March 26. 2013

March 25, 2013

(All photos and pictures adapted from photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)

    A brief and perhaps last trip to Acadia National Park for this Winter season was undertaken during the remnants of a Northeaster, a storm type that hits the coast hard when the conditions are right. This was last week and unfortunately we heard that the entire park would be closed for another month due to the sequestration. A shame for all who come to Acadia during the early and generally quiet part of the season. For those of us who know where the park has year round access this is not a problem, yet it would have been nice to go up Cadillac mountain for the views which I miss. Oh well, I stop and take five breaths and let gratitude rise for all the wonderful days in Acadia these last almost eight years. 

- Gravity –

How surely gravity's law,

strong as an ocean's current,

takes hold of even the smallest thing

and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing –

each stone, blossom, child –

is held in place.

Only we, in our arrogance,

push out beyond what we each belong to

for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered

to earth's intelligence

we could rise up rooted, like trees.

                                              Ranier Maria Rilke

The sea rages and the rocks hold ground,

stand on the Holy ground of solid rock

or release yourself into the Ocean that is God

ignoring the seeming danger our thinking projects. 

Either way, you will be safe.

Lee in Acadia

The Winter trees will not give up their beauty easily,

having taken the last five months to don their glorious garments.

Standing in awe is all that I can do in their presence.

Sea, rocks and sun,

All that is needed for heart's eyes.

Sand Beach, empty of summer crowds save one tree blown there 

by the strong winds of Winter.

Why this fence? Perhaps a vain attempt to hold the waves back.

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   Part of the joy of the parks and woods here in Maine for me is the sense that I am enveloped in a Loving Presence because I let my barriers down and allow The Spirit to enter. Here is a wonderful talk by Tara Brach entitled

"The barriers To Loving Presence." Worth a listen.

                           https://www.box.com/s/lj2rco514ltt7p0jfwji

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Some Humor:

Peace until next week,  Bill Lagerstrom

Photo Show

March 19, 2013

(All photos and pictures adapted from photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)

     Bridget and her husband Rudy came up for five days last week which is why I didn't post. The next regular post will be this Friday

   For those who were not able to get to my Photo Show here is a view of the exhibit. I took these in a less that careful way which is why you see reflections and some distortion from one frame to another. The show will hang until March 30th. at The B.A.R.N. 142 Center Street in Brewer, so there is a little time left to take a look. 

   Peace,  Bill Lagerstrom

March 9, 2013

March 9, 2013

(All photos and pictures adapted from photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)

   A few days ago I was asked to sit with a man who was dying and had no one to be with him as he made the transition to travel past beyond the thin veil that separates us all from this life and the next. He was in a place where recognition of my being there was only momentary as his eyes opened narrowly  for a brief second or two. I talked to him, called his name and realized that he was on a journey that I had no business injecting myself into - so I sat and simply watched. Thirty minutes later the vitals monitor dropped all lines to zero and he died peacefully. 

   In this age of digital everything the experience has me a little out of sorts as no doctor rushed in to check his heart and declare that death had indeed happened. There were no dramatics, no tears, no wailing's of despair, just the nurse coming in and removing the sensors that just a few minutes ago indicated life was present. Yet there was no denying what had happened - the electronic evidence was completely convincing. 

   I got out of my chair, said a prayer of gratefulness for the life that was here for many years. I then bowed and thanked him for teaching me something of what will also perhaps be my final moments in this body. He was my teacher for those brief minutes, and he will continue to teach me as the memory of the event has the reality of Grace, and it will ask for definition and acceptance over time. I know this experience was a Gift from God. I bow to all my teachers that the Spirit opens to view when I enter the present moment. Grace abounds.

    Here is a recording of my first mentor in the work of being with the dying. Frank Ostaseski has had major influence on how I approach being present for the sick and the dying people I have been called to sit with. It is well worth a listen. It is not a talk about how others die, but on how we live and become in sync with our own mortality. 

"Surrender" a talk given to the Insight Meditation Society in Redwood City, California several years ago. Click here to listen: 

                        https://www.box.com/s/97tpkkvnolhmy7y1a4mh  

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 The Saints are but the dust at God's Feet,

And I am nothing more than the dust on the dust

Of the feet of those who were annihilated in Love's Calling.

Yet, this station of life, gives me more joy than I can ever hold.

There are no more words –

I sit in awe ……

This is God's Way

With hearts and souls.

                                                      Bill Lagerstrom

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Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

     From the same trip to Cape Breton. I haven't taken any photos this week so I am looking again at what was the beginning of my entry into the digital world of photography. The two pictures above were taken with an inexpensive point and shoot camera. Expensive equipment is not necessary to express our creativity. Many simple computer programs for processing pictures are available for anyone who wants to work with what they recorded with today's easy to use cameras. If you have a desire please go and take pictures. 

Don't go outside your house to see flowers,

my friend, don't bother with that excursion.

Inside your body there are flowers.

One flower has a thousand petals.

That will do for a place to sit.

Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty

inside the body and out of it,

before gardens and after gardens.

                                                                      Kabir

Fences, barriers or invitations?

If one can see what is on the other side,

perhaps the fence is there 

only to keep the cows in.

   (This fence was on top of a high peninsula in Cape Breton and was probably there to keep the cows from falling off the cliffs. There were no cows only an occasional foolish hiker who would venture where things are dangerous.)

   We have two turkeys who spend a great deal of time eating the seed the birds drop from the feeders outside our house. We have not named them as yet - any suggestions?

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 A Little humor:

                                                                     Noah's Ache

Peace until next week,   Bill Lagerstrom