All photos are mine unless otherwise noted.
To see images full screen click on any photo.
I want to open with a Christmas card from Denny Dodge. a friend here in Maine. It is a video sequence with Winter, birds and animals as the stars of a most beautiful tribute to the season.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/fdSVp9GFeS4
Thank you Denny for the link.
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This Christmas day I will be in the Palliative Care Unit at the Bangor hospital which is a part of service I do on the major holidays whenever it is feasible. I volunteer there to spend time with patients and their loved ones and families, offering whatever I can to be useful in their times of distress and worry. Palliative Care focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and their families and or partners. It is work I have been doing here in Maine for the past nine years and it is a necessary part of my week all year round to spend a day there.
This week the first two images are in effect
cards for the holiday season from Acadia National Park here in Maine. They are
made from changes I made to photos I took recently.
Happy Holidays from our friends the
trees, all lit up for the season.
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Thirty-six inches of snow so far this Winter.
When the internal storms of life blow,
it is good advice to slow down,
evaluate the road conditions of the day at hand
and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
So, every month another fifty pound bag of sunflower chips
arrives on its journey to the stomachs of the feeder birds
just outside the patio door.
Squirrels come with alarming frequency to feed -
a never ending pilgrimage to our back yard.
No one is turned away.
Ever.
Such also is the way of God' love for us -
The best of teachings.
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In the almost fifty thousand acres of Acadia Park
a lone phone waits to relay messages -
Perhaps a cry for the end of snow,
or perhaps a call of gratitude for the season.
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Two photos of Eagle Lake.
Winter in Acadia.
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Another day ends, frozen for a few more months
before the thaw arriving every year releases
the snow and ice holding onto the land.
Each sunset is a promise that this will happen,
God's generosity to us all -
events that happen only on God's time frame.
Patience is the lesson here.
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Some humor:
Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbs, is busy outdoors making the snow figures we may have dreamed of creating in our own childhood. Like all radical artists he is under- appreciated for his work.
Peace until next posting,
Bill Lagerstrom
