May 7, 2012

Light A Candle - http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=TWWTS

(All photos are mine unless noted.)

- Spring -

Underneath the surface of what can be seen and noted,

lies the realm of the "What Is"

that which is waiting to break out and be recognized

for that which truly is real.

Spring, is waiting to explode in full motion and color,

waiting on the One Who Gives Birth To All

to say, "Now! Now is your time!"

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   The same is true of everyone, a new birth - a burst of Spring is waiting to reveal itself to us in what may seen an explosion of truth arriving on the wind, or as a gentle breeze softly speaking of things we have always longed to hear, or as any number of a multitude of ways that God lets God's Presence known to all who choose to hear. 

   My teacher in things Buddhist has for years now been asking me to look at the "felt sense" of what lies beneath my judgments, reactions, and all the old habits that once were useful looking at life through the lenses which I ground to suit my wants. Under all those neighborhoods and streets that I created to give a sense of self-worth, lay the reality of who I actually am. 

   The way to realization of Self is a path that must be traveled well, without undue rush, as learning to see what needs to be seen for continued growth requires some discipline - a way to practice exercising the inner senses. A guide is most helpful here and I am fortunate to have a good one who will also call me out when I return to "head" meanderings and forget or refuse to take the inner road to the information that is trans-formative and enlightening. 

   The photo above was taken of a tree in a stiff wind and with as slow a shutter speed as possible. Some changes to improve clarity and a good sense of color was done in the computer. The lesson for me is to slow down my sight, take a pass on judging and naming what is in front of me, and allow time to offer that which cannot be seen in a scant one-hundredth of a second or less. If I take the "heart photograph" and spend the needed time to develop the image I will be better able to see more clearly the things God wants me to understand about our interaction together within this breast, in the place where the Spirit teaches things which cannot be understood by my intellect alone.

   Dorothea Lange, the noted photographer of the 1930's once said, "The purpose of the camera is to learn to see without a camera." Years ago I learned to see a photograph before I raised the camera to take the picture - an intuitive sense that several knowledgeable people in the photographic industry said was my 'viewpoint' - which is a vague way of saying that my sight for images was consistently good, so I was on their list of people to call for certain assignments. Today I see this as an unacknowledged Grace, the Gift of creativity that came from within without my being able to be grateful years ago as I was then telling myself that I was the photographer, I was the one who owned the rights to being 'special.'

   Now, I feel in tune with what is arising from my heart and soul desiring to give expression to the co-creation my life with The Creator Of What Is, partners of a sort - not equal , but definitely working with God who is mentoring me in this arena of sensing what is true and real. This is the joy of my life these days, a joy that I will do my part in this partnership with the Spirit within to nurture with each breath, to be attentive with in a growing clarity of interaction together. I see, that I am not alone, I am not the one who is complete charge of life - that is God's business and I will cooperate. 

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True reality may look gray and uninviting,

yet is can be visible to sight that wants to see

with eyes that can be nurtured to look within.

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Look to this day,

For it is life,

The very life of life.

In its brief course lie all

The realities of existence,

The bliss of growth,

The splendor of action,

The glory of power –

For yesterday is but a dream,

And tomorrow is only a vision,

But today well lived,

Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day.

                       Sanskrit proverb, by Kalidasa, 4^th. century

   Hold carefully the fragile child that is within, it needs your nurturing, your parenting to grow to the fullness that God intends all of us to have.

(This is a photo found on the net without a credit.)

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Links:

       A meditation of 10 minutes to nurture clarity in seeing -

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPWCH34E3cs

       (It can be seen in full screen by clicking the icon that looks like a cogwheel.)


       Here is the audio to download or just listen to:


          https://www.box.com/s/de61644ac73fa7caf396

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A little humor:

Until next week, Peace and Serenity,   Bill Lagerstrom

                          

April 30, 2012

Light A Candle: http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=TWWTS

( All photos are mine unless otherwise noted. )

 The single twig of a beech tree which held last year's dead leaf all winter.

Now, after pushing that hanger on off to the ground

begins to send its spring growth out - new clothes for a new season.

There is a parallel to us who having shed the winter of our hearts,

begin to allow new growth to reveal itself for all to see.

The springtime of the heart is a joy to see and to nurture into its beginnings.

   As this new season arrives what has been dormant all Winter now arrives from the fertile soil of the heart to begin another cycle of growth as we move into the next year of our life here. My question today is, "Does Spring growth come alive this time of year, or does what has been dormant all Winter awaken?" The answer I am happy with is, "Yes... and no....." Both are part of the wondrous process that the Creator of the Seasons has had in mind since that first Spring was sent to the world for our enjoyment, and as a fulfillment of Winter's hope for another arrival of our real self. We to, sprout, in this time of warmth and all that comes to our growth cycle, ever as a new Grace, a new Gift. . 

   In the Fall of each year God takes out pruning shears and removes leaves and grass from the vehicles that fed life for most of the year, leaving the evergreens and firs as a sign of hope that not everything has been cut back. A necessary step for what is new. That which dies regularly offers its former life as mulch, food for what is to come. Nothing is wasted as no new life can arrive unless something old dies. This is the Way of God with life, and God's Way for all of us as we cannot safely stay stuck living with dead things all around us. We, like all living things, must die regularly to what is no longer useful for advancing the Kingdom of God within us, allowing Creation to continue with our cooperation in the Process. 

   So, welcome to Spring. Buy a new seat belt if you intend to travel this leg of the journey and be safe, free of fear, and willing to let God do the driving this time around. 

        'This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it !'

    A poem of mine on Winter and hope:

Garden Work

I was pale, without color as my connection to God died,

Leaving me ashen as all blood, pulled by the gravity of indifference,

Drained into my feet - my Journey came to a full stop.

Undernourished, these eyes and this soul, shut down -

Became unable to see a way, as I was blinded and deaf to all who would help.

God, still present, was only a distant veil, a wisp of cloud on the horizon.

Lady Wisdom, Love's Breath, as she waited unseen,

Whispered sweet callings that were barely audible to clogged ears;

“We love you.”

          “We will wait for you.”

          “We will stay faithful.”

          “We can still see.”

Never an admonishment was said.

No shoulds or should nots were ever spoken.

Love does not treat Her lovers with small manipulations.

This was the world of my winter, gray, overcast by unyielding cold.

“Let Us send a warm wind to this barren frozen land.” Creation spoke.

“Remind this thorn-filled stem of the pruning that was necessary -

     that a rose will soon emerge and bloom.”

How was I to know!  I chose not to hear The Gardener of my soul's landscape

Tell me about Love's Way with all that I would not take care of,

Never asking the withered flower of my Fall for approval.

Now, seeing the cycles of God's annual housecleaning,

Next year, after a full spring and summer of new life,

I will offer myself willingly to those wondrous shears.

The leaves of old life will always fall in season,

Our Ground will always offer the means

To turn what dies into food for the growth to come.

                                                                                        Bill Lagerstrom,  2007

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Links:

   A five minute meditation on Spring along with a chorus of bird sounds:

Click here:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UtzD-I28qs&feature=related

    A long visual and musical meditation on a Japanese garden - well worth the time to see and listen - click here: 

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVeCx0bM7Xg&feature=related

   Sharon Salzberg on the nature of change - a talk by a remarkable teacher - worth a careful listening. Click here:

       https://www.box.com/s/42cb363277f909a7d9e8

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   Last Summer we went on a day trip to Machias Seal Island to spend time  with the Puffin population that has in great numbers made a comeback here off the coast of Maine after almost being wiped out by hunters and fishermen who felt the birds were eating the fish that were their livelihood. It was a remarkable day as there were at least 8 to 10 thousand birds all over the place. we were given about an hour in a blind which is where I took the following two pictures. A wonderful day!

   I am including these photos as I am feeling a yearning to get out and see birds again, birds that are not freeloading from my backyard feeders. Memory is a great force to move outdoors again and enjoy the birds of Spring.

                  

   Puffins sound almost exactly like a herd of cows. Take a listen:
                           https://www.box.com/s/1ckxe2rk57i4gavtaa0a

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This week's laugh:

          Until next week,  Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom

April 23, 2012

    Spend a few minutes with silence and light a candle at: http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=TWWTS


  ( All photos on the blog are mine unless otherwise noted )

This will be my tree this year, an oak tree seen from where I live.

I will post photos as it goes through the seasons, as will I for 2012.

As I enter the process of living and dying,

and then repeating the cycle all through this existence,

this year I will be mindful of what God puts in front of me as a reminder

to not forget where I have come from, and where I am going Home to.

   Do I write poems or simply receive them? The later, to be sure, is the only way unforced creativity can operate. If our creativity is linked to God's Creative Flow, and we can get on that ever present energy, then our hands and voices will have the words, and notes of song, that the Lover Of Creativity wants to bring to life along with our cooperation. 

   We can unfortunately corrupt and even halt the Flow that wants to come through us - God's Desire to be seen by what we create, music, painting, poetry, a helping hand to someone in need, a place of safety for all who come to us in any capacity needing what we can offer. Yet, if ego and self-will is allowed to block that which is rising from heart and soul, our ability to be useful to ourselves and others cannot find the vehicle for becoming known.

   I know that I do not create in a vacuum, nor am I a robot only saying what I am told to say. God does not operate that way as my preferences for meaning play a role as I exercise hard-won viewpoints for format, and to find a canvas for expression from my heart's desire to bring forth beauty. For me my poems seem to express themselves best in something akin to the structure that so many of my mentor Jalliudin Rumi's magnificent offerings have - four lines per stanza. This offers me an extraordinary means of expression around the spiritual themes of my life - dying to self so that new life can be brought into existence, along with  love and separation which comes from  all my heart and soul long for. 

   Letting space exist between my words and Love's Words rising is key to my creative process. It is the action of entering that space and allowing what is being formulated to see the light of day. (Or at the light reflecting from the blue-black ink set to paper by pen.) To do this I must continually work to honor the spaces within where I can meet God's Presence, and God's desire to use me somehow as an instrument for purposes not necessarily my own. My role is to allow these small poems and photographs a means of being seen, and in their own very small way be a voice to tell of the immense Love in this heart, and to proclaim that all Creative Love lives in every heart.  

A poem -

     

- First Thoughts -

To see one’s soul is to see God.

If the question is, “How do I get there?”

Do not bother to read on my brothers and sisters.

The invitation came, as usual, with no warning,

Our Lover, when delivering another kiss, never asks first.

Led quietly to a room deep in the back of my heart,

I saw the door, half off its hinges, old and unused –

Stepping across its threshold I entered the realm of my soul.

The rest, save the ending, I cannot tell as words are useless.

There, touching God’s muted form … touching God ….

I held, in this hand, a piece of All Creation.

From here, the Journey goes forward one more step,

No more, no less.

                                                     Bill Lagerstrom,  2012

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In Spring the passion that is in everything yearning to grow and live,

can be seen if we look carefully enough with heart's eyes.

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      Last week I offered a video by "Hillsong: and a suggestion to watch and enter into Christian prayer perhaps as you might not have ever experienced it. If you did not view it here is the link:

                                               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-bUZj1bkoE

   This week I offer another equally powerful prayer by Abida Parveen who is Pakastan's most prominent and loved singer of Ghazels -  love songs to God. It is ten minutes long and I only ask that you allow yourself to enter into it in its entirety. We are called to a love affair with God and it may seem strange to talk with God in this way but please know that this form of song has been around in the world's Islamic communities for almost thirteen hundred years. Here is the link and be sure to turn on the English translation which is in the red "CC" box on the bottom right:

                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaII05SfX9E

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Another poem -

    - Heart Opener -   ( 2 Kings 2:11 )

In an instant, a flash of lightning broke open this heart,

The chariots and horses of fire arrived !

The shattering of these walls was painless,

Reducing to dust all the stone walls built to keep God out.

The Storm that caused this devastation,

Raged not outside, but within this badly defended heart;

A small crack in the mortar and Love’s sword swung –

Releasing the awesome power that is God’s First Kiss ….

That moment, I fell into Love’s embrace.

How many Angels are on the well honed the edges

Of that mighty weapon ?

Do all the Saints of Heaven arrive

As Grace and miracle open a hardened heart ?

Yet, Your Gift of this wound that will never heal

Is not without pain – as my longing aches for more of Your Presence –

More of the Love Affair I have been Called to embrace.

This is as Relationship must be – God’s decision, my choice.

Rebuilding is out of the question,

The stones of defense have gone stupid –

They have forgotten how to build the old structures.

The plans, the blue prints, destroyed in the carnage.

A songbird sits on a broken wall,

Singing Spirit’s message of freedom

From self-imposed bondage to the old ways,

As I too take flight in a landscape that is no longer mystery.

                                                                   Bill Lagerstrom  2010

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   Several weeks ago Lee and I were in NYC for Bridget's wedding and we stopped by St. Francis Xavier church which was our home for almost twenty years. Since we talk a great deal about our ministry there I thought it would be nice to show a picture I took. When we were there the church had not been cleaned for almost 100 years - that changed after we moved to Maine and this is the result. The church brought back many wonderful nostalgic memories for the two of us as it was where a great deal of spiritual healing and experience took place, especially the ten years of being part of the Xavier Company Healing Ministry as a prayer and anointing team. 

   For our ministry, Lazarus Ministries, the groups we facilitated all those years took place in the former Grade School building two blocks from the church in a space we utilized every Monday night, a great number of Saturdays for workshops, and where we grew spiritually in the "work" God calls us to do. 

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And a cartoon:

                                  (A lesson in mindfulness?)

Until next week,  Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom