(All photos and pictures adapted from photos are mine unless
noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any
image. Click on a border to return.)
Winter in Frenchman's Bay - view from Acadia
Most of you know that Lee and I moved here to Maine a little over seven years ago, a good change for serenity and longevity from the relentless busyness of New York City. Please don't take me wrong, NYC is a great place for those who love being there. I just got tired of fighting for every inch of space, personal and public. I miss a few things though, Daughter Bridget and her remarkable husband Rudy, the Met Museum. and the ethnic restaurants of quality that are easy to find almost anywhere. Still UPS has been good as Murray's herring palace and shrine to the best in lox and the like, Patel Brothers purveyors of Indian spices and great vegetables, and several other wonderful stores all deliver.
We recently got a care package from Lee's friend Lynn of goodies from Zabars, Wonderful rugela - a magnificent pastry, some of the best pastrami I have ever had, cream cheese to die for, a rye bread that is a spiritual experience, and a few other items. Bangor the closest city to us here only has 33,00 people, not enough to support the diversity of things in New York. They do try though but one has to search for good things.
Now why the nostalgia? Actually I intended to contrast an experience we had in Bar Harbor last weekend with the improbability it happening in a big city. Lee stopped at a hotel in Bar Harbor to see about doing a site visit for a local church conference this summer at their facility. Coming out as I waited in the car she had in tow a young man who was here to do a network data migration at the largest employer in the area. Turns out he flew into a small airport in Trenton about 12 miles away and found the car rental people were closed for the weekend - so he had no transportation. He came from the Netherlands and was Bulgarian by upbringing. He wanted to know if he could walk to the National Park which is Acadia. Not a good idea as most of the park is closed for the Winter.
Well we put him in the car and gave him a three hour tour of several parts of the park still open, a section of the Ocean Drive, Sand Beach whose pictures you see here, and left him at the path that goes to Witch Hole as he wanted to walk. We had enough lunch which included the above pastrami and fed him as well. He was gracious and grateful for our outreach, We in turn were happy to share the park which is also one of the reasons we moved here, to be close to Acadia. He also made me jealous as in a few weeks he is vacationing in Nepal, big mountains I would love to see.
Giving away what is loved dearly does indeed bring rewards. I am grateful to have met Peter and to have been able to share the wonder of Acadia if only in a small way.
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(This image is from a photograph and produced in Photoshop.)
Winter seas in Acadia are never lonely,
there are always a few brave souls
to welcome their arrival
as we did with gratitude for their hellos.
Walking by the seashore in Winter's solitude
Brings memories of past childhood experience
Where in crowded places there was always space -
Now, to ponder and take in all that busyness took away for too many years,
The empty beach on oceans edge revives what is still new.
When
the ages of ice came
And
sealed the earth inside
An
endless coma of cold,
The
heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing
fragments of memory,
Ready
for the return of the sun.
Why cling to one life
till it is soiled and ragged?
God has decreed life for you
and God will give
another and another and another
Rumi
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Here is an audio talk on "Wholehearted Living" by Tara Brach
Well worth a listen -
Click here: https://www.box.com/s/f6qq0rt3hu6utv7jnpia
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And some humor -
Some know how to retire in style. (Love the dog.)
"Morris Dancing" see: http://berkeley-morris.org/whatis.html
Peace until next week, Bill Lagerstrom
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