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I open with a poem this week. I gave a retreat to a group of men this weekend and I am still in a prayer frame of heart.

     - Let Us Pray –

Just say one prayer with me –

Allow all blaming to pass on the Spirit’s Wind.

Those who you think caused all the trouble, did not –

It’s the turning of the head away from Love’s Gaze that brought the grief.

Turn, look in the direction I am pointing to –

There ! the moon reflects God’s Face, brilliant and accessible to the eye.

If we look long enough, the eyes of our hearts will open –

Then, turning to each other, we will see each other in that Light.

Coyness is for the immature, my heart offers no shame –

So look, and you will see Jesus in this breast,

Along with Mary, the Magdalene, and all those Saints

Who along the way chose to reside here, without apology.

Our Lover, Creator of Orion and the Pleiades’,

Never places the burden of Love in anyone

Without support, and nurture – without joy and peace.

Try carrying this Grace awhile, then you will begin to know.

Jesus made mud to cure the blind man,

I have it here with me, I am free to offer it.

Let me put my hand on your center,

So heart's sight may be opened –

Then we will pray together, without words,

And we will know of the things of The One Who Is.

                                                           

                                                Bill Lagerstrom 

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     Sometimes memories of bleak days come back with a disarming sharpness. Even though the sun may be shinning these past days have a sadness to them that is tinged with a feeling of loneliness. I saw these old emotions in the following picture:

   What has happened over time is that I have a much more secure sense of who I am, and what I am about in life. This sea change of view gives me a different way to see scenes like the one above. Emotions fade from sight easily now and images change to what may only be described as a more mystical feeling where God is presenting the scene through the eyes of the Spirit - details become less important as the eyes of the heart see very differently than the eyes of the intellect. 

    Heart sight can be disturbing at first but with time it can become the preferred way of envisioning what God is always offering to us. The best way to practice seeing with the heart is to close one's eyes and enter into meditation along with a prayer that moves us into becoming prayer as we live our daily experiences. 

   This musing is all about metaphor. I would like to know what your thoughts are about seeing without eyes, hearing without ears, and perhaps touching without hands.

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   Here are two  guided meditations from Tara Brach, the head teacher at the D.C. Insight Meditation Center. Well worth spending some time practicing meditation with as they are only around twenty minutes each. Grab a seat, and "sit." God it has been said only speaks to us in silence, so the "Practice" of sitting in meditation has "benefits without limit."

      http://www.box.com/s/4n4oqr2mzlsskz0ggqnt

     http://www.box.com/s/tadva2gqpa5vo3v3y68d

    Finally, something to consider regarding the Face Of God -

  

   Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom

                  

   Welcome to my blog where each week I will post my thoughts musings on things pertaining to my spiritual life or on life in general. All Photos are mine unless stated otherwise. At the bottom of each posting I will include a link to a song or a talk which I know will be of interest, so please take a listen.


     Along the pathways of living in in the present moment we can utilize many metaphors to describe the Journey we are on. Rumi, the great Persian poet, liked to talk about our existence being only a drop of water falling into a high mountain stream which then takes us on to our destiny. Being carried from stream to river, and eventually river to the the ocean, which was for Rumi metaphor for God as Ocean. The trip is one that can take our entire life, or can happen in a short time if God intervenes and carries us directly to union with Our Beloved. Usually though we have a longer road to go on where we will have many stops as we regroup and find our way back to the streams center, where the water of life flows freely. 


   However the journey the important thing for me to remember. That the steps taken all along the way are what the traveling is about. There is no longer any goal, no milestones to reach, there are these days, just the movement forward each day. I am content to allow life to unfold the same way a bolt of cloth is opened on the cutting table of the seamstress. When life is at an end and I am to be called Home, God will cut the fabric, and the unknown will be known. I am not looking to make that final step just yet, but I have lost most fears of the unknown ahead and I am at peace with this day - with this hour and minute. Still there are dark days as I am entirely human and life offers what life offers. 


    Here is a image of how a wonderful, slow stream carries me on a warm summer day through a passageway here in Bangor, Maine. Next stop is the Penobscot river and the thirty of so miles to the ocean.

    
   At the Metropolitan Museum Of Art on our trip last December the new Islamic wing had just opened. One particular surprise was the Moroccan Courtyard which was created in place in the room it now is in. The Met brought Moroccans over who were among a dying breed of skilled craftsmen who could do the most incredible detailed work with plaster and tile. They stayed for months and left an exhibit that was jaw dropping. Here is the link of a short video showing something of how this project was worked. The video is down at the bottom of the page.
  http://www.metmuseum.org/about%20the%20museum/now%20at%20the%20met/from%20the%20director/2011/building%20history%20the%20making%20of%20the%20mets%20new%20moroccan%20court


   A fine two part article from the NY Times on this project -


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/arts/design/metropolitan-museums-moroccan-courtyard-takes-shape.html?_r=1


   And some pictures from the Times -


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/03/20/arts/design/03202011_MOROCCANSlide.html


    And last some Middle Eastern Music to listen to what another part of the world enjoys. It is called "A Drop Of Water" by Ustad Sultan Kahn. Check it out.


    http://www.box.com/s/7l9147tcovkmr2jd2oxy


   Until next week,  Peace, Bill Lagerstrom

   Be sure to leave your comments below.

   Welcome to my blog where each week I will post my thoughts musings on things pertaining to my spiritual life or on life in general. All Photos are mine unless stated otherwise. At the bottom of each posting I will include a link to a song or a talk which I know will be of interest, so please take a listen.

    As you may know my wife and I live in the Bangor region of Maine which to date has received only a small portion of the usual snowfall. Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Acadia National Park and I hoped for a few pictures of the woods filled with snow. - there was none. The unusually warm weather and the Gulf Stream melted all snow leaving only a very icy carriage road close to the Jessup trail which is one of our favorite walks. So we could have stayed in the car and with me gripping about not getting my way, or doing what we did, put on the Stablilicers - screw studded ice cleats that give traction in even the hardest of black ice conditions - and off we went for a most enjoyable walk.

   The woods here in Maine are always one of the very best places for me to find a return to emotional and spiritual sanity. There is always an exhale into equanimity when I an in Acadia, generally these days walking on the carriage trails which at this time of year are virtually devoid of all but a few people. One of the Gifts I have received over the years is the loss of any fear or loneliness when in off track places where no one else is around. This I believe comes from a trust that God is always with me, and at the same time I know I have acquired enough knowledge to work through any situation that may arrive. These are double Graces which I recognize for what they are even though I have never been tested in places apart.

    Winter can be hard or soft all depending on what is an acquired viewpoint, how it is looked at. I prefer the softer approach which allows me to see the beauty of where I am regardless of the weather. Here are two pictures I took on yesterdays walk to emphasize this point. The first is a hard and cold view, the second is what I saw which translated well into the photo. (Actually both are beautiful to these eyes.)

     Wisdom is bright and does not grow dim . . . and is found by those who look for her.”

                                                          ~ Wisdom 6:12-13

   Wisdom is not the gathering of more facts and information, as if that would eventually coalesce into truth. Wisdom is precisely a different way of seeing and knowing the “ten thousand things” in a new way. I suggest that wisdom is precisely the freedom to be truly present to what is right in front of you. Presence is wisdom! People who are fully present know how to see fully, rightly, and truthfully.

    

   Presence is the one thing necessary for wisdom, and in many ways, it is the hardest thing of all. Just try to keep 1) your heart space open, 2) your mind without division or resistance, and 3) your body not somewhere else—and all at the same time! Most religions just decided it was easier to believe doctrines and obey often-arbitrary laws than the truly converting work of being present. Those who can be present will know what they need to know, and in a wisdom way.

                                    Richard Rohr

    On other sides of spiritual coinage the world is filled with holy people who dedicate their lives to following the Call of God's will for their lives. The mystical branch of Islam are the Sufi Orders filled with people who chose to live their lives looking for union with God here in the world. In all of South East Asia, India, Pakastan, etc. the music of poetry sung as praise and thanksgiving for God's Graces is the largest selling music of all that is available. Most of the songs were written at one time to echo the great poets of the Islamic world, Rumi, Hafiz and many others. The greatest modern day singer of this musical form is Nusrat Fetah Ali Kahn who only lived to age fifty dying of a heart attack prior to a concert in Paris. His popularity in the Islamic world is unparalleled. 

   Here is a remarkable love song to God sung by Shankar Mahavedan who uses traditional and modern instruments in his arrangements. If you go to the Utube link and watch in full screen view may you be as amazed as I was by the wonderful production of MTV India. The Audio can be listened to and downloaded from the Boxnet link. 

       Allah Hi Rehem - (Allah simply means "God" )

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AKjFMFSiwk

      Audio only:     http://www.box.com/s/pop2ycvcrvett9le4m8r

   Here are the words:

Allah Hi Rahem  (A Sufi Lovesong to God)

God is Merciful, Lord is Loving God is Grace Giving, Lord is Love Outpouring Look how Your Love has adorned my path Since the day I felt Your loving gaze oh God! I have become all Yours With Your showing of grace, we become Your Loved ones Being divinely intoxicated, becoming love stricken, we become inseparable from You In every breath are You, in every soul are You, In every beginning and every end, in every gaze and spoke words - are You God is Merciful, Lord is Loving God is Mercy, Lord is Pure Compassion You are hidden in every recess, in every place Then why this vain search for You? You’re in the warmth and in the cool shade You’re in the near ones and in strangers also are You God, God .. You’re in every fiber of my being You are my love, O my God Every breath I take is a gift from You You are my love, my God There’s nothing greater than receiving You Whenever my eyes gaze at You my heart sings….. God, God .. God is Merciful, Lord is Loving God is Grace Bestowing, God is Love Outpouring                                                    by:  Ustad Rashid Khan    See you next week.     Peace and joy in the knowledge of a loving god,                    Bill Lagerstrom