(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.)
A few days ago I was asked to sit with a man who was dying and had no one to be with him as he made the transition to travel past beyond the thin veil that separates us all from this life and the next. He was in a place where recognition of my being there was only momentary as his eyes opened narrowly for a brief second or two. I talked to him, called his name and realized that he was on a journey that I had no business injecting myself into - so I sat and simply watched. Thirty minutes later the vitals monitor dropped all lines to zero and he died peacefully.
In this age of digital everything the experience has me a little out of sorts as no doctor rushed in to check his heart and declare that death had indeed happened. There were no dramatics, no tears, no wailing's of despair, just the nurse coming in and removing the sensors that just a few minutes ago indicated life was present. Yet there was no denying what had happened - the electronic evidence was completely convincing.
I got out of my chair, said a prayer of gratefulness for the life that was here for many years. I then bowed and thanked him for teaching me something of what will also perhaps be my final moments in this body. He was my teacher for those brief minutes, and he will continue to teach me as the memory of the event has the reality of Grace, and it will ask for definition and acceptance over time. I know this experience was a Gift from God. I bow to all my teachers that the Spirit opens to view when I enter the present moment. Grace abounds.
Here is a recording of my first mentor in the work of being with the dying. Frank Ostaseski has had major influence on how I approach being present for the sick and the dying people I have been called to sit with. It is well worth a listen. It is not a talk about how others die, but on how we live and become in sync with our own mortality.
"Surrender" a talk given to the Insight Meditation Society in Redwood City, California several years ago. Click here to listen:
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The Saints are but the
dust at God's Feet,
And I am nothing more than
the dust on the dust
Of the feet of those who
were annihilated in Love's Calling.
Yet, this station of life,
gives me more joy than I can ever hold.
There are no more words –
I sit in awe ……
This is God's Way
With hearts and souls.
Bill Lagerstrom
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Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
From the same trip to Cape Breton. I haven't taken any photos this week so I am looking again at what was the beginning of my entry into the digital world of photography. The two pictures above were taken with an inexpensive point and shoot camera. Expensive equipment is not necessary to express our creativity. Many simple computer programs for processing pictures are available for anyone who wants to work with what they recorded with today's easy to use cameras. If you have a desire please go and take pictures.
Don't go outside your
house to see flowers,
my friend, don't bother
with that excursion.
Inside your body there are
flowers.
One flower has a thousand
petals.
That will do for a place
to sit.
Sitting there you will
have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of
it,
before gardens and after
gardens.
Kabir
Fences, barriers or invitations?
If one can see what is on the other side,
perhaps the fence is there
only to keep the cows in.
(This fence was on top of a high peninsula in Cape Breton and was probably there to keep the cows from falling off the cliffs. There were no cows only an occasional foolish hiker who would venture where things are dangerous.)
We have two turkeys who spend a great deal of time eating the seed the birds drop from the feeders outside our house. We have not named them as yet - any suggestions?
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A Little humor:
Noah's Ache
Peace until next week, Bill Lagerstrom
