March 29, 2013

March 29, 2013

Please Read: Enlarging photos in Google Blogger no longer offers thumbnails at the bottom of the full screen mode. What I am doing is right-clicking the photo I want full screen and hitting Open In New Tab. A Tab will open for each image clicked in this way so there is no need to reload the blog or use the back option.

   A few more last snow days worth of photographs. I will allow the words beneath to tell of their stories. 

      Listening To The Music

Even if we sit in poverty, of spirit and body,

The trees, the grass and flowers, will continue to grow around us.

If we do not open the eyes of the heart,

We cannot see the truth of God’s Present Moment.

Unless we open the ears of the soul,

We cannot hear the sweet music of Lady Wisdom

Releasing Her notes, flying fast to pierce our denial;

The weapons of Our Lover, crafted in heaven itself.

No one can make your Journey for you –

Drop your bags and go.

The Way will be revealed only after we pull up our anchors.

                                        Bill Lagerstrom 2006

Mentoring. New growth is sheltered and taught

by the older evergreen who knows the ways of growth.

                     

   Flight Time

Beyond the borders of the Turning,

In the pivot point of here and There,

Lies the Truth We Seek.

Go to that Center, draw a line though its axis,

Then unfold the wings of your soul,

And soar to the Arms of Love.

The home of departure to the Heaven’s,

Lies midway between our soul and self.

All maps that lead to Love’s Embrace,

Are there, in the center of the heart,

          in the core of the soul.

                                                             Bill Lagerstrom ©2000

You must have shadow and light source both.

Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.

When from that tree, feathers and wings

sprout on your soul, be quieter than a dove.

                                            Rumi

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    Last week we went to the Owls Head Transportation museum in Rockland and I was taken by designs of planes and automobiles from the Thirties and Forties and earlier. Here are two photos of a bi-plane's cowling and the landing gear of a earlier plane that used bicycle wheels. I worked on the first picture to bring out the simplicity of form that I saw.

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Some Humor: 

   Peace until next week,  

                Bill Lagerstrom

March 26. 2013

March 25, 2013

(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 brief and perhaps last trip to Acadia National Park for this Winter season was undertaken during the remnants of a Northeaster, a storm type that hits the coast hard when the conditions are right. This was last week and unfortunately we heard that the entire park would be closed for another month due to the sequestration. A shame for all who come to Acadia during the early and generally quiet part of the season. For those of us who know where the park has year round access this is not a problem, yet it would have been nice to go up Cadillac mountain for the views which I miss. Oh well, I stop and take five breaths and let gratitude rise for all the wonderful days in Acadia these last almost eight years. 

- Gravity –

How surely gravity's law,

strong as an ocean's current,

takes hold of even the smallest thing

and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing –

each stone, blossom, child –

is held in place.

Only we, in our arrogance,

push out beyond what we each belong to

for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered

to earth's intelligence

we could rise up rooted, like trees.

                                              Ranier Maria Rilke

The sea rages and the rocks hold ground,

stand on the Holy ground of solid rock

or release yourself into the Ocean that is God

ignoring the seeming danger our thinking projects. 

Either way, you will be safe.

Lee in Acadia

The Winter trees will not give up their beauty easily,

having taken the last five months to don their glorious garments.

Standing in awe is all that I can do in their presence.

Sea, rocks and sun,

All that is needed for heart's eyes.

Sand Beach, empty of summer crowds save one tree blown there 

by the strong winds of Winter.

Why this fence? Perhaps a vain attempt to hold the waves back.

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   Part of the joy of the parks and woods here in Maine for me is the sense that I am enveloped in a Loving Presence because I let my barriers down and allow The Spirit to enter. Here is a wonderful talk by Tara Brach entitled

"The barriers To Loving Presence." Worth a listen.

                           https://www.box.com/s/lj2rco514ltt7p0jfwji

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Some Humor:

Peace until next week,  Bill Lagerstrom