(All photos and camera work are mine unless noted.)
Surgery w as done on my right hand and arm last Wednesday and two nerves were relocated releasing probably 70 % of the pain. I am now waiting to have the left shoulder reconstructed, so at the end of the month text here on this blog may be at a minimum for a while. Here is the blog I did in advance of last week -
(Art work by Bev Wilson and Lee White, Photo by myself.)
Try as we might escape from God's desire to embrace us
is impossible no matter how fast we fly.
-------------------------------------------
https://www.box.com/s/97tpkkvnolhmy7y1a4mh
----------------------------------
- The Conversation –
God took the Spirit aside
and said,
"I want you to fly to earth and capture a
soul."
The Spirit asked, "Which one ?"
God replied, in a whisper, "wwssshhhwg."
Is it you –
or is it
him or her the Spirit seeks ?
A good trusted authority told me what God
whispered –
"Everyone. Everyone ……"
Bill Lagerstrom, July, 2012
------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes I drive into the cemetery at the end of the road where I live, usually when I have some heavy metal rock on the only worthwhile energy radio station in the area (in my subjective view.) I open the windows to the car and yell at the people who are still hanging out there - not moving on past the veils to the rest of their life beyond this life. Something of a fantasy to be sure but I do enjoy doing it. Rarely do I see a live person there so wanting someone to talk to - I threaten that if they don't move into the Beyond I will continue to blast them with music that I am sure very few of the deceased know or may have known about depending when they departed. Hell on earth to the ears of the uninitiated.
My friend Earl is buried there right at the entrance where there is usually a small potted plant by the headstone. Is this a metaphor for Earl himself now being potted? He was in life, to use the British expression, "A bit potty," so his present condition may be appropriate to the plant which is directly where his head is. Carry on Earl!
The other day I paid a visit and on the way out I stopped to chat with Earl for a minute. The radio was playing a song by The Clash, a long lasting punk rock group singing the lyrics, "Should I stay, or should I go." Sensing something of his presence I yelled at him - "Earl! Get the hell out of here! I'm sick of you hanging around! Yes, you can go!"
Years ago a Jesuit Spiritual Director I had on a week long retreat came to my room for our 'direction' time together. I was on the third floor and this man with a huge white beard came in with a briefcase and promptly pulled up a chair that blocked the door. He proceeded to tell me his story,
"I have been in this house for thirty years and half of that time I have spent in wards for the violently insane here on Long Island."
My only exit was the window so I sat and listened to the rest of his tale.
" One day I found myself in a straight jacket on a bed in a rubber room, and I asked God to lift this insanity from me. It was lifted. I went on to ordination a few years later. That is my miracle. Oh yes one other thing, when I go past the cemetery I stop and talk with my friends for a few minutes."
Well, if Bernie Shannon got his miracle who am I to doubt that God allows the dead to let their presence be felt in some manner. The message is clear, a little nutty perhaps, yet I have sensed a closeness to several who have died. This I take as confirmation that there is life after this one.
-------------------------------------------
Here is a talk by my mentor in working with the dying. Frank Ostaseski is a wonderful teacher in the Vipassana Buddhist tradition and the founder of the Zen Hospice of San Francisco, a model for many hospice efforts ever since. This is one of his best talks.
Click here:
----------------------------------
A poem about 'Going Home' -
- Breathing -
Why do you
fear the ending of this life?
The last
breath you exhale here in this world,
Will be
followed immediately by the inhaling
Of the first
breath of God’s Air in the next.
It will be
that simple -
Which is why
we practice breathing here.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
It will be
the same when we pass through The Veil.
Bill Lagerstrom, 2003
-----------------------
A Little Humor:
Peace, Bill Lagerstrom
