All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.
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The first eight images below were taken in Acadia last weekend and are beginning to represent a giving up of sorts for me. Since this is the most heavily treed State in the Nation I may begin to look with a different perspective on my photography to bring that into clearer focus. Time will tell. In the meantime I am going to try to spend one day a week in the Park by myself, a sort of weekly retreat to see more of the wonderful Gifts God has given to all who enjoy Nature.
Here is a fine teaching I heard to this week by Tara Brach of the Insight Meditation Center in Washington D.C. Well worth a listen or a download to an MP3 device to be heard later.
"The God Whom I Love Is Inside"
https://app.box.com/s/q67qtng7crryd2nxn26n
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- The gull who quit the sea for the land -
There is a story here,
one of
unhappiness for an assigned vocation.
"I am
tired of the smell of fish,
the
constant squabbling of my workmates,
the
incessant noise of the waves, waves and more waves."
he said as looked upwards for the first time
in the direction of the land.
A mountain with trees, waterfalls, and hope
came into sight.
"I
will go and live in the skies atop the mountain,
alone,
happy and free of life's struggles."
And our
gull did just what he said.
He has been there three days now, and neither you
or I,
dear
reader, know what the future will hold for our friend.
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The forest is deep and lovely.
To be careful where one stands
is the way to bring hidden beauty into view
A favorite place, Bubble Pond.
"If you look at the Acadia Map you will see that Bubble Pond runs
north to south. As a matter of fact, you will see that all of the bodies of
water on Mount Desert Island do the same. During the past ice ages, massive
sheets of ice as much as 2 miles high, moved ever so slowly across this land in
a southerly direction, scooping out the low areas that became ponds and lakes,
and shearing off the mountain tops leaving them rounded rather than pointed."
From Acadia Magic - http://www.acadiamagic.com/
Nothing ever lives unless something else dies.
This small pine is growing out of the stump of a long gone tree that died probably ten years ago. Life will appear where the nourishment of what has died is found. So it also is with us, that which dies in us, old fears, certitudes, and the like, find birth as new good actions because of this cycle.
Jordon Stream during the snowmelt last week.
The first butterfly of the Season.
Your life is short dear butterfly -
yet the memory of your beauty will last
until we meet again,
this year or next.
(The butterfly is a Mourning Cloak.
Many thanks to Cliff Browder for this information.}
A gathering of trees at Jordon Stream.
What secrets are you sharing dear trees?
Are you planning what lovely finery you will wear
when leaves adorn your frames soon?
What do you talk to each other about while waiting on Spring?
Just want to give some perspective on the scope of the trees in Acadia.
(Bubble Pond carriage road.)
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Here are two photos that I continue to work on. They were taken in the last year and continue to offer a chance to look again at what can be seen with a slightly changed perspective that arrives with the passage of time.
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Some Humor: (Two offerings this week.)
"Cows just want to have fun."
Peace, Bill Lagerstrom
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