November 3, 2016

November 3, 2016

All images and poetry are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see photos full screen click on any image.

   Honoring Fall's last hurrah as soon all leaves will have found their way to this year's final resting place. Here is a case for not embalming our bodies after death. Embalming fluid is highly toxic to the environment and makes a mess of our bodies in short order preventing our return to the earth where we essentially came from. Nature, recycler first rate, sees to it that this year's fallen leaves will give nutrition and life to the trees from which they came the following  Spring. 

    Here is an interesting site that talks about the pros and cons of what we can do with our bodies after we no longer have any use for them:

                                            http://www.beatree.com/

Have you not seen a seed grow into a flower,

a blade of grass, a tree, a forest?

First the seed must be nourished into health

before it can become what God intended for its life.

Be nourishment for all new life that comes our way,

for those who ache for life, the life we have to give 

as Real Food, the same Food God graced us with.

Hold nothing back from any hungry for growth.

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The photos for this post:

The Art Watchers.

As I rise to the Light, slowly following my longing,

I become the Light - fully imbued with God's Love and Grace.

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      At Schoodic Point last week I saw this family marching along the road. Take notice of all left feet in step.

            Seabirds are amazing creatures. Weighing anywhere from a few ounces to several pounds they fly and survive in any weather conditions in their search for food. Fearless and built for storms and the crushing waves breaking near the shore or out at sea, some live a long as 30 or more years. 

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   The rest of the images surround the last gasps of Fall 2016 close to home here in Maine. They were taken on a cold wet day. Offered without comment. 

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Some humor:

    Peace,   

                    Bill Lagerstrom

October 13, 2016

October 13, 2016

   All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

   Click on any photo to see images full screen.


   Fall continues on its way and puts on more dramatic makeup every day it seems. Speaking with several friends yesterday we agreed that this Fall's colors are some of the best we have ever seen here in Maine. One old timer says that brighter colors happen in years where there is little rain and wind - another maintains that excessive rain and higher temperatures are the reason for spectacular displays. For myself I say thank you to both, get outdoors and enjoy what is being presented by our Mother, Nature, and a sunny or overcast day - no matter the weather.

    Fall photos for this post are images 2-10. 

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   Small houses seem to growing in popularity these days, usually structures ranging from 400 to 700 square feet in floor area. On a recent day trip to Stonington here in Midcoast Maine to visit friends of Lee I spotted two such houses. Which one would you be willing to live in? 

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 Fall has arrived.

I am holding the proof the Seasons change.

   The following eight images have not been color enhanced, they show something of the vibrancy everywhere here. 

Not every Fall color is red, yellow and orange.

Taken at Jordan Pond in Acadia - shown as shot'

Not only do we enjoy the views,

we enjoy each other's company just as much.

The lone reed sitting in Jordan Pond

points to the next Season,

 soon to arrive. 

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   Some humor:

Until the next post,

    Bill Lagerstrom

September 30, 2016

September 30, 2016

   All Images are mine unless otherwise noted.

   To see photos full screen click on any image.

    Last evening the third Art Night was held at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Brewer, Maine. Kristen Hornbrook a talented photographer had her work on display along with her daughter Jess' paintings. Keeping creativity well supported in the family was nicely visible. Her facebook page is here:

                         https://www.facebook.com/kristen.hornbrook

     Worth a look.
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   Fall is now happening all through the area, although it seems to be a slow start or perhaps I am impatient for full color. This post is a little out of whack as the first images are of the Fall Season's beginnings in Acadia Park, followed by several abstracts and ending with Spring in Northern Arizona. If you want start with the last photo and work up to get the year straight and proper. 

    Fall in full bloom is not a death of what was just green,

it is the offering of beauty God paints each Season. 

We are Gifted once again with a loving touch

imprinted on our heart by our Creator's hand

   

We drink in your Creation with our eyes,

and with the eyes of our hearts.

The slow movement of Fall into Winter

allows us the chance to go back to the woods

again, and again, until the last leaf falls. 

We are grateful.

The first red leaf of the Season.

(From a photograph.)

Waiting for the change,

metamorphosis into color.

Fall gives Her image as a reflection on water - 

we look down as well as up to see this Season's offering.

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Three abstracts

Leaves do not change  color without help,

the process is well explained by science -

but I prefer to believe transformation happens

in leaves just as it does in us.

All change is an internal affair with the Master Artist

shaping our inner landscape with color

from the Master Artist's pallette.

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   Four images from the Southwest, all from the North Rim of Grand Canyon. It was a surprise to see the Season in full shades of green and yellow as everywhere I looked the scene was vivid and alive. The South Rim of the canyon is desert through and through. To arrive at the opposite side of the canyon and to see a different environment delighted me. God's never ending desire to show the wonder of all that has been created is now no longer just a thought, it is reality personified, a joy to be alive in all moments in front of me.  

The sight of this magnificent wonder 

is in actuality a mirror of the vastness of the terrain

of the heart and soul within this breast.

Perhaps this is why so many balk at the inner look,

it is overwhelming, enormous in scope -

seemingly impossible for us to even consider its presence.

God lives in everyone of us.

In that space, in that house we call our soul,

the poets say that not only God

but all Creation is there as well.

The Net of Indra covers the entire universe,

and we are all a jewel that is connected to everything,

every human being, everything  in existence. *

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*  The Net of Indra is a profound and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness, or a cell or an atom. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel.

                                                        Stephen Mitchell, The Enlightened Mind 

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Some humor:

(Note: A Zamboni is an ice resurfacing 

 vehicle for hockey rinks,)

   Peace until next post,

                  Bill Lagerstrom

September 4, 2016

September 4, 2016

All images are mine unless otherwise noted.

To see photos full screen click on any image.

All comments and poetry are mine unless otherwise noted.

   We have been on Campobello Island in New Brunswick for the last ten days on what turned out to be something of a creativity retreat. Lee wrote, I did some photography and poetry, and we took walks, built a fire each night and made one pot meals. The island is a wonderful way to enter into a peace and quiet not available in the daily routine of life here in even a relatively tranquil part of the State.

    The first five images are of the seascape seen from Campobello taken this last week. The rest of the photos were taken of some of the flowers that are everywhere on the island, particularly in the Roosevelt compound where every summer the floral displays are truly vivid and beautiful.  

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    Understanding of the environment is experiential,

and some would say mystical in its essence. 

All things mystical are not complex,

a simplicity of understanding explains their core truth.

Watching a sunset for an hour or more

becomes an experience hard to walk away from

before Nature completes Her work.

When darkness finally enters 

a sense of knowing a little more -

something of the ineffable presence of the Creator,

becomes a fuller knowing of life's meanings.

                                                                                              

Sunset over Cobscook bay New brunswick.

Sunrise over Herring Cove, Campobello Island.

The warm morning sun kisses the seagrass at Herring Cove.

An insect or a dead tree washed ashore at Herring Cove?

Your choice.

On our way to finding a home to settle into,

sometimes a more precarious perch provides a respite

from the numerous flights that make up the day.

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Some of the flowers of Campobello

Reaching for the light

I didn't know that young birds had parachutes

strapped to their backs to help with a first flight!

A small part of the floral displays at the Roosevelt compound.

The "cottage" of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt,

only some twenty or more rooms.

There is a spider so enamoured of flowers

that it envelops them with a wondrous web,

not to devour the petals but to hold their beauty close 

and safe from the elements of wind and rain.

Everything alive has beauty,

every flower, tree, bird, animal or person

has the loveliness of God present

and available to see when we stop and look. 

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My gift of flowers to you, dear reader.

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   Some humor:

   Peace,

              Bill Lagerstrom