living! - 01/25/2020— Mabry Mill 10/28/2019 02 Panorama — Blue Ridge Parkway, MP 176.2, near Meadows of Dan, in Floyd County, Virginia, October 28, 2019
There is a lot of talk about gratitude these days,
as though it is a panacea for all that besets us,
a sure cure for all of our troubles and woes.
If we don’t like something,
we are encouraged
to just tuck it into gratitude
and let it take all our anxiety away.
Nowhere in the gratitude sales pitch
is any attention given
to the fine line between gratitude and denial.
Between spontaneous,
heart-felt appreciation,
and tricking ourselves into feeling better
by refusing to see what there is to feel bad about.
To see how things might be viewed
at the expense of how things are
and also are
is two-side-ism that dismisses one side.
The glass can be seen as half-empty,
and half-full.
And, it can be seen as containing 4 oz of liquid
in an 8 oz glass.
And how we feel about that
depends on how thirsty we are,
and a host of other factors,
all of which are ignored
in the service of gratitude at all times,
above all other considerations.
Denial comes in 10,000 forms
to comfort and console and keep us going.
To see clearly
and access responsibly
and respond appropriately
to what we are being asked to deal with
is essential to managing our life situation
in light of the true good of all concerned.
What we don’t see
because we refuse to look at it
or assess it accurately
can skew our response
and create a make-believe world
with no connection to the actual situation
in which we live.
Being grateful things aren’t worse yet
isn’t helping them get better–
and keeps us from seeing what we look at
and responding to it in ways appropriate
to the occasion.
And there is entirely too much of that
going on in the world
for us to mindlessly assist it in any way. - 01/25/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 20 — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019
Jon Kabat-Zinn said,
“Mindfulness has to do
with waking up
and living in harmony
with oneself
and with the world”
(Wherever You Go, There You Are).
Living in harmony with oneself
and with the world
is the hardest of all things.
Living in harmony with oneself
means being in accord
with our original nature,
and that means finding our way
back to our original nature,
which was taken from us
shortly after birth
and replaced with the culture’s idea
(or our parents’ idea)
of who we ought to be.
Left-handed children
have been forced to be right-handed.
Introverts have been required to be extroverts.
Gay people have been denied a place in the world
unless they pretend to be straight
(And is “straight” ever a misnomer!).
The list is long of qualities and characteristics
that are unacceptable
and not allowed in the world
which receives us at birth.
Living in harmony with ourselves
means finding and reclaiming
those aspects of ourselves
that have been rejected,
neglected
and denied their rightful place in our life.
If you think that is easy,
give it a spin.
And there is the “living in harmony
with the world” part!
Living in harmony with the context
and circumstances of our life!
Are You Kidding Me???
*This* world?
*This* context?
*These* circumstances?
*This* is the place that killed Jesus
for being different!
It would kill Jesus today!
What chance do *we* have?
How can *we* fit into *this* world?
Why would we want to?
It is going to be some trip
harmonizing ourselves with ourselves
*and* with the world!
We are going to need a lot of help
with that!
And all we get is
Awareness!
Awareness!
Awareness!
With compassion
and non-judgmental acceptance
of the difficulty of the task before us.
So.
Take a deep breath,
and let’s get to work!
Start with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s
books, “Wherever You Go, There You Are”
and “Mindfulness Is Not What You Think,”
and his YouTube videos (The shortest ones first).
With patience and a good faith commitment
to what is before us.
It is the most necessary journey of our life,
and the most difficult task we could ever undertake.
It is called “The Hero’s Journey” for good reason! - 01/26/2020— Mill Houses 01/25/2020 01 Panorama — Gibson Mill, Concord, North Carolina, January 25, 2020
Wendell Berry’s
“The Peace of Wild Things”
is a poem for these times,
and is to be applied frequently,
perhaps several times daily,
in order to connect
with a truth that sustains us
across all times and places,
grounding us in the realization
of life beyond life–
of life beyond the impact of life–
sealing us in the hope of wild things
and the hope of the natural world
from which we come
and to which we all shall return
in due time.
Taking strength from that association,
that realization,
to go on
through the trials of the present time
grounded in the peace
of our original nature
and in the resiliency it affords.
Googleit. - 01/26/2020— Swan Lake 09/13/2019 01-B Panorama — Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, South Carolina, September 13, 2019
We have to preserve our sanity
any way we can.
By “sanity,” I mean our ability to function in the world–
responding appropriately to each situation
as it arises,
rising to meet every occasion,
standing grounded upon the bedrock
of our original nature,
our original essence,
our vital core,
our essential identity,
amid all circumstances
that come our way,
especially including
“the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea,”
and doing right by ourselves
and our umwelt
at every point.
What knocks you off your center?
What flattens you like Wile E. Coyote
in the Roadrunner cartoons?
How much does it take
to send you off
into the Land of Shattered Dreams
and Lost Hope?
How do you recover?
Pull yourself together?
Pick yourself up?
Shake it off
and step back into the ring?
We are absolutely surrounded by people
who are not emotionally/psychologically
stable enough to see/hear/understand/know
what is going on.
All they know is what somebody told them–
somebody who didn’t know
what they were talking about, I mean.
And too many of both sets of people–
the blind and those following the blind–
are running the world.
What chance do the rest of us have?
When have “the rest of us” ever had a chance?
What does “having a chance”
have to do with how well we live our life?
We are here to be who we are no matter what!
To live out of our core identity,
out of our bedrock foundation,
out of our vision/understanding/knowledge
of who we are and what we are about–
serving values and ends
we know to be worthy of us
amid all circumstances
that come our way,
especially “the heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea,”
and doing right by ourselves
and our umwelt
at every point!
What do we need in order to do that?
How do we preserve our sanity?
Knowing these things is our primary work
at this point in our life
and in the life of our world.
Find what anchors you–
what re-establishes you
in relationship with what needs to be done–
and maintain your connection with your anchor
through all that comes your way!
The work to preserve our sanity,
and our spirit,
and our courage,
and our determination
to be who we are,
anyway,
nevertheless,
even so
is our responsibility.
No one can do it for us.
Find where your encouragement lies,
where your peace resides,
where your heart is restored,
and go there often! - 01/27/2020— Tree Panorama 01/08/2020 02 — The Promenade on Providence, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 8, 2020,
The distance between well off
and well-enough off
is worth considering early-on.
But.
It takes a long time
to come to this realization.
We can’t know where we are
well-enough off
until we are old enough
to understand/realize
what we have to do–
with “have” being
what is ours to do
and that we *must* do
what is ours to do.
We generally think we are here
to make enough money
to pass a good time.
For some that means
a case of beer on some beach,
and for others it means
being the wealthiest person in the world.
That all changes when we think
of making enough money
to be who we came to be,
doing what is ours to do.
How much money will it take
to pay the bills required to survive
at a level far enough beyond subsistence
to allow us to buy the tools
to do the work,
that is ours to do?
What is the work that is ours to do?
Once we know that,
it is a matter of doing the work
that pays us enough
to do the work that is ours to do.
I have a friend who is an auto mechanic
who describes his work as “Wrenching it.”
He means using a wrench,
any wrench,
all wrenches.
He is perfectly matched
with the work that is his to do
and the work that pays him enough
to pay his bills that are unrelated
to his work.
It helped knowing that “Wrenching it”
was *It* for him.
Too many of us have no idea
of what we *must* do.
Or, or too lazy/lethargic/fearful
to care about knowing.
Too many of us just want
to be taken care of
and given what we want.
Living to have what we want
is consolation
for refusing/failing to do
what wants us to do it.
Those of us in this position
have no conception of something
beyond us forcing its way
into our life
and compelling us into its service.
“Wrenching it,” or its equivalent,
has no meaning for us,
and we bounce from one want
to another all our life long.
The rest of us have to consciously,
willingly, willfully,
enlist ourselves in the service
of The Wrench (or its equivalent)–
for me it is The Camera and The Typewriter/Keyboard–
and find ways to support ourselves
and our work throughout our life.
We only need to be well-enough off
to pay the bills
that allow us to do the work
we are here to do. - 01/27/2020— Carolina Wren 01/18/2020 05 — Scenes from My Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 18, 2020
Two stories highlight my understanding
of serving the vision,
doing the work.
I was walking along a greenway in Charlotte
with my camera and tripod
looking for something to catch my eye.
A guy walking with his wife
stopped and asked,
“Who are you working for?”
I laughed and asked him,
“Who are you walking for?”
They joined in the laughter,
and continued walking.
I was sitting at a table in a coffee shop
writing on a little portable keypad,
when a friend who worked for the local newspaper
asked me what I was doing.
“Writing,” I said.
“What are you going to do with it?” he asked.
“Add to it,” I said.
The idea that we can’t just “do something,”
but have to do something that makes money,
or serves some higher purpose than the doing,
is pervasive in the culture.
We have to be accomplishing something,
achieving something.
We can’t just be walking around with a camera,
or sitting at a keyboard.
Why would anybody do that?
I’m proud of the photos I’ve taken
that are stored on some hard drive.
I’m pleased with the things I’ve written
that are keeping the photos company.
I haven’t made enough money
from either, or both,
to pay the mortgage
or make the car payments.
And I will be walking around with a camera,
and sitting at a keyboard,
for as long as I am able to walk and sit.
If you have something similar in your life,
we both are blessed beyond measure,
and unable to explain why, or how,
and don’t have time to try to figure it out.
There is work yet to be done,
and we have to be doing it!
Why is irrelevant to the work. - 01/27/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 25 Panorama — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019, an iPhone Photo
Sin is being wrong about what is important.
Our primary sin is betrayal of ourselves
in the service of our idea of what we want.
This is the Original Sin.
Adam and Eve trading paradise
for what they thought was better than paradise.
Us trading our original nature/essence/self
for what we think is better than any of that.
Us launching/lurching off on our own
chasing our dreams/wants/wishes/desires,
sure that we know what we are doing,
and for sure no one else
is going to tell us what to do
or how to do it.
And then waking up at the bottom of some wall,
empty and lost
with no prospects
and very little chance,
casting about,
trying anything that looks like
it might help us forget the fear and pain
for a while,
still ignoring the door
that follows us everywhere we go
waiting for us to open it
and get to work
serving our true heart/soul/self
and their/its idea of who we are
and what is ours to do.
It is a tough path back to where we started.
“What we seek lies far back in the darkest corner
of the cave we most don’t want to enter”
(Joseph Campbell).
And when we get there,
and peer into that corner,
what we find is a dustless mirror
reflecting us to us,
and we meet ourselves at last,
and know us for the first time.
What happens then
is up to, well, us.
- 01/27/2020— Hermit Thrush -0/19/2020 01 — Scenes from My Camp Stool, Zen Glen, Indian Land, South Carolina, January 19, 2020
Satisfaction is peace,
is balance,
is harmony,
is symmetry,
is congruence,
is accord…
It is at-one-ness
with ourselves
and our place in life.
Resting in the just-right-ness
of the moment.
What disrupts our satisfaction?
Disturbs our peace?
Destroys our harmony?
Introduces tension?
Anxiety?
Fear?
Worry?
Grounded in our original nature,
in our essential self,
in the unalterable “is-ness”
of our “I,”
we are unshakeable,
immovable,
anchored in that which does not change
about us–
in that which has been reliably “us”
through all of the ups and downs,
trauma and drama,
of our life.
There is a core identity
at the heart of each one of us
that is immune to the ebbs and flows,
and the “heaving waves
of the wine-dark sea.”
Find the bedrock grounding our “I.”
Live to express the eternal qualities
and character of our own essence.
Be the Woman,
be the Man,
you are,
and always have been,
and always will be.
Be the calm you seek.
The peace you long for.
The eternal source
of the “just-right-ness” of you
in the world. - 01/28/2020— Mill Houses 01/25/2020 04 Panorama — Gibson Mill, Concord, North Carolina, January 25, 2020
If you take up the practice
of thinking of yourself
as a “we” and not as an “I,”
you will begin discovering
what it means to say
“There is more to us than meets the eye.”
We–individually, I mean (“we” mean)
are composed of inherited strengths
(and weaknesses) packed into our DNA
from the entire species.
All of these elements combined
(There is actually no end to the possible combinations)
are lumped into the terms
“psyche,” “unconscious,” “soul,” “heart,” “self,” “mind”…
Our “conscious self” takes care
of the business of life in physical reality,
but, there are other levels of reality,
additional planes of existence–
there is more to us all than meets the eye.
Consciously enlarging our conscious reality
to take into account the portion of “the more”
that we are capable of accessing,
positions us to tap natural resources of awareness
that free us to respond to our circumstances
out of the inherited wisdom of the species,
and gives us a very helpful sense
of not being on our own alone,
up against the terrors of the times
(On “the heaving waves of the wine-dark sea”).
We have help with the task
of finding our way,
if we open ourselves to what is available
in a “Here we are, now what?” kind of way.
Things “pop into mind,”
“occur to us”
that we would never think up on our own.
We discover that we are being
(and have always been)
led all along the way.
And as we take up the role of seeking
to know what we know,
we assist that invisible process
in allowing our feet to follow paths
we cannot see
to destinations (way points, actually)
we would not choose on our own.
This is to say, of course,
that we do not “use the powers”
to achieve goals we think are desirable–
we confess that we do not know what to do
and allow ourselves to be guided
along the way on the adventure of being alive.
We think our way to how,
we feel our way to what.
And we wait to see what’s next,
and what we do about it,
moment-by-moment-by-moment,
in each situation as it arises,
all our life long–
by remembering to listen,
and know we don’t know as much
as we think we know,
and remain open to more than meets the eye. - 01/29/2020— Tunnel View 04/28/2006 B&W 01 — Yosemite National Park, California, April 28, 2006
Musicians are the people I love the most,
respect the most,
admire the most…
I am not a musician,
but.
That doesn’t prevent me
from appreciating them,
being grateful for them
and holding them
in my highest esteem.
Why? Because they know what is important
and are right about it.
Most of them are right about it.
Some of them think money is the most important thing
and music is their way of accessing
and accumulating money.
That works well for some of those
who think this way,
but, for all their money,
they miss the point of music.
The point of music is music.
Most musicians understand this,
and live to serve music with their life.
They are playing or singing somewhere all the time.
Maybe only in their basement.
Musicians love music.
And I love musicians because they love music.
Everybody ought to have something they love
the way musicians love music.
Everything I have to say,
comes down to this:
Find something in your life
you can love
the way musicians love music.
And love it with your life.
Your whole life long. - 01/29/2020— Goodale 10/25/2019 24 Panorama — Goodale State Park, Camden, South Carolina, October 25, 2019
The old Buddhists and Taoists
had a notion about “original nature,”
and held that living in accord with it
is Real Life
and living at odds with it is a lie.
Or as they might put it “illusion.”
Our original nature
is our core identity,
our core vitality.
It knows what brings it to life,
and it knows what it takes
to express/exhibit/incarnate it
in the way we live.
We can live more or less aligned
with our original nature,
or more or less out of touch with it–
and the proximity of our lived life
with the life our original nature
is built to live
is the degree of balance,
sanity,
wholeness,
wellness,
integrity,
authenticity,
genuineness
and truth
that we have about us
as we go take care of our business
in the world
day-by-day
and moment-to-moment.
Our place is to own our original nature
and to be owned by it.
To know and love who we are
at the deepest/highest levels.
And to live in ways which reflect
our true identity
as we go about our life.
Now, the problem is doing that
and paying the bills.
Our life may not easily support
the life that is ours to live,
the life that we are here to live.
We have to work it out.
This is called “Walking Two (Or More)
Paths At The Same Time.”
We do that by being mindfully aware
of “the other path”
as we are walking the one we are on.
We don’t kid ourselves about the difficulty
of being true to ourselves
and paying the bills.
We bear the pain,
and do the best we can,
without kidding ourselves about
it being truly the best we can do.
That’s the best we can do.
Jesus couldn’t do it better.
God couldn’t do it better.
We take who we are
when we are being true to ourselves
in one hand,
and we take what it takes
to pay the bills
in the other hand,
and we work to get the two hands together
all our life long.
That is the essence/nature of the Hero’s Journey.
And the essence/nature of growing up.
It is what our life is all about.
We live between the hands,
on the one hand this,
on the other hand that,
and work to get them together
our whole life long.
And that is how things are. - 01/29/2020— Parkway Overlooks 10/29/2019 08 –Blue Ridge Parkway near Big Island, Virginia, October 29, 2019
This marks 5,800 photos and monologues that I’ve posted here. It would be great if there were that many more to go!
We think of our life
in terms of attainment and acquisition,
accomplishment, achievement and success.
Of getting, having, doing, becoming…
All the while,
our life needs us to serve its ends.
We don’t think of our life
as having a will of its own,
but.
Our life has a will of its own.
We are built for a certain life,
and not for others.
We have the temperament,
and the body,
and the drift of soul
for a certain life,
and not for others.
We are not free to will any life for ourselves.
We come with a blueprint attached,
and live to discover how to read it
in order to know who,
and how,
to be.
But.
There are none to teach us.
All those who should know,
ask us!
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“What do you want to do with your life?”
What does wanting know?
We want sugar,
and alcohol
and tobacco.
And pot,
and opioids.
We don’t know what to want,
or how to know!
And, we aren’t free to want what we ought to want,
even if we could be sure of what that is!
The situation is bonkers from the start.
Why does nobody we know
tell us this at the beginning?
Resonance!
Why does nobody tell us about Resonance?
Or listening to our nighttime dreams?
Or knowing how to read our body’s signals?
Our trusting our feelings–
particularly the “Uh-oh feeling”?
Or the “me/not-me feeling”?
The Way of Life for us is not hiding!
It’s just that no one knows how to spot it!
It is a White Rabbit!
Watch for what catches your eye!
For what takes your breath away!
For what stops you in your tracks!
And. Do. Not. Dismiss. It.
And go right on with your life
as though nothing happened.
When something like this happens,
note it!
Notice it!
Pay attention to it!
And look closer!
See what is there!
And, it will come around again and again.
So, if you remember missing it a time or two already,
it will be back.
Be looking for it.
And listen to your life
when it calls your name. - 01/24/2020—
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