(Please Read: Google
has reintroduced the thumbnails at the bottom of the photos after you double
click on any image. All photographs are mine unless otherwise noted.)
The very beginnings of Spring have arrived here in Maine this week. It seems that spring is late for this climate, and it has been a long wait for the trees to begin their journey from buds to leaves. I am not sure why this year has for me been so important to see new life appear and show its green face - perhaps I am longing for some sort of resurection in myself that the grass, trees and flowers present to the long dormant earth.
God must have something in store for me or perhaps is getting me ready for something I haven't done in recent years. I am going on retreat for eight days in two weeks and I am in a sort of expectation that some new change is about to transpire for my life and my work with others. When I get the hindsight that will tell of what has happened I will try to relate it here. This is God's way of working in me, slow and never instantly revealing a thing, which let's my ego rest instead of asking rhetorical questions, or constructing scenerios that are never about what may happen.
The photos below were taken in the last week and are to some degree my attempt to show something of Spring's arrival.
Here is a recording of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" that is in three short parts and is the section of 'Spring' only. This section is only ten minutes long and it is worth hearing all of his version of the season of Spring.
Click each link separately to hear the entire Spring section:
1- Allegro
2- Largo
3- Allegro
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The very beginnings of Spring have arrived here in Maine this week. It seems that spring is late for this climate, and it has been a long wait for the trees to begin their journey from buds to leaves. I am not sure why this year has for me been so important to see new life appear and show its green face - perhaps I am longing for some sort of resurection in myself that the grass, trees and flowers present to the long dormant earth.
God must have something in store for me or perhaps is getting me ready for something I haven't done in recent years. I am going on retreat for eight days in two weeks and I am in a sort of expectation that some new change is about to transpire for my life and my work with others. When I get the hindsight that will tell of what has happened I will try to relate it here. This is God's way of working in me, slow and never instantly revealing a thing, which let's my ego rest instead of asking rhetorical questions, or constructing scenerios that are never about what may happen.
The photos below were taken in the last week and are to some degree my attempt to show something of Spring's arrival.
Here is a recording of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" that is in three short parts and is the section of 'Spring' only. This section is only ten minutes long and it is worth hearing all of his version of the season of Spring.
Click each link separately to hear the entire Spring section:
1- Allegro
2- Largo
3- Allegro
--------------------------------------
The trees are dancing to the music of Spring's arrival.
Do You Want To Dance?
The Lover who dances with our
soul each night,
Under moonlit, star strewn
skies of only occasional cloud -
This Embracer of our passion,
enjoys our company.
When you wake, ask the sun to
tell of what the moon has seen.
Bill
Lagerstrom, 2000
Some trees bring out their new leaves in red clusters at first,
teasing the onlooker who wants only to see green.
Their way of teaching us patience.
As Beech Trees turn their faces toward the sun,
the first buds of Spring arrive in muted shades of red.
Spring! And Earth is like a
child
who has learned many poems by heart.
For the trouble of that long learning
she wins the prize.
Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
of the old man's beard. Now we can ask her
the many names of green, of blue,
and she knows them, she knows them!
Earth, school is out now. You're free
to play with the children. We'll catch you,
joyous Earth. The happiest will catch you!
All that the teacher taught her—the many thoughts
pressed now into roots and long
tough stems: she sings! She sings!
who has learned many poems by heart.
For the trouble of that long learning
she wins the prize.
Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
of the old man's beard. Now we can ask her
the many names of green, of blue,
and she knows them, she knows them!
Earth, school is out now. You're free
to play with the children. We'll catch you,
joyous Earth. The happiest will catch you!
All that the teacher taught her—the many thoughts
pressed now into roots and long
tough stems: she sings! She sings!
Rilke,Sonnets to
Orpheus I, 21
At the end ofthe first day with Spring this year,
The Sun chose a comfort color of yellow
As its way of saying to everyone,
"My promise of new life is assured, fear not,
I am with you."
-----------------------------
Some Humor:
Ugh! Grass!
(Some are never happy with Spring.)
Peace and green things until next week,
Bill Lagerstrom
