April 19,2014

April 19,2014

   All photos are mine uhless otherwise noted.

   To view images full screen click on any photo.

   Acadia opened last Tuesday and Lee and I had our last walk on the Loop Road before the cars came. We parked near the entrance to Ocean drive and walked against the non-existent traffic flow to the top of the hill, which is also the top of the Precipice. The trails to this mountain are closed as the anual arrival of a pair of Peregine Falcons come to  build their nest, and for our eight years in Maine they have been successful in raising a brood each Spring and summer.

     In the first photo below the Precipice is shown from the Winter access road which leads to the short stretch of Ocean Drive open all year. I did go for opening day which was all rain which to these eyes makes Acadia even more beautiful. More on that in the nextpost.

The mountain that looks at its own reflection

is the reminder that the reflection we see looking within the heart,

is the beauty that we are, the beauty that God delights in. 

God's Gift to all so we may not forget.

On the road again - Lee at the Precipice.

The birch trees were a particularly brilliant white 

and surprisingly most made the Winter storms -

   Trees seem to leap with joy and reach really high hoping it seems, to catch the sun's rays that have promised a return to growth in the Spring. Most here in Maine can echo the tree's getting set to explode with the wonder of the Season. It has been a long Winter for everyone. 

Just as the true colors of a leaf are revealed only in Autumn,

the brilliance of Spring's new growth

is there in forest's depths,

waiting for the moment of release -

a debut worthy of the waiting.

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      John Wilson, a good friend and early retiree form his work is leaving in three weeks for Seattle where he will start a cross country bicycle trip ending back here in Maine in three months or so. He will be posting a blog along the way and I would like to invite you to follow him on this journey at the following address -

                    http://crosscountryridejohnwilson.blogspot.com/ 

    I will also put John's address on the top right of this blog along with the address of Kathy Macedo, a former Pastor of the Methodist Church on Union street who is leaving in a few days to walk the 500 miles of the Camino Pilgrimage in Spain. Here is her Blog address 

                       - http://pastorkathy48.blogspot.com/

   The address for the Camino de Santiago for American pilgrims is worth a look                  

                           http://www.americanpilgrims.com/

The road ahead is always a blur if we haven't gone that way before,

it is, however, the road we have in our hearts -

vaguely familar until we set our feet on it.

The Journey of life is that way -

present in heart memory since our beginnings.

           

           The Journey – by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you kept shouting

their bad advice-- though the whole house

began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.

"Mend my life!" each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,

though their melancholy was terrible.

It was already late enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen branches and stones.

But little by little, as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice which you slowly

recognized as your own, that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,

determined to do the only thing you could do--

determined to save the only life you could save.

                                    --------------------------------------------------

Some Humor for the traveling to new lands:

   

   Until next week -

    Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom